The Tri-Lite

Issue date: 11/1/07 Section: Opinion

About a year ago, I was sitting in my Forensics class with Dr. Priestley at Harry S. Truman High School. Life was simple for me as I was on the ride of an easy year. School work and such was at a record low for my life, and most of my days were spent torturing whomever had the pleasure or lack of fortune to have me in the same room as them every day. I do recall one of my teachers telling me I was a pain in the ass. Good times. Sadly, it was also this time of the year twelve months ago that I realized something I should have noticed before. Seriously, how could you forget that you have to prepare for college? I guess I was too busy doing... nothing, really. I just didn't think of it.

However, I got my got my act together and through the year I accomplished the following: taking the SATs, taking the driver's permit test, failing the driver's permit test because you can't park on sidewalks, picking a computer major, picking a computer school, changing my decision to art, changing my school choice, changing my decision again to teaching, doing that head-bangingly tedious FAFSA which I will have to do again in three months, applying for all kinds of financial aid, changing my school choice again, playing Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for 50 hours, taking two placement tests at two different schools, and making my parents pay for my education because no one will hire give me a job. (Other than the kind people of the Alpha House.)

Now I am a freshman in college. I must say, it feels... not very different. I feel the same. Oh wait, I take that back. I feel stressed. I suppose I am not handling the transition well, because I thought it would be brilliant to join a club (ye ol' Triple-Lantern) and I didn't think of how much work college students actually do. I thought I would be fine since everything was going easy at the time. Now I have a speech every other week, twenty pages of random boring stories to read for each class, an ever-growing library of mindless exercises online, volumes of epics to read in a week, drawing maps of my feet, baking casseroles, and writing about videogames to people who are likely as busy as I am and have no idea what a "Raving Rabbid" is.

The transition from child to adult is proving to be a harsh one. (I still refuse to call myself an adult anyway. Anyone who can gather a hundred hours of their life onto a children's videogame does not deserve to be called an adult.) However, the transition is not mine alone. A large number of you are new to this whole system where you get the education you have received for over a decade, but now you pay so much that it makes you want to see a doctor. In this case, financial aid is the doctor and I am pretty sure he or she is just giving everyone the same antibacterial cream to soothe the pain. I am sure all of you have already dealt with piles of forms for aid, loads of work, and the dreaded midterm we all recently faced. As soon as I finished coming up with witty and edgey metaphors to keep you interested, I hit the streets for words from you, the freshmen of Holy Family.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools