And This Is Why I Hate College (White Lies, Dorkly, Mr. Literal) [Daily Bloggity Entry #144]

[El Héroe Oscuro]

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Date: 09 August 2014
Time: 3:38 PM ET
Mood: Greasy from my long hair, yuck

College: a time period in most people's lives in which people are usually quite ecstatic to experience. For many it's a time in which they can experience freedoms that they had yet to be able to experience, which essentially comes down to living on their own, making their own decisions, and dealing with the consequences that may or may not result from those decisions. It's a time in which one can experiment with fornicating, drug intake, and of course, the excessive consumption of beer, vodka, gin, whiskey, or any other type of alcoholic beverage that you can think of. However, when I begin to to look at my own college experiences, I can't really say that I've had the "true blue" college experience that you'd see in movies like Animal House where John Belushi gets mad trashed and dresses up like a party and raves till the sun breaks across the horizon (hold on, putting that on my bucket list right now...). Rather, it's been a very mundane experience; a period in my life which, to be perfectly blunt, has been the complete opposite of what I'd expect and has fallen quit short of the lofty expectations that I've come to know.

Daily Music - "Getting Even" by White Lies

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Let's back track a few years shall we? To start off I go to a Boston school called - and to my knowledge, I don't believe that I've ever revealed this - Northeastern University. If you've never heard of this school, it's quite a shame, considering that the university is ranked #1 in the country when it comes to providing students the means to graduate with a degree as well as a huge resume of major-specific work experience through a tool called "co-ops." Not trying to toot my own horn or anything, but it's a pretty damn hard school to get into; with 43,000 students applying to the school last year alone and only a 31.9% acceptance rate, I consider myself quite blessed to be a part of such an esteemed institution. Being centered right smack center in Boston with such a diverse range of things to do from going to Fenway Park to visiting the Boston Commons to going to the Museum of Fine Arts to partying it up at Boston University, Boston College, Wentworth, or on Mission Hill, you'd think that I'd have an amazing time here. But unfortunately, that hasn't been the case.

Daily Comic - "Assassin's Creed" by Dorkly

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Freshman year was a total train wreck. A total, unexpected train wreck. In high school I was considered quite the extravert; I had absolutely no trouble talking with new people, I had a wide range of friends, and I had an overall, positive, outgoing attitude about life. However for some really bizarre reason, I completely crawled into my shell when I started off college. I became very mopey and depressed - it's hard to explain, but I was recovering from a series of events that I'd rather not go into - and as a result I ended up isolating myself from my friends and in turn hurting my relationships with them. To this day I wish I didn't do that as I feel very secluded from them now; instead of being the center of attention that I was quite used to in high school, I ended up on the outside of the circle - which, has been an experience that has been very difficult to adjust to. On top of all of this, I was just beginning my Nursing career, which if you don't know, is one of the most rigorous and demanding majors to pursue for the excessive test taking, lab skill perfecting, and over-extensive knowledge in the field that one must memorize for the safety of the patient. It was a very rough year for myself and as such a lot of things were put on the back burner, as my life took a "more work, less fun" attitude.

Daily Video - "Mr. Literal" by animator Egoraptor

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My Sophomore year looked like it was going to be an improvement, but overall took a very sharp dip into the hair-tearing attitude that I'm feeling now. At the beginning of that year I made a goal for myself - to repair and mend the relationships with my friends to a point where I felt comfortable again around them. And at the beginning, things were going great! I was hanging with them more, partying with them more, and overall just enjoying life a little bit more than I did then. However, my classes were becoming more demanding than ever, and I was absolutely hating every minute of it. Tests were becoming more numerous, the health knowledge we needed to know was becoming more and more tedious to memorize, and as a result my mental abilities were becoming more and more unstable to the point where I felt I was going to be going mad. On top of all that, clinicals began for me in January of this year which was an absolute hellhole. I worked at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston each morning, and everyday I walked on the floor a flurry and bombardment of mixed feelings of stress and anxiety shook me to the bone. It actually got so bad to the point where my hands were literally shaking from the nervousness I got trying to apply everything I had learned the past 2 years to real-world settings and patients where the smallest of mistakes could have a horrible and irreversible effect on the patient. Now some people may be reading that and believe that I am overreacting, but that's how scared and nervous I was when on the floor, and actually part of the reason why I left the university that Spring and dropped the major. It was just something that I absolutely respect, but something that I just couldn't dedicate my life to do because I didn't have the confidence to execute properly.

With September rapidly approaching, my third or "Middler" year at Northeastern is about to begin. I've got a new major under my belt - Human Services for anyone who doesn't know - and I feel like I am (once again) starting anew. However, that is now the case. Because of myself dropping out Spring of this year, I had been on the wait list for on-campus housing for the past 6 months, waiting for a reply from someone as to whether or not I'm going to get it. Unfortunately, thanks to an email that I received yesterday, they had terminated the wait list and now I am forced to commute to college for the next four months. This means that every morning I will have to take a 50 minute commute by train to get to school, and thus will most likely not be able to hang out with my friends as much as I'd like to. It's an unavoidable situation at this point, and I'm absolutely furious with the school for taking so long to give me a proper answer.

But yeah, that's the end of my rant of why my college experience has been nowhere near to stellar for me. What about you? Are you enjoying college? What would would you say is the best part about it? What would you say is your least favorite part about it? What do you wish you could change about your college experience? Comment below as I'd love to hear and discuss with you what you have to say about this subject!

