“College: An Unexpected Journey” — My first impressions as a new freshman at Saddleback

These past few weeks have marked the beginning of my first semester as a college student. Here, I’ll unpack some of the unanticipated similarities and differences between high school and college that I’ve noticed so far.

The “Wonder” sign welcomes students to the LRC building. Jim Marsoobian/The Lariat

     Throughout my entire school career, I’ve had teachers who would often tell us tales of a very distant and dangerous land: college. I was inundated with the idea of unforgiving professors, the onslaught of rigorous coursework, and the overbearing amount of time needed to get by… they were like the Brothers Grimm of school stories.

Because of this, I was so nervous about starting school. Yet, it actually hasn’t been too bad. I know it isn’t very far into the semester and things may yet change, but so far my professors have all been very understanding and helpful, and the coursework hasn’t sucked up all of my remaining free time. Sure, it’ll take me some time to get used to, but it’s nothing at all like what I had pictured in my head.

The campus isn’t what I had pictured, either. The bathrooms here are pure sublime luxury compared to that of the old, smelly, graffiti-ridden, understocked, overcrowded, drugged-out bathrooms at my high school where the sinks never worked.

So, you can imagine the relief I felt on my first day of school… I was tired, stressed, nervous, and had already finished one class. My morning glass of “the minimum amount of water needed to not dehydrate” was kicking in, so I walked around desperately looking for a bathroom.

And then, I saw it… the bathroom on the first floor of the LRC, right outside the entrance to the hallway, just a few feet away from the Saddleback Bridge. No one was inside, so I got to experience the fresh smells of supreme cleanliness all to myself. The sinks actually worked and there were ample amounts of fully-stocked soap and toilet paper.

There are also so many chairs on campus. Maybe that’s just weird to me due to the complete and total lack of seating at my high school. But the other day, I had some time to spare before one of my classes, so I decided to find a place to sit and read.

I stumbled upon the area outside the Gateway building, across from what apparently used to be the quad but is now just a pile of dirt, and sat down. It felt like I was sitting amongst the Grönsta and Stefan chair displays at IKEA.

The bookstore is also very strange to me; perhaps because it’s more of a mini-mart than a bookstore since they carry everything from snacks to computers to merchandise. Before the semester began, I went inside to just look around and… wow. There’s a lot of stuff in there, some of which doesn’t make any sense. Regardless, that trip resulted in me being the proud owner of a toothbrush that says “Saddleback College” on it.

Something else I was definitely not anticipating is the amount of walking that college involves. It is so exhausting to walk from whatever far-off land you had to park in to wherever your class is, especially if you get lost as easily as I do and have to walk around each building three times only to realize your class was at the place you started at anyway.

I haven’t even gotten to my comments on traffic and parking yet. I’ve been having to leave my home an hour before the start of each of my classes. For context, I live three miles away. You all must be getting here at the crack of dawn because it seems as though no matter how early I arrive there’s still nowhere to park.

It doesn’t help that there are only three entrances and exits to the school. The line of cars to get in or out of this place is insane. I feel like we should be waiting in line to enter Disneyland, or at least something more exciting than Intro to Statistics.

And then there’s the whole thing about the general student disposition here on campus. So far, everyone I’ve seen seems really tired. On my second day of school, I saw someone sleeping on one of the benches inside the LRC (unrelated, but why are there classes inside the library building?). I’m starting to think that becoming an Exhausted College Student™ is a rite of passage here. Just give me a little more time before I do the same; I’m still running on fresh student adrenaline.

Also, whatever happened to backpacks? I don’t get how all of these people function with their tote bags. How could I ever function without my giant backpack holding my Spider-Man pen, Wolverine keychain, Hello Kitty lip gloss, lavender sachet, and toy dinosaur (all real things found inside my backpack)?

Well, anyway, college has been a strange experience, an experience that has been better than I expected. And while I have much left to learn about it, I’m going to try my best to figure it all out. Good luck to any fellow freshman still trying to get used to this college business like I am.

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