An Introduction to

College Life in the USA

This year, I'm a senior¹. I'll also be a senior next year, but that's in another country, so it doesn't count. I've been in college for four years at three different schools: YHC, MSC, and GCSU². I know a little bit about going to college.

The first day of class is the most fun. We almost always get out really early because we're really only there to get the syllabus. If it's your first, or even second, year in college, it's also a day to meet new friends, new people to borrow pens from, new people to study with. Once you get into your major classes, though, it's a day to reunite with old friends, to try once again to learn their names. Chances are that by this time, you've had a professor once or twice. Last semester, each time I walked into a new class, I knew the professor. I looked at the professor and he or she looked at me, and we both knew that I would turn in an essay late. It was a fact.

It's also a pretty active time for Fraternities and Sororities³. I avoid them whenever I can. Organizations like this don't hold as much control as they used to over college life. I know only a few people who are in them, and one who only joined so she could have good parking - but I can't say who. She'd kill me. All the Brothers and Sisters wear their Houses colors, pink and green, red and black, blue and yellow, whatever. They use these first few days where there's not much homework and very little class time to write all over the sidewalks in chalk. They write about upcoming events, the people they support in the campus elections, and their organization. Some of the houses are themed; KYX is the Christian fraternity for GCSU.

Most importantly, though, are the freshmen⁴, the new kids who don't know anything about campus. They don't know that our campus has two bookstores, one called the bookstore, and a real one. They don't know that the maintenance men riding around in the golf carts will not stop for you even if they take up the entire sidewalk. They don't know that the fastest way to get to Herty Hall (where biology is taught) from the library is to walk through Arts & Sciences (where English, among other things, is taught). And we don't tell them. Most people think of Freshman year as a time to learn the campus and that the fastest way to learn a place is to get lost. So they get lost, and are late to class, but they know better for next time.

Of course, if you ask nicely, and have a cute accent, we'll usually help you.

Footnotes:

¹ Fourth year of college. (See more here.)
² Young Harris College, Macon State College, and Georgia College and State University, respectively.
³ Male and female Greek organizations. (See more here.)
⁴ First year of college. (See more here.)