Things I have learnt in college

When i joint WCC I expected something. I'm not quite sure what i expected, but I know for a fact that i sure did expect something from my three years of college. More importantly, I expected 500% more freedom than at school since I was away from my parents, a challenging sytem under which I would learn to learn, cliques of friends like I had in school, money that I could spend any way I pleased... U get the drift!!!!

Whoa!!! And was I in for a surprise or what? My 17 year old brain could not comprehend at the time what changes I would have to go through to survive those three years in college, and to make it more challenging, in hostel!!!

I sure did get alot more freedom than i did while staying with my parents and attending school. But I slowly learnt that with the freedom comes responsibilty and having to face the consequence of your own actions. Every time i decided to bunk more classes, I ran the risk of being lost during my following classes that I did attend and the constant fear that I mite not have the required days of attendance to write my exams without paying condonation, and if I did have to pay, I would have had to cut down on at least three outings to galloppin gooseberries or movenpik or about 10 outings to murugan idlis...

Directly related to this learning was the learning that having to manage my own money is not all that great. When you have a fixed amount for the month, you soon learn that u can't really afford that awesome steak and baskin robbin ice creams everyday unless u decided not to pay ur mess bill and get kicked out of hostel. you also learn that budgeting is not the easiest thing to do, especially when ur a college student who can't decide whether going out with your friends to a party that will cost you 350 bucks or the new kurta in westside is higher on the priority list!

The challenging system.... Well, I was highly dissolutioned is all I can say for now, I guess. At some point, I'll have a whole entry on the system of education. And another major expectation, a group of friends like I had in school - where we would pinky swear to keep secrets, talk about plans for the day, go out often, spend time at each other's houses and the like... Well, was I in for a surprise or what??? I had a whole lot of friends in college, some from hostel, some from class, some from other colleges, some working and some from church... Each group taught me something different unlike the one group of friends I had in school. And while I was moderately close to some of them and used to just "hang out" with them, others influenced me much more.
The biggest and most important difference to me was that in school, we spent half our time telling each other how much the other meant to us and how much we would alwaysbe best friends, in college, there were no time for such trivialities... (is there a word like that?) We just KNEW that we were closer than anything that needs words.. And we knew each other better than anyone else did. Especially friends in the hostel,living with them was like knowing way too much about them... much more than u wanted to know. But ur stuck with them anyway. Something like family.. they are there whether u want them or not.. gives a new meaning to trust!! or rather the old meaning, but just that I took some time to realize what it really means..

We din't have to keep proving to ourselves or anyone else that we were friends or how close we were and still are.. I made some other friends. Guys who I liked, thought I loved, actually loved and some friends who were just there.. They all taught me something new. About guys... how to deal with them, how different they are and what good friends some of them can be.. and by that i emphasize on the word - some! All-in-all, I could say it was a love -hate relationship with most of them! lol...

College taught me alot more which I am feeling to lazy to elaborate on at the moment, so maybe another time... For now - college is an experience thru which if u survive, ur much wiser (hopefully) and much happier (at least for me!!)