I just grew up a little. I blame student teaching.
It seems so very silly – this adolescence. As I finished my fifth straight week of student teaching, I realized that my initial observation of college remains remarkably apparent. It went to the effect of:
College is high school without parents.
What struck me today was that both high school and college can be so petty.
Sure, high school and college have two different flavors. The former: mandated, day-in-day-out desperation. The latter: absolute, unrelenting freedom. After all, if you sleep in during high school, Officer Truant knocks down your door. If you sleep in during college, nobody cares.
This seemingly, absolute freedom from daily responsibilities is the only real difference between the two archetypal experiences.
The difference matters a lot, because just about everything else is the same.
The stupid 17-year-old divas in the government class I teach will become the stupid 20-year-old divas with children in my undergraduate classes.
Bookish 15-year-old nerds in my world history class transition to bookish 23-year-old nerds with a triple major, now working as grad students in the education department.
“I can’t believe he just broke up with you,” magically translates to “I can’t believe he just broke up with you,” except now the subtext of “He used you for sex” is assumed rather than immediately inquired.
There’s an ever-irksome connection. I cringe now every time my 15-year-old sophomores whine about how I’m so unfair. In my mind’s ear, I hear myself saying the same thing at 19 years, and my peers echo it at 24.
I feel satisfied, though, that I’m actually doing something worthwhile. Kids four years my senior just now figure out how to combine their party lifestyle with the secondary responsibilities of studying and going to classes.
They stare at MySpace for hours at a time while I find joy in reading (my students say stuff like this.)
I almost feel I should ask them why they haven’t figured it out, yet. Public drunkenness isn’t life’s highest achievement – get your degree and get out. You could make something of yourself if you stop thinking like you’re still in high school.
The best part is that this isn’t my usual self-righteous frustration. I’m satisfied and things are working out – all because I ditched the pettiness.
For the life of me, I can’t figure out what they see in it. What a silly question when I can’t even remember what I saw in it.
What do you see in it?
Benjamin Baxter • Feb 15, 2008 at 4:31 pm
The Collegian Staff Comment
Future Squirrel Stuffer
You aren’t that dumb when you aren’t acting the troll. For someone I know only as a name on a computer screen, I can say you seem pretty smart.
That people get so caught up in this college lifestyle thing without knowing the satisfaction of working a little at something is discouraging.
I think the only reason I caught on however much I did is because I’m gullible. I believed all the warnings adults had for me and I wasn’t about to try and blaze a new path on most crucial life decisions.
The No. 1 advice of my school bus drivers — yes, I asked — was to go to college. So I did. So-called unenlightenment does dawn on some people, at least.
I’m not sure I’ve found my calling — the experiences of student teaching is a whole other blog — but I do know that nothing worth having is easy.
Cliches are true, sometimes.
Benjamin Baxter • Feb 15, 2008 at 11:31 pm
The Collegian Staff Comment
Future Squirrel Stuffer
You aren’t that dumb when you aren’t acting the troll. For someone I know only as a name on a computer screen, I can say you seem pretty smart.
That people get so caught up in this college lifestyle thing without knowing the satisfaction of working a little at something is discouraging.
I think the only reason I caught on however much I did is because I’m gullible. I believed all the warnings adults had for me and I wasn’t about to try and blaze a new path on most crucial life decisions.
The No. 1 advice of my school bus drivers — yes, I asked — was to go to college. So I did. So-called unenlightenment does dawn on some people, at least.
I’m not sure I’ve found my calling — the experiences of student teaching is a whole other blog — but I do know that nothing worth having is easy.
Cliches are true, sometimes.
Whatever • Feb 15, 2008 at 12:19 pm
It’s all so totally petty everywhere, throughout the rest of life. It’s not just college and high school.
Some might enjoy reading, but not everyone has to, even though they definitely should. And it’s never too late to change priorities, or figure “it” out, as you seem to suggest.
However, I think those who enjoy maybe more simple or trivial things should be treated as equals, even though their habits can be discouraging to instructors.
I think alcohol is like sex for a lot of people, an at times all-consuming phenomenon they need to get out of their system and experiment with. These are just kids, as basically are many college students. How can they know what to do with themselves on a profound level when the trivial stuff is still new to them?
While now is a good time to try to figure out what to do professionally and intellectually in life, it’s not make or break yet.
It’s not like one day one of these “unenlightened” souls is going to realize, “OH NO I’m 23! Now no one will hire me! If only I didn’t party so much when I was 19!”
I’m glad things are going well for you, but not everyone finds their calling so early and with such (apparently) little doubt.
And as far as dumb people, well I’m plenty dumb and there’s no avoiding us.
Whatever • Feb 15, 2008 at 7:19 pm
It’s all so totally petty everywhere, throughout the rest of life. It’s not just college and high school.
Some might enjoy reading, but not everyone has to, even though they definitely should. And it’s never too late to change priorities, or figure “it” out, as you seem to suggest.
However, I think those who enjoy maybe more simple or trivial things should be treated as equals, even though their habits can be discouraging to instructors.
I think alcohol is like sex for a lot of people, an at times all-consuming phenomenon they need to get out of their system and experiment with. These are just kids, as basically are many college students. How can they know what to do with themselves on a profound level when the trivial stuff is still new to them?
While now is a good time to try to figure out what to do professionally and intellectually in life, it’s not make or break yet.
It’s not like one day one of these “unenlightened” souls is going to realize, “OH NO I’m 23! Now no one will hire me! If only I didn’t party so much when I was 19!”
I’m glad things are going well for you, but not everyone finds their calling so early and with such (apparently) little doubt.
And as far as dumb people, well I’m plenty dumb and there’s no avoiding us.