As the first semester of my freshman year in college wines down I look back to and think of my high school days. It seems so long ago; so different. It feels as though it could have been have been years ago. In this short time away at college it seems that I have changed a great deal. I have grown a lot in these few months. My high school memories are so different from my life here at college. It feels as though as we move on from high school to college we move on to a different world. A world were we must be responsible for ourselves.
Going from high school to college is a major transition in life. Both high school and college are important chapters of our lives, but they are very different chapters. In going from one of these stages in life to the other we change; friends, lifestyles, eating habits, and even homes. College is a different world from high school, and the change is very sudden and can sometimes be hard to adjust to. In making the transition one must always be careful to balance what one wants and what one needs to do.
The amount of freedom we receive is one of the main changes from high school to college. High school if full of rules and regulations that we are forced to follow. We have to listen to everything our teachers, principals, and parents tell us. As we walk into the world of college many of those rules and regulations are transformed into loose guidelines and others are just thrown right out the window. In high school we are forced by school administrators to go to school on time, go to class, follow the school rules. We are forced by teachers to get to our classes on time, and to do our assignments. We are forced by our parents to follow their rules such as curfews, do chores and other regulations they make us follow. But in college none of these exist. No curfews, no chores, and no attendance. In college we are given guidelines for success, and it is our choice if we want to follow them or not.
This is where responsibility comes into play. With freedom comes responsibility. If we never do any of the things we were forced to do in high school we will never make it through college. The more freedom we are given the more responsibility we have to take on. In college we have to take care of ourselves and get things done on our own.
People are not around any more to constantly tell us what to do, and how and where to do it. Without the enforcement of rules we have to take it upon ourselves to do what we need. If not we may find ourselves dropped out of school, working at a dead end job, living in a dirty apartment without friends. Nobody wants this, so our problem is balancing our responsibilities. As we change over from high school students to college we are aced with more and more responsibility that can be overwhelming at times.
Another way that high school and college differ is the classes we take. The classes at college rely on doing work on your own rather than class work. College classes seem to be more concentrated on one particular element of a subject while high school classes give you a broad portion or a subject as a whole. College classes are also a serious step up from high school. They are not classes you can just sleep through and still pull a B. In college you have to give a really sincere effort and hope for the best.
With all this work at college we have to break sometimes to party. Social activities are another thing that change once you get to college. Arriving at college not knowing anyone can be a bit overwhelming but meeting people here becomes easy. Once you are at school for a little while it becomes hard to stay away from the parties rather than finding them. There is always something to do and nobody to stop you from doing it no matter how much work you have to do. In high school the only social activities seemed to take place on the weekend. College has social activities every day. It can be difficult to avoid going out every night when you have work to do. This is where we must learn to balance our priorities of partying and doing work.
Moving on from high school to college can be difficult. Dealing with new situations, new responsibilities, and much more freedom can be hard to adjust to. With this one must remember to not over work yourself yet make sure you get your work done. Also you must be sure to recognize all the new responsibilities that come along with the new found freedom. Going from high school to college can be difficult but you must always remember to just keep things balanced.