‡ As always, the "Daily Bloggity" is self written by myself and includes just some of my opinions on different mediums. If you have a subject that you might want me to touch on, feel free to PM me or comment below! I would love to hear some of your ideas! Tune in tomorrow at 5PM Eastern Time for the next edition of the "Daily Bloggity!" Cheers! ‡

- elheroeoscuro

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[Nick]

I have run into so much financial trouble while I was in college. I'm done with it. I'm just done with college. I withdrew from some courses that I already paid for, and I end up owing them more money from withdrawing from it. It makes literally no sense, I don't get it. I literally hate my college. I sincerely wish it would blow up one day. I'd dance forever.

I don't think I'm going to go back. I don't need a college degree for web design, which is what I plan on doing anyway. The school I was going at didn't offer any courses for that anyway, and I'm better off learning on my own since that's the only option I have anyway.

I don't know if I'll regret this decision later in life, especially since I look at all the stunningly beautiful homes around where I live, and without college, the chance of living in one of them is pretty low. But I digress.

 

[Klippy]

The "true blue" college experience doesn't exist for everyone. I never had a party experience in college, nor did I ever once feel like I was living the life I saw in movies or shows. Much of the college-life you see comes from living on-campus and also being somewhat of a slacker (because who really has time to party that often when there is a ton of work to be done).

I went to community/junior college for three years before transferring to a university to get my Bachelor's. Once I transferred to university, I worked 60+ hours a week with a full school schedule as well. I never made a single lasting friendship in university because I was simply too busy. It saved me a lot more trouble than it was worth though as the people I did know who partied were getting arrested, failing classes, and being hungover 24/7. Not worth it in my mind.

Since graduating, I appreciate the solitude I had and ability to grow and mature by not being given many opportunities for friendship or partying. You may be upset now, but focus on your studies and getting your degree as quickly as possible. Once you've graduated, the entire world is at your fingertips and you can make oodles of friends at a career of your choice.

 

[Nick]

The "true blue" college experience doesn't exist for everyone. I never had a party experience in college, nor did I ever once feel like I was living the life I saw in movies or shows. Much of the college-life you see comes from living on-campus and also being somewhat of a slacker (because who really has time to party that often when there is a ton of work to be done).

I went to community/junior college for three years before transferring to a university to get my Bachelor's. Once I transferred to university, I worked 60+ hours a week with a full school schedule as well. I never made a single lasting friendship in university because I was simply too busy. It saved me a lot more trouble than it was worth though as the people I did know who partied were getting arrested, failing classes, and being hungover 24/7. Not worth it in my mind.

Since graduating, I appreciate the solitude I had and ability to grow and mature by not being given many opportunities for friendship or partying. You may be upset now, but focus on your studies and getting your degree as quickly as possible. Once you've graduated, the entire world is at your fingertips and you can make oodles of friends at a career of your choice.

When I lived on campus for the short time I was in that college, I was the same way. I don't regret it, even though I'm sure my roommate thought I as a shut in.

 

[El Héroe Oscuro]

Since graduating, I appreciate the solitude I had and ability to grow and mature by not being given many opportunities for friendship or partying. You may be upset now, but focus on your studies and getting your degree as quickly as possible. Once you've graduated, the entire world is at your fingertips and you can make oodles of friends at a career of your choice.

Did you have any difficulties making friend post-college? Just curious as that's something that I personally would be a little nervous about.

 

[El Héroe Oscuro]

I don't think I'm going to go back. I don't need a college degree for web design, which is what I plan on doing anyway. The school I was going at didn't offer any courses for that anyway, and I'm better off learning on my own since that's the only option I have anyway.

I don't know if I'll regret this decision later in life, especially since I look at all the stunningly beautiful homes around where I live, and without college, the chance of living in one of them is pretty low. But I digress.

I personally don't think you should regret that decision. It's all coming down to "content" in the end, and a degree or not should really make no difference if what you are presenting to companies can blow them away. You'll be fine - I wouldn't worry to much about it.

 

[Klippy]

Did you have any difficulties making friend post-college? Just curious as that's something that I personally would be a little nervous about.

I made plenty of friends while I was in college, but maybe only ONE came from actually being at university.

I made a lot of friends in community college, many of which I still talk to. While in university, I made all my friends at work. I spent more time with them than I was able to spend with people on campus and I 100% guarantee you that, if you're even the slightest bit outgoing, you can too. They were more easily available, I was forced (in a way) to interact with them and associate with them, and I got along well with all of them to some degree.

You will get a career you enjoy and begin working with people of a similar mindset and interest as you, once you've graduated and gotten a career. Many of these people will become your close friends and you will develop friendships this way. College friends, more than high school ones, are people of different mindsets and backgrounds coming together and once that shared experience is over, so goes many of those friendships. I made friends in classes, but once class was over, the friendship/association ended. I would wave or say hi passing on campus, but I was generally on campus to go to class and that was it. No leisure time.

So to quit rambling: Making friends post-college is much easier than making friends while in college IF you are not living on campus. If you are in the dorms, you'll make friends, but if not, prepare not to have close friends and accept it as better for your education and goals (to graduate). I don't regret having few friends, as I graduated with honors and am set to begin a career soon. At that career, I am positive I will make lifelong friends as they will be people of a similar mindset and shared experience to my own.

:)