Allow Time To Adjust, Then Enjoy

Survival Tales

When I was asked to write a story about my freshman year of college, I wanted to seem comical and profound at the same time. I failed horribly, and pretty much wrote something slightly sentimental and probably a little patronizing. Nevertheless, it is from the heart (see, the sentimentality has started already), so with this little disclaimer intact, let us press on.

All of the exciting stories I heard about college melted away into nothing but high expectations as I plodded through the first quarter of my frosh year. The late nights, the fabulous friends, the newly secured freedom - everything seemed like a fat load of propaganda choked up just to pique my interest. The only time I stayed up late was to finish one of the many procrastinated papers I struggled to hand in by deadline. My attempts at making new friends with the girls on my floor failed repeatedly. And the freedom I so dearly wanted since my earliest high school years churned in a sea of queasy homesickness. There were many lonely nights when my roommate and I would mention dolefully to one another that college was not what we expected it to be. It felt hard, cold, huge and unconquerable.

Strangely enough, it also felt wonderful to be there. I loved my classes. I took a sailing course. I sat in coffee shops to do homework. I ate steaming plates of teriyaki (when I wasn’t gagging down the dorm food). I had fun hanging out in downtown Seattle with friends from Spokane. In other words, it felt wonderful because it felt different.

Here I was, Sharma Shields, on my own for the first time in my life. If I felt like it, I could just run to the movie theater at midnight on a Tuesday and no one would worry or care (no offense, mom and dad). I was finally grasping the reigns of my life with my own hands.

I guess there are just two points I want to make to brand new college frosh: Finding your niche in college (and that includes majors, friends, clothing, whatever) can take a good deal of time and the great thing about college is that you can turn your experience into whatever you want it to be.

I did not make any friends that first quarter - but by the end of the year I had a pack of the most diverse and close pals I’ve ever encountered. One of the wackiest points of university life is how close a groupof friends can become that would probably have ignored each other in high school. Everybody becomes much more accepting in college.

While some of my friends crooned country songs and hopped around to Jimmy Buffet concerts, others pierced their tongues and noses and skanked to Goldfinger, and all of us hung out without a second thought to our differences. It just takes some patience to collect a solid group of friends.

College is great because you mold it into whatever you like. There are so many different venues to choose. While some people concentrate on grades, others polish their social life. People who never exercised in high school somehow find the courage to start. People who want something more exciting than they formerly experienced shed off their shyness and become wild party-goers. And people who are sick of certain aspects of themselves manage to turn around and improve themselves drastically.

I am sure I changed, and I am pretty sure I changed for the better, merely because I feel better about myself.

OK, I’m spreading the cheese on thick, but hopefully all of you college-bound students will be mildly inspired and head off to college with a more realistic and patient image than the one I set off with.

Who knows, maybe you’ll love college so much you’ll stay there year-round, as I’m doing now. Or maybe you will hate it, and decide it is just not for you. Whatever happens, I assure you the consequences will be memorable, if not somewhat miraculous.

xxxx