Shaunna Cullen – Staff Writer –
When I had my orientation at Southern, I thought what they told us was all there was to it. You have to learn time management and get involved in clubs, preferably one in your major. Figuring out your major was also something that was stressed or you would fall behind. They barely touched on the fact that I would be sharing a room with two complete strangers.
I was lucky because I knew right away what degree I wanted to pursue. However, a lot of the people I ran into, weren’t so sure and were encouraged to take classes in subjects they were interested in. I think this advice is important because you might think you know what you want to do, and then you take a poetry class and all of a sudden you’re an English major.
Now here I am a senior, still working on my time management because as everyone knows, no two semesters are the same. And as far as getting involved, I did for a while, and then I got tired.
I didn’t get tired of the club; I got tired of being in school. College is not easy for everyone. I know some people go through school and think: that was it? I also know others, like my cousin, who are taking three labs and college is a whole other point of view. Self-motivation is really hard when you are a sophomore or junior because you’ve been here for a while, but still can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel just yet.
It was hard for me to stay motivated to graduate when as a freshman I was told to expect to be here for five years. I thought to myself, five years? There’s no way; I’ll graduate in four for sure. Well let me tell you, I am not graduating in four years; I’m graduating in four and a half. I would like to mention, by the way, that I’ve taken five classes every semester. So even with that I’m still not graduating on time.
Take six classes if you can. I say if you can because everyone can technically, but seeing as how most of the students on campus have a—full or part—time job, (or several jobs even,) the time available is not always there.
So what is motivating me now is the fact that I am not graduating on time. For the 15 elective credits I need to take, I am going to take them elsewhere, overseas in fact. I am taking this annoyance as a reason to study abroad.
And lastly; about living with strangers, it’s not always a walk in the park. Freshman year, first semester my roommates were pretty inconsiderate. I think it mostly had to do with them not making a good transition to college life and constantly going home. Some people never acclimate.
But for the next two semesters I lived on campus, my roommates were great. We hardly had any problems and if we did, we talked it out. That’s right, we actually went up to each other and worked our discrepancies out like real adults. There were no passive aggressive notes or talking behind each other’s back. If you happen to get a bad roommate one semester, don’t sweat it. There are hundreds of people living on campus that could potentially be your ideal roommate the next semester.
Everyone’s college experience presents different situations and challenges. The best thing to do is to learn from each experience, good or bad and take away as much as you can from it.
