So, it looks like I’ll jump on the bandwagon of everyone talking about how great their first year of college was. After having about a week and half to reflect, I’d have to say mine was mediocre at best.
It wasn’t mediocre because of the people I met or the friends I made; those were the highlights, really. Everything else (you know, caring about an education), was the problem. It was mediocre because often times I found myself sitting through some classes, wondering to myself, “Is this what I’m paying $24,000 for? To listen to some two-bit, monotonous professor talk about finding myself and becoming part of the professional world?”
It was mediocre because of the people who loved to talk about soul-searching; people who said every experience in life had meaning attached to it. Not everything happens because it’s in your horoscope, or because fate willed it to happen. No one’s that special. No, you’re not changing your major to something unmarketable because you don’t know what you want to do with your life yet. You’re changing your major because you failed a required class. Own it. Live up to it. Wear it like a badge, and be ashamed of it so you do better next time. You either know what you want to do, or you don’t.
It was entertaining (but still mediocre) to witness how good people have gotten at brown-nosing. This is another level of sucking up, on a separate plane of existence. Seriously, become an A-list actress. Go to Hollywood. Star in a rom-com and rake in the cash. Let those tear ducts flow like the most bountiful of rivers. My god, I didn’t realize brown-nosing could be its own art form. I swear, I’m sick to my stomach from the sickly sweet smiles I saw in my professors’ office hours. These people are humans, not puppets.
And most of all, it was mediocre because of the sheer apathy I saw from a lot of people regarding their grades. Man, people just pissed money away on their grades. Sure, don’t go to every class, but go to the ones that don’t record lectures and don’t talk about finding yourself in every other sentence. Taking pictures of your homework and posting it everywhere with #thegrindisreal and #collegelife is not actually studying. It’s acting like you’re studying, and not actually caring. If you’re going to piss away that much money, please, piss on me. Shower me with the smell of a future and drench me with the fruits of your wasted, half-assed efforts.
You’re already wasting about $24,000 on knowledge you can learn from YouTube and a textbook to earn a piece of paper that may or may not get you a stable job based on what you decide to study.But hey, good job college administration for figuring out ways students can take extra semesters by giving us this much freedom to do what we want. You’re the main winners in the grand scheme of things.I don’t know how your institution made your year F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C, but damn, whatever they’re doing, I hope they keep it up.
Surjo Bandyopadhyay is a sophomore physiology and neurobiology major. He can be reached at surjobandyopadhyay@gmail.com.
