Image Credits: College via Jacob Roeland (Flickr)
I lay in my bed, tossing and turning, knowing the next day would be like no other. I looked at my alarm clock and saw 3 a.m., or exactly seven hours before I’d have to leave my home. Then I’d be forced to say goodbye to everything in my life that felt normal and finally pass the threshold to college.
I didn’t know what to think. Even being as extroverted as I am, I found this leap to college scary. College was something that I knew one day would come, but now that it was finally here, it seemed all too overwhelming. Worries ran from one corner of my mind to the other, and it felt like my expectations were scattered all over the floor. I stood there looking at them all, unsure which one would be real or not.
My hopes for the so-called “college experience” were high, but I had no idea how to achieve it, nor did I really know what it was. Anyone I talked to about college would give me a new thing that I “had” to do, and if I didn’t do it then I would have wasted my time at college. Whether it was joining “this” or “that” club, being involved in a sport and especially going to frat parties.
Anyone you talk to about college is bound to mention partying, how much they drank and all the stupid stuff they did. But after my two weeks of college so far, I’ve been surprised how little of my college life has been partying.
I’ve spent a large portion of my time at college so far trying out new things and making a lot of new friends. The people I’ve gotten to meet and make my own fun with has been one of the greatest experiences of my life, and I never had to set foot in a single party. It was nothing like I expected or could have even imagined all that time ago when I sat worried in my bed. A part of me felt like I was doing college wrong, like I was doing the exact opposite I’d always been shown and told.
I feel like the media also plays a large role in what the expectations of college are like. In both movies and music alike, the idea of partying and going out is stressed heavily as the definitive “college experience.” Rarely in the media do you see any other aspect of college life, as party culture almost always takes center stage.
My expectations were shattered, and at a certain point I had to be ready for anything to happen.
It was stressful, and after the first week of meeting so many people and living my own life the way I wanted, the realization hit me. I was so worried about experiencing everyone else’s college experience, that I forgot about experiencing my own. Everyone had something new for me to do in college because everyone had their own “college experience.” There is no definitive answer, no matter how much the media wants to tell you partying and drinking is all there is to offer.
At the end of the day, college is about expanding your horizons. So if going out and partying is what makes you happiest, then do what makes you happy, but there is so much more that college offers. Especially at West Chester University, since my time here, I’ve made more friends than I ever thought I would and have gotten to try out so many fun and exciting opportunities. There are a multitude of clubs and sports that are calling your name, all you have to do is find the one that fits you best.
And for any other students struggling to find the “college experience,” you have to realize that you are living it now. The goal is to build your own “college experience,” not to live another person’s. So go out and make your own, not for anyone else but yourself, and it’s there that you’ll shatter your own expectations of yourself and see who you were really meant to be.
Sam Beadle is a first-year English major. SB1033446@wcupa.edu