1. I don’t live on campus, which means I get there right before my classes, and leave right after them. This is hard. I have a job with a set schedule, so I know I can’t doddle after class, but this also means whenever I have a group assignment, having to get all the way back to campus just to spend 45 minutes working on a project, I may not be absolutely delighted to be there.
2. I have a job. A job which helps me pay for college, my car, and all of my other expenses… because I’m doing it on my own with the help of loans. When a professor says there’s an extra credit opportunity or their office hours are only between X and Y time and those things happen to fall between my work hours… I’m screwed.
3. Just because I’m not involved in a ton of stuff doesn’t mean I have never wanted to. For me, I always expected to play college soccer, and when I got hurt for the last time my senior year, I knew it wasn’t in the cards for me anymore. Sometimes, I wish I could have played and had somewhere I really belonged. But I don’t, and thats okay too.
4. Friends. All of my high school friends are in sororities, or playing college soccer, or at a school 5,000 miles away. Seeing as how I’m not on campus 24/7, how the hell am I supposed to make “college friends?” You have no idea. I’m so thankful for the few friends that are still around because making new ones, on a college campus, is hard as heck!
5. College is hard, but it’s even harder for someone who has had to go to community college, take things a little slower, work tons of hours each week, and maintain some sort of social life. There are so many blogs I follow where the girls are living/making it seem like they have the stereotypical college girl life, and that’s just not how things have been for me.
