Bright College Days

[vovat]

The other day, I read some idiotic posts from the LiveJournal community dedicated to bethje's school, and it got me thinking back to my own college experience. Overall, I guess I was kind of lucky. I was in the first class of the Honors College at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (dumb name, I know), and I think it worked to my advantage that the whole thing hadn't been totally organized yet. I actually think I might have ended up having an easier time of it than if I had taken non-honors courses for my basic requirements. I remember talking to people who were sophomores and freshmen when I was a senior, and the classes already seemed to have gotten much harder.

The majority of the Honors College lived in the same dorm, and I think that helped me with socialization, since I knew most of the people there from the honors classes. It was probably the time of my life when I was the most sociable. That's a very relative thing, of course, and I still had a lot of social anxieties. It was rare when I was comfortable enough with someone to actually seek out their company. More often, I would just talk to people when I ran into them. Still, I probably wouldn't even have done that if I had lived in one of the non-honors dorms. I know there were some charges of the people in the honors dorm being elitists, but I always thought that was based on ignorance. Being insular doesn't necessarily imply elitism. And, of course, not everyone in the dorm was insular. I was, but that's my way.

Since I lived in a specialty dorm, it was rare that they would move in new students in the middle of the school year. I somehow managed to scare away three out of my four roommates, and every time I ended up with a double all to myself. That was lucky for me, but I do have to wonder if I was really that horrible to live with.

One part of the college experience that I never, well, experienced was that of going to parties and getting drunk. I DID go to a party where some people got drunk and thought "couscous" was the funniest word ever, but it was at a professor's house. I never attended the stereotypical college party, where kids drank three times their own volume in beer, and the cops had to break it up. I never wanted to, either. In fact, college turned me off of alcohol, since I associated it with rowdy parties. I'm not as much against it now, because I've since met people who could drink without being rowdy. That's not to say I don't still realize that drunkenness and alcoholism are serious problems, or that I drink at all regularly now; but I don't mind alcohol in general as much as I did back then, and I'll drink an alcoholic beverage on occasion.

A somewhat unrelated thought I have about college is that it's largely become an institution. It's no longer a place for those interested in further scholarly pursuits, but sort of a second high school for young adults (meant in the literal sense in that they're people who just became adults, not in the way book publishers use the term). I never really thought of college as something I had much of a choice in doing, and I think that's a common idea nowadays. People say they go to college to get a good job, but, while that might still be the case for those studying in certain fields, so many people have college degrees and jobs that they could have gotten with a high school education or less, if they have jobs at all. After I graduated, my first three jobs were at a toy store, a frame store, and Kmart. College isn't the only factor in this, I'm sure. I understand that the economy is horrible, and I'm not all that aggressive in pursuing work. I don't really think I should have to be, but that's a different topic altogether. I do think, however, that college degrees are becoming progressively less valuable.

Comments

[bethje.livejournal.com]

There was a time when I thought "couscous" was hilarious, but that was because of a joke I saw on Happy Days.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

What was the joke?

[bethje.livejournal.com]

I'll tell you, but you'll never think it's funny, and then I'll sound like a dumbweirdo.

Howard and Marion had a friend who divorced his wife to marry some girl who was much younger than him. Marion got afraid that Howard would lose interest in her, so she decided to spice things up. He came home from work and she was dressed up as a bellydancer. He thought she was totally crazy for it, but she kept going along with it. And then she said, "Why don't you have some couscous?" and Howard said, "Marion, you're the only one around here who's couscous."

And then I laughed for hours. I swear.

[3x1minus1.livejournal.com]

sober, couscous IS a pretty funny word. {g}