The "College Experience"

I am still mostly of the opinion that college is a good investment for my life. What I learn here will help in my future career as a Web programmer. I've always known I'd go to college, and here I am in what should be my last year. But I'm also here because I want to have the fabled "college experience."

"The College Experience"

That phrase gets tossed about a lot, but there aren't too many definitions given for it. I'm sure it has slightly different meanings for everyone. For instance, partying isn't part of the experience I'm looking for. I don't really like parties. Too many people, too much noise.

The college experience I have in mind is something that has a lot of fun, but also can be very tiresome and draining. It's a balanced idea, really, and one I think is good to have.

For me the central theme of the college experience is independence. At my university I have access to people and resources that I would otherwise never have in my small hometown. It's here that I feel I have the most potential to really grow into the kind of person that I want to be. There are all sorts of subsets to this. Here are a few.

Education. This is, after all, the primary reason that universities exist. To give students educations that can help them to do better in the real world. I question why we need to know things like chemistry or discrete mathematics, but things like computer science or major-related classes are pretty good stuff. I suppose it helps to have a vast supply of knowledge even in things that aren't otherwise useful. I'm here to learn.

Time Management. Freedom is good to have, but it must be tempered with reason. Otherwise you might end up doing more harm than good to yourself. There are a lot of things that I want to do while I'm at college, and I'll probably be able to accomplish most, if not all, of them. In order to do that, time management is a must. I pride myself on being able to manage my time well. Once I get an idea of what I need to do, I can plot out times throughout the day for them, and more often than not I do exactly what I intend. At college, time management is vital if I'm going to get anything out of it besides just learning a bunch of stuff.

Being Social. I have scarce few friend in my hometown. Mainly because a lot of them have moved away, or lead very different lives than my own. A place like Independence isn't really one you want to stay in your whole life. There don't seem to be a lot of twenty-somethings back home. They're mostly at college. But here at university I am surrounded by thousands of peers. The floor I live on has something like 100 people. This is something I really need. I'm a self-proclaimed introvert but that doesn't mean I dislike the company of others. I actually find it important to have some social interaction. Without it I become bored, frustrated, and depressed. Fortunately, many people that live on my floor are friendly and welcoming. I'm probably going to lose touch with most of them, but in the meantime I enjoy their company. And they seem to enjoy mine.

Finding the Like-Minded. In other words, finding clubs and groups of people who see the world similarly to me. My main way of doing this has been attending Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ), a campus ministry. I have learned a lot intellectually and practically by being around other believers who clearly have a desire to serve God. The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has a group on campus, and I want to get involved with it sometime this year. Being a computer science major, it would be very beneficial.

Finding Work. This semester, my college experience is all too close to the real deal. I'm gonna make it for this semester, but ever so barely. Money hasn't exactly fallen into my lap in this life, and now it is in my best interests if I find some kind of job to meet the costs of college. To this end I'm going to try and secure a part-time job for the semester. I won't be looking for many hours, maybe 12-15 per week at the most. After about a month working even minimum wage, I would be able to make ends meet. This will make time management all the more important, since I'll be balancing work with classes.

Weight Loss. This hasn't stopped, don't you worry. Finding access to a scale might be a challenge, and I still need to figure out a healthy eating plan for college. But I'm not giving up on this. I've succeeded too much to stop now.

Doing the Unplanned. Some of the most fun and worthwhile things I have done which have contributed to the college experience have been things I didn't plan on doing, but enjoyed anyway. It could have been something like watching a movie with friends, going bowling, swing dancing at a local bar, and spending entirely too long chatting with others when homework would have been the more productive choice. Variety is the spice of life; living solely by routine is lethal to the soul. I don't follow the adage of "doing something spontaneous everyday," but slowly I have become more comfortable and willing to try things I've never done before, experience new stuff, just for the excitement and adventure of it. Do these things become part of my daily life? Usually, no, but they sure do make life ever more worth living.

Preparing for the Future. In about a year I will be finishing college. From there it will be time to stake a claim in the development industry and get to work coding, well, whatever's required of me. I have spent several years preparing for this time - now it is nearly upon me. Right now my planning mainly entails finding a place where I can work using my degree. How many companies would plan to hire someone a year ahead of time, I do not know. This is one of those things that is going to take a while to figure out. Once I get that settled, the next obvious thing would be looking for some kind of apartment. At first I would most likely have roommates. I'm ambivalent about that. There also exists the near impossibility of me getting a car before I have a stable income. Might need to walk to work a lot for the first few months. I want to get involved in ministry, so perhaps I'll find a Lutheran church in whatever city I find myself in and see if they need someone who can act in a teacher role.

Finding Potential Relationships. Yes, I'm talking about dating. I came up with this one last because, well, it's never been very high on my list of things to do. There have been times when I didn't like being single, but for the most part I've been OK with it. I'm already pretty content with life, and I haven't normally felt a strong need to seek someone out. That said, I don't intend on being single forever. Marriage is something I foresee happening in my future. But in order to find a good relationship and possibly a good wife, I need to put myself out there. I generally move slow and cautiously in this area, as it's sort of my Achilles' heel. I'm not interested in jumping from relationship to relationship; rather I'm wanting to take the more level-headed route of going on a few dates with a person before committing to a relationship with them. Something I discovered a couple years ago is that I have commitment phobia - I get anxious about the idea of committing to things long-term. This includes relationships. It's part of the reason I would take the more cautious approach to dating, and if I ended up in a relationship, it's also something I would need to deal with. I imagine it could be partially alleviated by being with someone who I am highly compatible with.