Sunday, September 18, 2011

The "Hard" Part is Over

I'm coming to you from a very nice place. The safe and comfortable position located safely at the end of the first full week of school and the rest of the semester. Yup it's alright here.
So what are you supposed to expect from this point? That depends but the general points are this:
1: It easy to be antisocial. Almost too easy really. The college I attend is a small campus much like a small town or gated community, with trees instead of gates. People are always cycling and moving and it seems like everyone's on the same level from your point of view, freshman. At this point it is either impossible to size everyone up or too easy. Being social has to be something in you or something you need to develop quick. Life in college is constantly moving, like high school in a single day. Now I see why networking was such a constant topic before. If you lock yourself away, if you don't pick your head up, life won't just pass you by it'll forget your face and importance. Relevance.
2:Do it. Everyone is thinking about doing it. You're wondering if they're doing. And you know you gotta do it to. Homework. What did you think I was talking about? School trains you to work and work and work. So now that you are in your thirteenth year of schooling don't ask the person next to you if they did their homework. I mean it, you'll look stupid. Freshman year is ideally your first step to independence. No more nonsense in the back of the classing with the class clown and corny internet jokes. Do your homework so you don't look like and idiot...please?
3:Sex. Drugs. Television. These are thing you have encountered before college s don't be inclined to splurge if you haven't done so already. Everyone has the sex conversation at one point or another if you stay in a particular group long enough. How to schedule it. Where and how to have it. Almost anything you can think of. And drugs it would seem has cycled through everyone I met. Does that mean everyone in my tree dome of a campus has taken drugs? Absolutely not. Is it likely that I will meet someone between classes tomorrow that has taken drugs? What do you think? Of course lastly television. Believe it or not this  is a pastime that your roommate will hike to the nearest hotel, bar and restaurant just to get that missing channel. I have heard tales of the laborious walk from college hotel to college hotel on a Thursday in search of Jersey Shore and True Blood Sundays, and I must say I am happy tv was never a big thing for me. Because if it was, I'm afraid you'd catch me in a large caravan in search of the right channel. The moral is don't be too quick to pick up an obsession to fill up those endless hours that make up your week. Do yourself a favor and crack that text book, introduce yourself, get familiar. Then you can fornicate under the haze of marijuana with MTV in the background.
4: Your friends. Your true blue friends. The consistent texter, the video chat obsessed, can't get enough of your status friends. This is the point in time where they start to miss you and want to know if your whole life has changed during brief absence. Humor them. Of course they want to know what's appending with you, it's their right to worry about the true solid networking investment they made that' still paying off. Eventually by the end of the week it will get taxing but if you're feeling the loneliness of college and still choose to ignore your friends, you gotta ask yourself, "What the hell's going on?" Some people are going through this slump and it's dragging them into a cocoon. By all means get comfortable but don't plan to stay make a day with your obsessive friends before your phone explodes with all of the, 'I love you' and 'I miss you' messages.
5:This week is easy for some. Depending on what courses and activities you do and your basic outlook on life the first week is like first grade. It seems like repetition. You may even get annoyed but just hold on school will do what it has always promised to do, confuse the unprepared.
So that was my first week of school. Not very eventful but that's life. Not that I know much about life I am just as lost as this damn fly that won't stop buzzing around my head ...so now what?

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

First Day Of School

The first day of school, the official start and the beginning of the end. What I thought about college is yet to be refuted. It generally is high school but on a larger scale, very large. When you walk through the halls of high school there is a self centeredness that you carry around with, not on purpose, but simply because of the environment. College has this too, the only difference is now everyone has the chance to see it. Allow me to explain. In high school there is a structured order to things. Walk on the right. No smoking while in uniform. Clap once if you hear me, clap twice. Jump because I told you so. Order is  what keeps the walls from caving in, we're told, but in college that linear way of thinking can be seen in the face. To get to the goal with glazed eyes, seeing but not taking it all in.
Today was an interesting first day, as I began my unexpected and unwanted commute but what can you do?
Waking up at four in the morning wasn't ideal but I love my college thus far, despite the fact they won't house me.
But back to school itself, or at least the people. I think that day was freshman and hormone day because there was that feel in the air. The feeling that someone is watching you or ogling someone around you but multiplied by a thousand. It seems that the solemn handshake between the opposite sexes will no longer do. Everyone wants deep hugs and eye contact. That's when I realized that I may only be prepared for the work aspect of college.
I am very confident in my ability to attain friends, that is almost too easy, however I do doubt my ability to entertain any ideas of a relationship outside of friendship. My friends from high school labeled me asexual. I have male friends and female friends but I find no interest in either. In fact I find relationships to be an annoyance afforded with the human need to be social. So you can see why, when I was asked to lunch by a classmate, let's call him P, I hesitated. Not because boys are icky, because trust me girls are worse, but because I didn't know his intentions. As old fashioned as that may sound it is true. I generally shy away from the opposite sex mostly because of that, and also because girls are easier to manipulate.
So school and sex seem to have some kind of unspoken bond that is bubbling up to the surface and my inexperience in the latter makes communication very difficult.
My thoughts on what the first day of school was like is simply put as a force of feelings. Everyone carried their baggage on their faces and outside of their linear paths to a common goal there was nothing, but me...so now what?

Monday, August 29, 2011

The Beginning: Fall Semester 2011


"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."   - Seneca



School starts in eleven days. Am I allowed to call college school? When the transition from a small bowl to pond is so obvious the question of change is pestering. At this point I don't know much about college life but I have my theories.
First:
College is most likely a bigger version of high school with different objectives. Instead of searching for group that suits you the most, the ancient cliques of two months ago, networking has become everyone true calling. The importance of fitting in with a particular group of people is a thing placed on a shelf, never spoken of again. The goal of college is according to motivational speakers is to get your best qualities out there and making a lasting impression.
Second:
I imagine I can't be the only naive person floating around college campuses. Partying is as new to me as fire to the cavemen. So when I've been warned to avoid partying too much the truth is, where would I start? Thinking about it now there are a lot of things that I am still left in the dark about, for example: why would you make out with a person you don't like? why is it called making out? how come the dominant form of dancing resembles a sexual act? what's the point of holding a conversation when I can't hear you? and why do you insist on using my leg as arm rest? These aren't difficult question and I doubt college makes them clearer, it seems to be a matter of experience go figure. But will a college party be any different from a high school party...really?
Third:
I doubt college is as hard as people think it is. School, like everything else, is only as difficult as we want it to be. The advice you often get is 'buckle down', but what we should be told is, it's nothing new. We've been students our whole lives the only thing that's changed is the place. So why so scary?

Starting over again sounds stressful, and college will make you do exactly that. It's tiring and complicated sometimes and I love it. Sooner or later people come to realize that the world is smaller than they think it is, and take the chance to start over for granted. I'm not going to lie and say I used all my chances to their full potential but I did get to try every persona I could ever want. I know how it feels to bully and be bullied. I can tell you how it feels to be followed by a halfhearted stalker. I remember being the loner, the weird kid, the book worm, etc. College is just another chance to find me...so now what?