The Freshman Experience

Andrew Lehman
News Editor

It seems as though every student is exhausted, including me.

There was this great eight-week high that allowed us to survive the first trying months of college. Every day held a new chance to start over, make new friends and appreciate the old friends who helped ease us into college.

But now everyone is tired.

It takes quite an effort to smile at people walking by. It is almost too hard to hold my head up any more. I am not depressed; I just lack the energy to hold it up.

It is quite impressive to see those people who just don't quite realize that they are in college, not in high school. Do you really need to wear layers of makeup? Nobody really cares all that much. You wake up late, look at the clock, throw on some clothes that don't smell like the dog and head off to school. Or, wake up at the crack of dawn, spend an hour getting ready for school and have no one outside your clique of friends notice the effort.

This extraordinary effort to transfer what worked for you in high school to college seems to be a mistake made by a lot of people. The effort is in vain. There are three girls in my geology class who dress the same, wear the same type of makeup and could be mistaken for triplets. I feared for their lives the other day when it rained. I figured that if they did not find shelter, their faces would melt away. All that would remain would be their true selves. Horrifying.

No wonder people are tired.

The lack of sleep could also be due to late hours of studying. In theory, you should spend approximately two hours studying for every hour spent in class. In theory, you should wash pants and shirts before you wear them again. This is all in theory, of course.

Then again, there is always some activity at the Morris University Center or the Vadalabene Center to occupy your time. Granted, these activities are designed to improve your health and help you get to know people, but isn't it just a little too much? And some students feel the need to do everything. They might miss out on something. Yeah, they might miss their own life speeding by them and they are just running to catch up, not taking the time to smell the roses along the way.

You could also make the argument that there are too many parties during the week. It is feasible. When I'm visiting friends at the residence halls, it seems like everyone is having a party.

Too much partying? Maybe that is why everyone is tired. Or maybe it is the misdirected effort at those things that do not matter in college that is slowly burning each and every one of us out.

Nah. It's gotta be the partying..