Campus Life

Real World?

I just don’t understand this whole notion of the “Real World.” People say that we are in college to prepare for the real world that is right around the corner. That we haven’t experienced anything in life yet that would cause you, as a college student, to fully take responsibility for actions you may have taken because you still have the comfort of running home to mommy and daddy when going gets tough. When I hear all of that, I simply just roll my eyes and will sometimes have an answer to this foolish thought.

If we aren’t in the “Real World” yet, then what are we in? I guess that college and the work that goes hand in hand with it are no longer considered a full time job. You know, for fun we wake up for an eight am class and being in class until five pm. I know I am not good in math, but that should add up to a nine hour day, which is about equivalent to an eight hour work day in this real world that we are all preparing for. Just like everybody else our day doesn’t end when the clock strikes five.

When five rolls around, that means it is just about dinner time. But what to make? What roommates like what. Who will be around?  Now I understand that the apartment I live in with three other girls is a bit different than other apartments, but just about every night the four of us eat dinner together. With our busy schedules, dinner is a time where we all can come together and catch up with one another and events from the day. It’s as though we are family because we ask one another about their day, what they have to do this evening, and just talk. It is seldom if we have music playing and there is no television in our kitchen so communication is important. Also dinner is a time where we let one another know what bills need to be paid, what cleaned, and items that somebody needs to pick up from the store on their next journey there.

 After we are finished eating, we all chip in and clean up just so that one person isn’t stuck cleaning everything. There are the cases where one will offer to clean everything up because they didn’t help with dinner because they were in class, doing homework, or just got home late.

After dinner, the four of us separate to our rooms and do homework. It is almost as though a college student is the head honcho to a business because each night we have to review tomorrow’s notes, do some reading, and write up what needs to be done. Three of us try to get all of our work done so that we can go to ultimate Frisbee practice that runs from eight to ten. When we return from practice, we shower and finish any work that needs to be done before sleep can over take us, which sometimes doesn’t come until two in the morning. Then the alarm goes off and the day starts over again.

To me, that all sounds pretty close to this idea of the real world. I am not trying to say that we have all the responsibilities of adults with families, jobs and all that jazz. What I am trying to say though is that while you may think our lives are all rainbows and butterflies and that we haven’t experienced life yet, you realize that just like you we wish that we could have two more hours in a day just so we can finish everything and get an adequate amount of rest. For now I will live with my idea of already living in the real world until I am proven otherwise.