Adjusting to the College Routine

One of my friends left for college two years before I did. She went to Tulane. When she came home during breaks, she had stories of fraternity parties which included drinking and good times. She attended these parties with the girls of the sorority to which she belonged. It seemed that she was having the time of her life.

When it was my turn to go, I applied to Tulane and other schools known for their parties, hoping to get into a sorority so that I could have as much fun as my friend had been having. The two colleges that I hoped to attend were Tulane and Bucknell University. Both rejected my application, so I went to another school that I felt safe with, American University.

It was not a school known for parties, but I was attracted to it. It was in DC, and I thought that it might be good for me to be in the city. It was my intention to major in journalism, but I also wanted to major in foreign language. It was possible to combine both of the majors into one called language and communication media, eliminating the need for two majors.

All the campus guides and brochures that I saw talked about the importance of interning. That would be great, I could have a job and work, even before I graduated.

No one told me that internships, most of the time, do not pay. Yet, I still hoped that I could combine my interning, my studies, and the partying I was planning to do. I had it planned, also, that if it didn’t work the way that I planned, I would transfer the following year.

I was not disappointed in my first week of college. I went to nightly frat parties and thought that I could continue enjoying myself while getting my education. I did not know that it is usually freshmen who go to frat parties. I found out that when you become twenty-one most of the students start going to bars. Before that, if you are not a freshman or a member of a sorority, there is not much to do.

When the sororities began recruiting, I could hardly wait to pledge. But, my grade point average was not good during the first semester, and I was not invited back to any sororities, except for two, and I did not desire to pledge to either of these. Finally, I decided to give up on all of it, but I was very upset when my roommate did pledge.

I tried very hard for the rest of the semester, to make new friends. When the end of the year came, it saddened me to leave all my friends. As I began my second year in college, I began to be bored with it all and was depressed much of the time. I began to ask for applications to other schools for which I felt I might be better suited.

My friend, who lived across the hall from me, was doing her interning and I remembered the words that I had read, earlier in some of the brochures and guides, about interning. “Maybe I should have tried it,“ I thought. I checked into it during my second year, and I did four different internships up to the time that I finished.

I learned that we have to control our own lives. If I had just stood back and waited for people and things to come to me, I would probably never have accomplished the things that I have.

I made many friends during my college years, and have had fun, while learning that if you expect to feel good about your accomplishments you must not allow yourself, or others, to stand in your way.