Opinion
College experience exposes higher levels of maturity
November 8, 2007
As young adults many aspects of our lives are changing. We are now in college and feeling miles away from our senior year in high school. For the first time, a number of us are finding new responsibilities and challenges that we never had to face while living at home.
If you think back to the middle of your senior year, it may be covered in the words fun, maturity and freedom. We all must admit that we thought of ourselves as “big shots,” as though nothing could stand in our way.
Now that we share a shoebox size room with another person, our priorities and outlooks on life are changing. We no longer have our mothers to take care of us or siblings to do the chores for us. Our laundry still needs to get washed and the remote still needs finding, but we are the only ones to do the job.
I really do feel that we are growing as people from it. About a week ago I was lying on my bunk and couldn’t understand why I had the need to be so organized and clean. When I lived at home my room was always a mess, I never did my own laundry and vacuuming wasn’t even a thought. I realized that I’m not just turning into my mother. I’m growing up.
Last Friday, I went to my old high school to visit my past teachers. As I sat in their classroom with all of their students, I wanted to stand up on a chair and yell, “Everything they are teaching you—they’re right!”
I look around here in our classrooms and I see something totally different. Experience and age must be the difference. Living on campus and experiencing so many new things really does change people for the better. So when you are walking around campus, take a look at how far we really have come since those “glorious days” of high school. Whether those days were a few months ago or perhaps many years, you are a different person now, and that’s an amazing thing.
Linda Abel is double-majoring in marketing communications and business communications with an emphasis in professional organization. In her free time she likes to dance, watch movies, hang out with friends and spend time with family.