Monday, March 2, 2015

I Remember...College

1. I remember when I was in college, I befriended a group of fellow Catholic students, whom I thought of as the "Not only am I holier than thou, but thou art going to hell" group. I enjoyed potluck dinners with them, snowball fights on the quad, and movie nights with them.

They went to Mass at a small church near campus almost every day, and they made me feel as if I was a "bad" Catholic because I only attended church on Sundays and other holy days of obligation. I made it clear to them that I didn't think I would burst into flames just because I didn't want to spend my Saturday nights playing the guitar and singing songs about why God was awesome. As much as I liked them, I grew irritated with their attempts to pressure me to be the kind of Catholics they were.

2. I remember that my friends described me as "independent." I went on my own to watch the movies or concerts that none of them liked. I often went to open mic nights and book signings alone while they hung out in bars, studied at the library, or sat around singing songs about why God was awesome. Whenever I heard about an interesting neighborhood, museum exhibition, or bookstore, I would look up the information and figure out how to get there by myself.

Some of my friends thought it was weird that I was a loner while most of the undergrads didn't even want to be seen eating dinner by themselves, but I enjoyed the freedom of being able to choose exactly where I wanted to go and stay for as long as I wanted.

3. I remember that I often stayed on campus during spring break, while everyone else visited their families or traveled with their friends. I was studying in my room with the door open one day, and one of the only other people on my floor who was also staying on campus passed by and invited me to join her and her friends on an outing to a restaurant and a park near campus.

I accepted, grateful for the invitation and the company. Her friends were very nice and welcoming to me. All went well until we were sitting in a circle in a quiet corner of the park, when one of the friends pulled out a joint and started passing it around. They offered it to me, or rather, they offered it to my quickly retreating back as I made up an excuse and left early, so as to avoid getting high and also avoid the possibility of getting arrested for getting high.

4. I remember that I had a vague idea that I wanted to teach someday, but I was afraid of public speaking. I got over that fear by becoming a campus tour guide. I'd like to say that I perfected the art of walking backwards while talking to large groups of people, but what usually happened was that I would keep hopping up and down, yelling to make myself heard before I eventually backed up into a trash can or a patch of grass.

5. I remember that I toyed with the idea of becoming a journalist, which is why I wrote for the school paper. I remember that the editors (as well as many other students at college) strongly disliked one of the faculty members at the school, so much so that they encouraged us student reporters to interview all the people who also disliked that faculty member in an attempt to dig up dirt on that person. The editors claimed that this was the type of article that would get published in Rolling Stone. I thought it was the type of article that would get published in Us Weekly, and it disgusted me so much that I stopped writing for the paper.

6. I remember that four years of English classes taught me how to over-analyze books and write papers about them, though none of them taught me what I was supposed to DO after graduation. I did internships in public relations, publishing, and the nonprofit sector, which educated me on the proper ways to make copies, make phone calls, and organize filing cabinets.

7. I remember that I wanted to be like my professors, who taught me how to understand and appreciate fine literature and poetry, which opened up my mind in endless ways. But when I told them that I wanted to be a professor, almost all of them warned me about how difficult it would be and how long it would take. I remember I thought that as long as I was good at teaching and liked it, that would be enough.

After spending the better part of my twenties and thirties working in academia, I finally understand what my professors were talking about.

What about you? What do you remember about your college years?

15 comments:

  1. Hmm, let's see...I remember lots of $3 all-you-can-drink nights and an econ professor once asking me to see him in his office to discuss a paper I wrote that he found insightful - and me thinking, "Why would I waste my free time discussing economics with a professor when I could be out at the bars?" And yes, I thank God every day that my college-age daughter has a far better head on her shoulders than I ever did.

    Funny that no matter how a person chooses to practice her faith, there will be others around to judge her. It's awesome that you were a tour guide -- I've love those kids on our campus visits, no matter what they tripped over during the tour, hehe.

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    1. Hi Nicki,
      That's cool that your professor thought your paper was insightful; that was a compliment to your understanding of the material and to your writing. I remember that I did try drinking in bars and staying out late a few times in college and in my 20s; I'd end up sleeping until noon the next time and wake up irritated that I lost an entire morning that I could have devoted to work.
      I liked being a tour guide, which is why I almost considered becoming an admissions counselor. After I graduated, I actually got an offer from another school to be an admissions counselor. I must confess that I turned it down partly because I knew the job would entail long drives and I've always been a nervous driver. (That's also why I would have been a terrible truck driver.)

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  2. Nicki's comment made me chuckle, although I was what you'd call a serious student, didn't enjoy the bar or party scene at all. I'd rather be studying than partying! Like you, I had the dream of being an English professor. I looked up my lit professors and wanted to be just like them. It wasn't to be though because although I didn't care for parties I sure did love boys and ended up marrying one before I graduated. When I was married, I lost interest in academics and left school. Years later I went back to finish my degree, one of the best decisions I ever made.

