Growing Pains

Last summer seems such a long time ago.

Now those of you more intelligent than me are probably thinking, “Well, that’s because it WAS 9 months ago.”

True, but those of you who are seniors now will totally understand what I mean when you’re in the middle of your second semester. Suddenly, you realize that your life has changed so much in the last year. Suddenly you’re no longer a kid, you’re an adult.

You’re suddenly this person that’s totally different from the high school senior you once were. You have completely different friends and different relationships with the friends you still have. If you’re an involved student, you don’t have time anymore to catch your favorite Monday night WB specials. You’re lucky if you get a couple of minutes to nap every day. Sleep and food are your two highest priorities. After that, its partying and studying. Hopefully, studying is the next priority in line, and if its not, well, then you’re one of those college freshman that figure it out the hard way!

Your relationships with other people mature. You begin to have social obligations, like calling your friends on their birthdays, or catching up every once in awhile with your old neighbors when you are in town. You have two separate worlds, and very rarely do they coincide. You study a lot more because you do realize college is a lot harder than high school. You live in a dorm with other kids just like you, and unlike you and your high school friends, you guys will bond over all of the college student priorities above mentioned: sleep, food, studying, and partying alike.

I remember my first impressions of dorms at Tulane last summer. I didn’t want to live in Wall because I didn’t want to be “too close to authority,” meaning I didn’t want to live in the same building as a professor. Now, I could not be happier that I’m here. It’s the nicest freshman dorm on campus, and just telling people I live in Wall generates a spark of envy. The building is built around an inner courtyard, and that itself propagates cross-floor conversations on the balconies and a real sense of community. My parents made me choose Wall, and though I hated that at the time, they were right.

Admitting your parents were right about stuff . . . .that’s another big thing you’ll be doing around now. If you are anything like me and very stubborn about college, all I have to tell you is wait til you get here. You’re going to love it.

So this is my own reflection as I near the end of my freshman year. I’m sure there will be plenty more reflection.

After all, when you get to college, its not just that you are in a new place with new people. You do change, and although you’re not sure when or how, you get a lot older, and a lot wiser in a very short time span. A remarkable change happens, though you’re not sure when or how.

You grow up.

Wall Officers and me- go Wall RC!

New friends rock!