Ever since I took those PSATs, colleges have been filling my mailbox up with tons and tons of mail. I mean, I want to go to college, but this is just overwhelming! I don’t feel ready at all to make this kind of decision! Technically, I do have two years before I go to college. Why must these things start tormenting me now? My high school depresses me enough!
It’s been like every day that some college sends me a whole new mess of letters, magazines, pamphlets, etc. And I’m not the one getting excited over it, either. My sister -who is in the seventh grade, I might add- is beginning to annoy me with her college obsession. The way she grabs the mail from colleges that are addressed to me and scurries off to her room to rip them open is getting on my nerves. “Ohh, Max! You totally have to go to this college!” – “Hey! This college has small class sizes, Max! Didn’t you say you wanted something like that?” – “NYU sent you mail?! NYU? Eeeeek! Hehehehe!” [Passes out from excitement.]
This doesn’t seem normal at all for a seventh grader. When I was in seventh grade, college seemed so far off. It still seems far off. My sister and her friend are planning on going to the same college together. They spent part of a day a few weekends ago looking at college websites. I admit, I did get a bit excited when they said they wanted to live in the same apartment in New York City. I was like, “Oooo! Yay! And I can live across that hall from you guys and it can be like we’re on Friends!” I’m a dork like that.
Other than that ittie bittie prospect of sharing an apartment building with my sister, I’m not all that psyched about going to college. It’s actually a bit scary. I mean, if I think high school is overwhelming (when it actually isn’t that overwhelming), how am I going to handle college? If I think high school is impersonal, how am I going to handle class sizes at college? If I get freaked out by sleeping in my own bedroom, how the heck am I going to handle sleeping hundreds of miles away from my home in some dumpy little college dorm somewhere?! How can people like planning for something like this!?
I’ve been asking my parents if there are such things as colleges that don’t require you to take any extra courses other than your major. I don’t think they’ve heard of any. I don’t know if there are any. I want to major in some form of design. Actually, if possible, I want to major in film, photography, interior design, graphic design, cinematography (although I suppose that would go with film), web design, illustration, and perhaps some kind of writing. That’s a lot of majors! How long would I have to stay in college for that? It seems like it would take more than four years.
Am I like the only one who’s noticed that school takes up more than 20% of an average person’s life? Isn’t that scary at all? I know that we need to go to school and college to have a successful career, etc, blah, blah, blah, but doesn’t it seem like we should be spending more time on what makes us happy? Rather than spending more than 20% of our lives cooped up in some class room listening to some teacher drone on about whatever is supposed to help us later in life? Plus, aren’t the majority of the people out there unsatisfied with their careers, anyway?
I am not saying that I don’t want to go to college. I am not saying that I want to be a stupid vegetable for the rest of my life. I am not saying that I want my job to consist of the lines “and would you like fries with that?” I’m not even sure if I know what I’m saying at all. Perhaps that we all just need to lighten up and slow down before life seems like it’s two seconds long.
4 Comments
As far as my plans go right now, school will be a major part of my life – I want to be a teacher. So, maybe this opinion is because I really like school, but shouldn’t people be happy to walk into a class and better their lives? It’s not all about grades so you can get a great job – it’s about enriching your life, so that you can add to the world in some better form than selling fries. That’s why I want to be a teacher – I want to prepare people for greater accomplishments.
That was all in response to your second to last paragraph.
I’m getting tons of letters and emails from colleges, too, and I’m really excited by all of it. I used to think that I’d just end up going to the UW here, but now there are all these new options that I hadn’t even considered looking at before because I thought I should save money by living at home and not paying for a dorm. And I still might go to the UW if I happen to get a scholarship there and they offer what I want to take as far as classes go. But, who knows what will happen.
Sounds exactly like [your sister]. I don’t think I really want to go to college, unless I really have to. I’d rather go to Tibet and do relief work or something like that. That way, I would only spend about 15% of my life in school, and I wouldn’t be a vegetable, and I might get a scholarship.
Uh, Chole, you might think that way now, but college is totally worth it. Really, it is. Max, I would ignore most of the mail you’re getting now, in fact you can discard the lot of it. Next year when you’re a Junior start researching schools that have programs that interest you, not ones that send you the most envelopes. Talk with a guidance counsler or teacher (or favorite friend named Adam) about prospective colleges. It isn’t something that you need to concern yourself with now.
*smiles*
Okay?
I wouldn’t worry too much about taking non-major-related classes. When I was in university, I was so obsessed with getting out in four years that I took barely anything that didn’t automatically tie into my major.
Looking back on it, I wish I’d taken the time and opportunity (since I was spending the money anyway) to take some classes in stuff that interested/i> or intrigued me, not just what was on my “to do” list. I know people who did just that, didn’t take that much longer to graduate, and feel like they came away with a much fuller experience. It makes me want to go back.
Just a thought.