For incoming freshmen, the beginning of the school year can be a worrisome time. Expectations of what an authentic college experience looks like don’t always match the reality and can often contribute a lot of stress to an otherwise intensely formative time.
The roommate
When I registered to attend UI my first year my biggest worry involved my living situation. Nothing scared me more than the idea of not being able to choose who I’d be living with in a small dorm room. College is a strange space in that, for a lot of people, the ever-shifting environment fast- tracks personal growth and invites a person to question the relationships they’ve built with the people around them.
Making friends in an entirely new environment can be scary, and many people assume their roommate is a much more important person than they actually are. While roommates are a great chance to making friends initially, it is really just that — a chance. It is not the end of the world if those friendships don’t work out. Friendships will happen naturally over time. The amount of time spent with one’s roommate is variable and can be changed depending on how much those people’s personalities mesh. For many, the time spent in their room is small in comparison to the amount of time spent in classes, in clubs or exploring Moscow.
I had two different roommates my freshman year, neither of whom I talk to anymore. I found much more value in other relationships and spent all of my time in friends’ rooms, rather than my own.
It can be extremely intimidating to blindly choose a room with no idea who has also chosen that room. But those people are not the end of the line — there are countless opportunities to make friends without compromising for a person because of proximity. Additionally, if there is a serious conflict or discomfort in one’s living situation, the housing sta is more than willing to help end a solution, whether that be a room change or a simple discussion.
The party scene
In years that predate my education at UI, the school somehow developed a reputation as a party school. There is not one answer for how this reputation occurred, but at some point UI was knighted as Idaho’s premier party school. The reality is that the party scene will exist wherever a person chooses to go to college. I’ve heard just as many stories of parties that’ve gotten out of hand from other northwest universities as I’ve heard from UI.
The only thing that really matters is the choice of whether or not to party. I’m not going to be the person that suggests partying is entirely unacceptable behavior, and I’m certainly not advocating for an over-indulgent party lifestyle, but I do believe striking a balance is a difficult thing for a person to do when jumping into a brand new environment like college.
Parties can be a lot of fun. Parties can be a complete drag. Either way, they take up time that could otherwise be spent studying, working, exercising or sleeping. Determining whether or not that lost time is worth the experience is key. It costs thousands of dollars to attend college and each person ends worth in different places. If partying is a valuable experience, do it. If reading a great novel is more your style, do that instead.
The all-nighter
There is this idealized image in society of what a college student looks like. Subsisting to a miniscule food budget, trembling with a coffee addiction and skipping many nights of sleep to meet deadlines, the damaged but persistent student is a glorified persona that every college student engages with at one point or another.
There is an odd comradery attached to sharing difficulty among one’s peers and in a space like college, where relationships are constantly shi ing, it easy to engage with everyone you meet on a basis of turmoil. Everyone has experienced that moment when they tell a friend “I’m so tired,” only to realize that they are not, in fact, that tired. Th act of sharing one’s struggles is less of an exercise in honesty, and more a habitual attempt at fitting into the stereotypical college student image.
It’s easy to put self-care on the back- burner because, culturally, college students are not assumed to have their shit together. Students are taught to forget about personal care and place their education above every- thing else, when, in all reality, personal care and personal growth should parallel each other — forgetting one only hurts the other.
It’s incredibly easy to forget about one’s health in the overwhelming chaos of freshman year, but sustainable success in higher education requires some semblance of humanity. A healthy four-year degree can’t be earned on diet of exclusively ramen and coffee.
Austin Maas can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @austindmaas