The initial months of college are incredible. There is the exciting blur of people, classes and parties that leave you in a sort of daze as the whirlwind adventure that is college commences. Life is amazing. You learn so much in class (if you go, that is) and about yourself. People are eager to make new friends and there is a frenzied scramble to find those that you wouldn't mind spending extensive amounts of time with, whether that be in a party setting or not. Parties. Shoot, parties are fun. Girls go out searching for a good time, looking their damn sexiest of course, while guys have a lot to look at and a lot to drink. Not a bad combination, eh? The parties are a haze of lights, drinks, guys, drugs, drinking games, dancing- if grinding can really be considered dancing- and, sure as hell, drunkenness. Hormones run rampant and there is the shameless PDA (or private if you're so inclined) where names of your hookup are of very little importance. People feel as though they can do anything, including break the law, without repercussion. It is the most bizarre and incredible feeling of invincibility that is unique to no one.
Then you wake up, most likely hungover, and realize that you have shifted to a muddled existence that harbors little excitement. You begin to resent your classes as midterm season approaches; you begin to see past the people who you had met and created friendships with; parties don't have the same appeal as they used to and you're left with this emptiness and downright exhaustion. What happened to the enthusiams that you once had? The constant surprise and fun around every corner that was so endearing about college? There is then the realization that you just want to go home. You start to think of your dog, cat, mom, dad, siblings, whatever, and are filled with a longing that can only be described as homesickness. The days start to seem longer, the food even less tolerable and the classes, whether for lack of motivation or just the subject material, one hell of a lot harder.
Then, you're done. you get to go home for that glimpse of the life that you used to have. It seems like a dream. Home-cooked food, your parents catering to you, the old friends, the little things that you always took for granted surround you and envelop you in this cloud of pure bliss. You can finally take a breath and soak in what you have missed for so long. But then there is the awkwardness of not being able to express how college really is to your parents and friends. When asked how it is, there is the obligatory answer of "Oh, it's great! I absolutely love it!" or "I am just having the best time!" that oozes fakeness but is so much easier than explaining to someone that college isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Luckily, no one questions you because there is the social construct that college is "the best four years of your life." If that's really the case, I'm going to have a pretty shitty life.
That's not to say that college is not useful or beneficial. In many ways, college has helped me grow as a person more than the eighteen years of living at home ever did. It is incredible how easily college allows an individual to become more accepting and accommodating. I have had an unbelievable amount of opportunity as well that I never would have encountered if I had stayed in Waxhaw. However, I think the greatest value of college, other than the obvious answer of education, is the power that it has to help someone realize what they are truly passionate about. Whether one finds that through the classroom, volunteer opportunities or the concept of "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone," you find it. And finding your passion is worth every single bit of drudgery that may come along with the college experience.