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    1. Hi Karen,
      That's really interesting that you wanted to be an English professor; wouldn't it have been cool if we had both ended up teaching in the same English department at the same school? But based on the family pictures that you post on your blog, it looks like you made the right choice for yourself; everyone in your family looks happy and full of love. And good for you for going back to school. I've taught several students who came back to school after raising families or pursuing other careers; they often seemed even more invested in their studies than the younger students.

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  3. I was a loner too. I have a degree in animal science, but I haven't had a job in that industry since I was a student. When i finished college, nobody was hiring in that industry anymore. Go figure. I didn't really make friends in college. I always listen to the stories about what my siblings got up to in college and I envy their great experiences.

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    1. Hi Murees,
      I'm sorry that you weren't able to find a job in your chosen field. They say that you should pursue the work that you love, but that's hard to do when there's a lot of competition for too few jobs. Despite my teaching record, I'm struggling to find a full-time teaching job for next year, because there are way too many English PhDs and not enough jobs.
      It can be tough to make friends in college, especially because a lot of people are even more focused on their work than before. College, for many students, isn't like the way it's portrayed in those movies where college is like one big party. One thing that helped me make friends was by participating in activities that interested me and meeting people with similar interests.

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  4. I remember in college I was super, super serious about everything. I was all life and death. The only thing I did was study.
    The funny thing is it's pretty blurry in retrospect and the few times I actually remember are hanging out or working on a project with friends.
    The other thing is the first university where I went and had good friend, I excelled academically and the second one where I knew no one, I really struggled.

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    1. Hi Season,
      Working on a project with friends can be fun, especially because you can exchange ideas with each other and split up the work. I did a couple projects and joined one or two study groups in college, but it was harder for me to get work done because I'm a total control freak and prefer to work on my own.
      It can definitely be hard to go to a school where you don't know anyone, because then you don't have the same support system. It always helps to have someone to confide in about the work that you're doing.

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  5. I do, and they sound quite a bit like yours. I was always trying to find hiding spots--like I needed an excuse to just be alone. Now I know that's just who I am.

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    1. Hi Melanie,
      I think it's good to find a hiding spot where you can be alone, especially in college where it's often difficult to find a quiet place to think or study. Whenever I went to the library, there were group study areas (which were always loud and difficult to get work done in), and quiet study areas, including corners of the library where there would always be just one or two desks there. Since I had roommates in college, I often went to the library when I needed someplace to be away from everyone.

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  6. Oh, the college years. I went away for my second year and hated it. I'm such a homebody and it was really really hard to be away from my family. Not to mention I had a hard time with my roommates. I moved home after a semester and got married, so ... yeah. College flew out the window when we started our family.:) Someday I may go back!

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    1. Hi Chantele,
      Roommates can definitely have a big influence on the college experience, especially when the dorm room is so small and it's hard to claim a space as your own. Even the mini-fridge that is in many students' dorm rooms can become something that people argue over.
      It can definitely be difficult to balance family and school. Several of my former students were parents. I let them bring their kids to class a couple times because I knew how difficult it could be to find affordable/available childcare. And yes, if there's a subject that you'd like to learn more about or a different career you'd like to pursue, then by all means you should go back! A lot of schools offer online classes, so that if you're not able to come to campus regularly you can do the work from home.

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  7. College is when I was really able to get into video games, and when the group of friends I feel into introduced me to tabletop role playing games (so Dungeons and Dragons, and World of Darkness. We've since added Shadowrun to the mix). I remember thinking "Why didn't I know about this sooner?"

    I majored in psychology, but I should've majored in English; by the time I realized this fact, it was too late to change my major and graduate on time. There was no way I was going to pay for "super senior" college time, so I muddled through.

    I auditioned for an awful lot of theater stuff (and some of my local and Facebook friends are still some of my "audition buddies"), but I was cast in only one thing, the ensemble for that year's spring musical.

    College was a fabulous, fantastic time. It's where I met my fiancé, and my best friend, and it's the town we remained in after graduation. Maybe I don't miss classes and tests, but in a way, I miss papers. And I definitely miss the atmosphere.

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    1. Hi Jennifer,
      I admire you for having the courage to go to audition for plays. It takes guts to get up on stage in front of other actors as well as the director and producer and perform. And musicals can be even more nerve-wracking to audition for, because you have to perform a song in addition to a monologue.
      I wish I'd taken psychology classes, actually; I think it would have been fascinating to learn how to study the way people's mind works and why they behave in certain ways. I also wish I'd majored/minored in communications, so that it would have been easier to do those internships; I didn't even know what public relations was until I worked for publicists.

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  8. Wow. I'm with you on the Us Weekly article. ;-)
    I can't think of a single interesting college memory at the moment. . . That's a little sad. Lol.

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