I Love College, Anyone?

College, it was supposed to be this great new experience Excitement and fun were supposed to be everyday things. Well, that’s what I thought at least. I was coming to a big new school and whole new place to play the sport I love--btw that’s softball--and of course to get an education. It was a chance for me to start over and be anything I wanted to be, instead of just lil’ miss homecoming queen and class salutatorian like it was in high school. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I didn’t enjoy high school. I actually really loved it, but college was a chance for me to do new things and have more fun than ever. Going far away from home was giving me the chance to lose my old reputations and create new and make these new reputations into anything I wanted others to see me as. Anyway, besides missin’ my friends and family at home, it was supposed to be freakin’ amazing! Like the best time of my life,right?

Wrong! It isn’t all that freakin’ amazing after all. Yeah, college has its perks, of course, like meeting new people and making new friends, more guys and better looking guys, parties on the weekends, better teachers, etc., etc. But there are so many things that just bug the crap out of me. Take freshman classes for example, they can be so so so boring! Like can we not just talk about things that no one really cares about? Falling asleep in those classes is like an everyday thing for me because it seems like a waste of my time, and I can’t seem to pay attention because it’s so boring. What’s the point in even going? Why can’t we just discuss stuff that I actually might use in life or maybe stuff that I might be an incy bit interested in? Maybe that’s too much to ask. On top of that, getting used to everything that the good professors expect from you is crazy hard. They give you so much homework and so many out of class assignments and expect you to do so many things on your own, unlike high school teachers who basically spoon feed you for four years of your lives. They should make that crap just a lil’ harder so students will know at least a lil’ bit of what to expect when they get to college. Or is the actual point of high school to set you up for failure once you get to college? It doesn’t make much sense to me, cause that’s four years of my life that I’ll never get back, and I didn’t get much of anything out of it at all.

Having to get used to a new setting and new people and being away from home without really knowing anyone pretty much sucks ‘til you get used to everything (which I don’t have time to do) considering my situation. So just imagine being an athlete on top of being a “student first” as they keep preachin’ to us—not that I’m sure they mean it. Anyway, you’re probably thinkin’ “Oh, it’d be great.” Well, I’m here to tell you that you’re wrong and that it most definitely has its disadvantages like waking up at 5 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for lifting. Really? Like we don’t get enough exercise climbing the dang hill twice a day, every day to get to class. They act as if we get way too much sleep too, so we should have to wake up before the sun comes up to make sure we don’t get too much sleep. Then, on Tuesdays and Thursdays we have conditioning in the afternoon where we run our butts off. Add outofseason practice 3 days a week (and now that we’re about to start our fall season real practice 6 days a week) to the list, cause you can’t forget about that. Now tell me this, when are our bodies supposed to recover from all the stresses they’re going through? It’s not like we’ve ever done this much physical activity or had this much class work to do before now, and we don’t even have time for anything--no time to sleep, eat, drink, shower, do laundry, or even do homework. So remind me again how we’re supposed to be STUDENT athletes (students first remember) when we don’t even have time to do our own homework?

Oh, and about a social life, it’s nearly impossible to have one as a student athlete, but if you do decide to TRY and have a social life in your tiny amount of free time, just be aware that there are lots of guys creepin’ and they be creepin’ hard. Always askin’ for numbers and stuff, and then they want to text you all day long. I don’t have time for that! It’s like everyone is all up on me. As if having coaches, trainers, professors, and teammates in my business aren’t enough, now some people I don’t even know wanna be around me and text me all the time. Really? Get off me!

So my question is, does anyone in my position really, truly love college? Idk, but people keep telling me that it gets better even though it doesn’t seem like it will. They’re telling me that adjusting to what is expected of you as a student athlete and adjusting to a new setting and new people all at the same time is the hardest part and that it only gets better. I sure as heck hope they’re right cause if it gets much worse, I’m not gonna have any time to eat or sleep--no lie. So I’m hoping that things get better and that they get better real soon because I’m tired of being tired and not being able to love college!


by Kimi Wagner