Maddison's Musings

Hello my lovelies how are all of you doing on this fine day? Okay, so technically I'm writing this October 1st, but since I forgot to write a post in September, I found a loophole that lets me act like I posted this in September. Wow, interesting story. Anyways, I have been in college for a little over a month now and I fucking love it. It's so weird that I finally like school again, but here we are, and I'm loving it, so I thought I'd write a little post comparing college and high school, because high school was a fucking joke, if we're being completely honest. And that brings me to the title: here are just a few reasons why college is way better than high school, at least in my own opinion.

1. You set your own schedule

Hate waking up early for class? Don't pick an 8 am. Only want to go to campus two or three times a week? Try mixing Monday, Wednesday, and Friday classes with an online class or two, or try mixing Tuesday and Thursday classes with an online class. I only go to campus MWF and I'm taking one online class, and I love it. Plus, my first class starts at 10 am, which is so much nicer than 8 or 9 am.

2. No bullshit

Professors are real with you. They see you as adults, not kids like high school teachers do. They expect  you to do your work and have it done by the deadline. They don't baby you. They hand out the syllabus on the first day of class and they expect you to read it and follow it. No more reminders that homework is due- you're expected to have it done since it's on the syllabus. I personally love this aspect, since I felt babied in high school. In college, your professors are real. My English professor is letting us curse in our essays. She spent the first five minutes of class the other day talking about pizza and how she once ate a whole pizza and drank a whole bottle of wine by herself in one night. What an inspiration. Also, all my professors want me to call them by their first names, something that never would've flown in high school, unless you already knew the teacher.

3. First real sense of independence

For most people, college is their first real sense of adulthood. Whether you live on campus or you commute, you start to see the world differently. I'm a commuter student, so I can't talk much about moving out or anything, but I'm sure those who moved out of their family homes are starting to feel more independent. As a commuter, I'm getting to know my way around the DFW area, something I never really knew in high school, since I would just drive five minutes to high school and 15 minutes to piano lessons. But now that I'm in college, I have a 45 minute drive to school on freeways and roads farther from home. I'm also at the point in my life where my family is finally letting me go to concerts by myself, so I get to drive to Dallas by myself and experience the city, which is so much fun. I'm finally starting to feel more like an adult.

4. Less busywork

High school was full of busy work. I feel like that's all I did, not just in high school, but my entire life in the public school system. In high school, I had so much homework that didn't even really matter- it was just there to fill time. Now that I'm in college, I only have homework that matters, and in class we just get right to the lecture without doing something ridiculous that has no value. I'm far less stressed about homework in college, to be completely honest, and I love it.

5. You're studying something you're interested in

In high school, we all had to take the same courses, with little wiggle room on fun classes that we care about. In college, you're studying something that you want to do with the rest of your life. There are hundreds of different classes to take depending on what you like, and you pick and chose at your own pace. Don't want to take math the first year? Don't do it. Sure, most universities have basic core requirements that you need to get done, but they have many options under the types of courses that you can take. It's wonderful.

6. There's so many free resources

Okay, so technically, your tuition is paying for these resources, but it's not like you can cut them out of your tuition payment, so technically they're kind of free, at least in the sense that you don't have to pay anything when you use it. For example, my university offers six free hours of professional counselling/therapy each semester. They also offer six free hours of tutoring each semester. Students can also ride the bus/shuttle systems for free, use any gym on campus, and so much more that I haven't figured out yet. Each university is different, but check out what type of free stuff your college has, because chances are you're already paying for it with your tuition, so you might as well take advantage of that and use some resources.

Although these aren't my only reasons why college is better than high school, this is just a start based on my first month or so as a college student. I'm really excited for these next few years in college, as I'm finally excited about school again. I have some homework to do, so I should hop off, but until next time, I hope you're all doing well.

~Maddison