Things You Will Learn the Hard Way in College

Heed my word, undergradlings. I am now approaching the dawn of graduation and have picked up a few life experiences/lessons along the way. Here are things you will learn throughout your college experience, if you haven’t already.

There are 65,000 tulips on campus. TTU florists learned the hard way that it snows in Lubbock in April, and thousands of those tulips are now... um, dead. 

Dating

• ·      There will be someone out there that you will really like and they will not feel the same way.
• ·      There will be someone out there that you will really like and they will ask if your friend is single.
• ·      There will be someone out there you have a great time being friends with, and he/she will want something more, and you’ll have to friendzone them.
• ·      You will also be friendzoned.
• ·      If he/she is not texting you back, it’s because they genuinely do not like you, no matter what your friends tell you to convince you otherwise.
• ·      Guys talk just as much as girls.
• ·      One day, someone of the opposite sex will give you a compliment that you will remember the rest of your life.
• ·      One day, someone of the opposite sex will tell you something hurtful that you will remember it the rest of your life.

Friends

• ·      You will meet so many people freshmen year, and go through different groups of friends, but eventually you’ll find a solid few that stick it through with you until senior year.
• ·      You will count on a friend for something, and they will let you down.
• ·      You will also let someone down.
• ·      Your best friend right now is not guaranteed to be your bestie in a year.
• ·      Friends should not always be roommates.
• ·      You will meet so many people and barely skim the surface on 99% of them. You will miss out on some seriously cool people if you write them off too soon for silly (and often shallow) reasons. (That girl with an annoyingly high-pitched voice isn’t that bad, and you realize maybe she genuinely can’t help her voice sounds like that.)
• ·      A friend that gives you a ride to or from the airport is a true friend.
• ·      Not everyone is going to like you.
• ·      The friend that tells you something you don’t want to hear, but need to hear, is a true friend.
• ·      There will be people you extremely admire from afar, and you’ll wish you were better friends with them. You’ll never express this to them and you’ll regret it.
• ·      There is no such thing as taking too many pictures.

School

• ·      The number of professors that genuinely care about you will be significantly less than the number of professors that don’t.
• ·      You will type a long paper/report, forget to save it, something will crash, and you will lose it all.
• ·      You will forget to check your junk mail for months at a time, and miss quite a few important e-mails.
• ·      Sure, it sucks waking up early for morning classes, but all that free time during the afternoon can be such a blessing.
• ·      Going to class after 1 on a day with great weather is harder than waking up early.
• ·      Group projects can sometimes be a gift sent express-delivery from the Devil himself.
• ·      You will do an entire group project by yourself.
• ·      You will buy a brand new math textbook for $200, sell it back after a one-month summer class, and get $12 back.
• ·      Doing class full time and having a job part time is super-difficult—but having extra money is worth it.
• ·      Cramming the night before on Monster and generic brand adderal is not the answer.

Going out

• ·      You will have to take care of so many drunk, crying girls throughout your college experience, you will feel as though you should write a “How to” for dummies book.
• ·      You will eventually be one of them (or a drunk, fighting boy for that matter).
• ·      Getting a fake ID and going out to the bars as a lowerclassmen really sets yourself up for getting burnt out early on as an upperclassmen. Go to house parties. It seems like the end of the world being 18-20, but once you’re 21 there will be plenty of time for the bars.
• ·      You will turn 22 and be entirely over the bar scene and wonder what’s wrong with you.
• ·      Your mom will give you advice-worthy guidelines pertaining to drinking. You will not listen. You will go overboard and thoroughly regret it.
• ·      You will wait in line at Chimy’s for 15 minutes, get to the front, and realize you don’t have your I.D.
• ·      Wearing heels is not worth it sometimes.
• ·      Going to Cricket’s on a Monday, sober in a T-shirt and Norts will lead to judgmental stares from others, but also to good memories.
• ·      You will find that going to that date party last minute and dateless without the appropriate costume can be 10x more fun than going drunk and with a date.
• ·      Fun people aren’t always attractive people. Attractive people aren’t always fun.

Some red raiders looking very breakfast clubby chillaxin in 1980.