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College
stereotypes not applicable with this
student
Krystle
Ralston
You’re
in college now. It’s Saturday night,
so naturally you’re doing at least
one of the following: auditioning for
the latest Girls Gone Wild video by dancing
on a tabletop sporting your birthday
suit, doing jello shots off two different
girls in a hot tub, or lying passed out
in the backyard of a house you never
remember entering that’s at least
20 miles away from where your night began.
Me? I’m sitting in my dorm room reading Macbeth while listening to Tchaikovsky.
Ok, I’m listening to The Killers, but nobody’s perfect.
Not every college girl is doing cheap porn when she should be studying for
her psychology exam because she’d rather make a quick $500 than get an “A.” There
are guys out there without beer bongs shoved down their throats surrounded
by 10 of their cheering, smashed friends.
Students don’t sleep through every class as they recover from these insanities.
We (mostly) good kids are everywhere. We have our wild moments to be sure,
but we are recognized by our faces instead of our chests.
We spent countless years growing and maturing, and now we have a chance to
prove ourselves. And we’re not going to waste thousands of dollars spent
in tuition at keg parties being carried over the shoulders of our designated
drivers.
Some older relatives of mine ask me every time they see me: So how’s
college? Are you going crazy without your parents around? And most importantly,
you’re using birth control, right? Not only do I not broadcast the part
of my life that involves birth control, but I am not guilty of cutting loose
the second I get a slice of freedom.
We all have that party or two when we miss things here and there and keep asking
our friends what we said or did, but they just smile and laugh at us. But it’s
not every day, and it doesn’t interfere with what matters — our
current scholastics and futures out there in the real world.
What many people forget is the passion and devotion that can be missing from
high school kids but that college students are cool enough to possess.
As I walked through campus on my first day, I had a stack of flyers in my hands
about joining everything from religious groups that I’m pretty sure involved
animal sacrifices to groups that protested against pollution and leather and
whose belongings consisted of a cushion.
College is a beautiful place; we all know this, especially since we attend
such an awesome school. But I think most of us realize it’s a place to
try and do everything we can, not everyone we can. It’s a place for us
to find ourselves and discover what we were put on this earth for.
As we enter our adult years, the pressure to figure out our true callings can
be intense, but that’s what makes the feeling so much greater when we
finally find it. The professors, the classes, the organizations—we can
find a million things to choose from that we love to do.
College students are passionate and dedicated to their goals; we recognize
the potential inside of us. And because we rock this hard, we’re entitled
to have ourselves a good time.
But not everyone puts him or herself into a coma on a weekly basis, and the
older folks should realize and remember that.
On Friday I may hit a party or two and toss back a few fruity drinks with my
circle of friends, but I will never let the part of me that craves fun take
over the part of me that demands hard work.
Which is why, on Saturday night, I try to balance things out by reading Shakespeare
but still rocking out to the Killers instead of Tchaikovsky.
Krystle Ralston is a journalism transfer student. |
