Childhood Hopes and Dreams of College

All while I was growing up, I couldn’t wait to be a big kid and go to college. I was so informed on colleges by age 14 that I figured college would be a breeze, and that I would be a lawyer in no time. Sadly, I was a little misinformed and missed some major aspects of the entire college experience.

The day I received my first acceptance letter to a college was one of the happiest days of my life because in my mind I was thinking, “I can’t believe it; reality is starting to sink in, college is almost here, I will finally be there, no more parents and all the freedom I can possibly imagine will now be in my hands.”

Colleges do their best to tell their future freshmen how exciting the experience is, how they will make so many friends and join every club they could possibly imagine. They forgot to inform us that we really have to accept the actual reality of college in an academic perspective.

In college, you actually have to do your homework to get good grades. It’s not high school anymore. If you don’t do your reading, you really will have no idea what is going on. If you don’t study and try to ace the exam in high school, your chances are pretty high; in college, well unless you know all of your professors’ lectures word for word and understand them without reading the book, you must be a genius.

I can now sum college up in two words: hard work. Planning your schedule, studying, going to the organizations you’re involved in, finding time for friends and, well, the most important parts that every college student lacks--sleeping and eating.

Now don’t get me wrong and think I hate college. College is great and I love it; it’s all about growing up and it’s a part of life to experience, but the stress load you have to endure and non-stop studying on a weekly basis for college is nothing like a typical homework week of high school. College can’t even compare to a typical week of high school-- maybe on finals week when you actually do have to study in high school-- otherwise it doesn’t even cut close to it.

My advice to future freshmen and high school seniors is, “Yes! Look forward to college, it really is as great as it sounds. It is supposed to be the greatest times of your life, and it will be, but realize that you will study like you never have before and you will become stressed on about a weekly basis.”

In the end, I am glad I am finally here. The one part of my life I couldn’t wait for as growing up is finally in my hands and I am doing to the best of my ability enjoy it. I now know the big, exciting things that come to you in life sometimes include some hard bumps on the road, but you just have to keep going and as a friend once said to me, “Never give up!”

Tiffany is a freshman majoring in political science and pre-law.