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College Tips
for Parents |
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The
Grass is Fresher on the Other Side
This article was written
for CollegeTipsForParents.org by Kimberly Tran.
Kimberly is currently a
freshman and attends college in Southern
California.
After the whole pre-college spiel of rounding up the perfect
schools,
submitting undeniably gut-wrenching pleas for acceptance and
deciding upon
the make or break celebratory moment that defines the next four
years of
post-high school life, it appears that the mountainous pile of
academic
pressure is, for the time being, lifted. And that is relatively true
in
consideration to the long awaited and, quite frequently, necessarily
extended summer vacation. Life doesn’t get any better than the
anticipation of driving to an unfamiliar city, moving into strange
living
spaces and starting a completely different journey. And seriously,
any kid
can attest to that magical feeling of newness, whether he or she got
into
first choice college or only choice college.
College feels exactly like summer camp, what with meeting different
people
left and right and trekking up and down hills across campus to
attend
afternoon lectures, which are conveniently scheduled between passing
period naps and last minute study crams. Academic competition isn’t
necessarily the focal point of our education anymore because, well,
we’ve
already gotten into college; wasn’t that what high school was all
about?
We’ve gone through the heaves and sighs of parental expectations and
accomplished enough to land ourselves in the midst of a prestigious
institution. What happens now is on our turf and under our own
supervision. And although many majors are still currently
undeclared, it
is commonly decided that, in the meantime, we’re here to let loose,
to
socialize, to experiment, and to basically make the best of what is
given,
whether it be a single, double or triple dorm room. It is
reasonable,
though, to assume that we strive to maintain the grades that will
keep us
here long enough to finish the ride.
If any college freshmen managed to get through high school without
succumbing to any type of peer pressure, chances are, he or she may
want
to fall victim to those curious experimentations. And in the social
scene
of college life, it is highly possible to try and try again. Some
residents in my building have already developed a notable reputation
for
themselves as they frequently hold hookah parties in the middle of
our
campus field. Hookah, or flavored tobacco, has recently become a
huge
craze among teenagers, so it is definitely not surprising to walk
through
a cloud of cherry flavored tobacco smoke on the way to class some
days. Of
course, this is on the open ended side of things since hookah is
legal. I
have yet to discover what other types of underground social networks
are
present within my brand new community.
In terms of public socials, colleges, universities and especially
Greek
life all want to pump up the “party central” status of the main
domain.
And as one of the largest public campuses in California, we
definitely
have to represent. Unfortunately, however, my college does not have
the
notorious Frat Row and parties are always held 10-20 minutes off
campus.
That doesn’t stop my colleagues and me from living up the night life
though. In our case, the dreaded hand-off for a spicy weekend is
shuttling, or in other words carpooling, to the frat parties.
Especially
with the high prices of many college parking permits, shuttling is
basically the easiest and fastest way to get to where it’s cranking.
It’s
actually not as bad as it seems because as freshmen, we’re going to
do
whatever it takes to live up our first year, by all means necessary.
So
regardless of any rumors that this college or that is “socially
dead,” it
is almost always possible to find a rocking party to forget the next
day.
It has been nearly three weeks into college life on the sunny coast
of San
Diego and to be honest, it has been “hella” crazy. From nightmare
stories
about horrible roommates to the process of making possible life-long
acquaintances, I am pretty sure I can speak for most, if not all,
dorming
freshmen that it is about time we left our hometown bubbles of
NorCal,
SoCal, out-of-state or even international, and experience the same
sun
shining on a new beginning.
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