College life as a high school student
Day One
After waking up five times last night frightened that I would miss my opportunity to shower this morning, my day has been pretty exhausting. One of the many perks of CSPA is staying on the beautiful Cal Poly campus for two weeks, but after one full day of this workshop I’m learning a lot more than just the art of crafting a lede. As high school students, we’re told that going off to college is the best thing we can do. We’ll have fun, we’ll make new friends, we’ll develop to become stronger individuals–and I don’t doubt any of this; I’m having a great time after barely two days of being on campus and I’ve gotten to know so many new people. I can say I have a stronger sense of the daily life of a journalist, as three of CSPA’s instructors painted vivid pictures of their lives today (getting phone calls from eyewitnesses in the middle of the night, watching murder trials, texting cops, etc). I can definitely say I’m becoming stronger in other ways, too. The hills we climb to get from our dorms to the dining hall, to the dining hall to the journalism building, to the journalism building back to the dining hall and then back to the dorms and then into a conference room that’s far away from everything else–so far, college life consists of many hills to climb, so to speak. When you’re in high school everyone who went to college will tell you that living in a dorm is like no other experience, but they won’t say that’s because at least one bed in every dorm is a death trap, or because one shower must be shared between four people, or because your mini fridge will make horrifying noises all throughout the night. They’ll also probably leave out the fact that the beds are uncomfortable and you’ll have to fight your roommates for the only outlet. From what I can tell at CSPA, college will be challenging in more than just an academic way.
Day Two
Today did not begin as a success. When I woke up this morning I was definitely better rested than Day One but that didn’t make up for the fact that my “sheets” and “blankets” were on the desk beneath my bed. I put “sheets” and “blankets” in quotation marks because they do not work. To make matters worse, my “mattress” was three inches off of the bed spring, hanging off the edge of the bed. Luckily things got better, we got breakfast.
Later on we went to take pictures at the farm on campus (that’s another thing, nobody mentions that colleges have farms) but since there were no people tending to the horses, we moved locations. Chris, the instructor, insisted that we go to the plant farm and that every picture had to have a person in it. This was pretty difficult, since there was at the most five people at the plant farm and no one really wanted to be photographed. The cats roaming around in the bushes sure didn’t mind being photographed though, they were natural models. I got yelled at for taking too many pictures without “human element,” so I found a loop hole and took pictures of other people taking pictures of the cats. Total success.
Wednesday Phenomenon
The counselors warned us that by the third day, we would be absolutely in love and overwhelmed and exhausted with this workshop. I’ve never heard truer words.
One thing I didn’t realize until today was how great college can be if you’re in a college town, like San Luis Obispo. We ventured off campus to look at public records this morning and it’s possibly the cutest town ever, besides the town next to my own home city that has really good frozen yogurt. Central California frozen yogurt just isn’t the same.
Something else high school students here about a lot is the “freshman fifteen.” What isn’t clear though, is that these fifteen pounds definitely do not come from the dinner that colleges offer. Maybe it’s from the infinite snacks people keep in their dorm rooms (nutella, easy mac&cheese, candy, salsa, top ramen, popcorn, trail mix, etc.) but it can’t be from any of the dining halls (yes, there are several and it’s confusing) because the only good food in the dining hall is the packaged snacks people keep in their dorm rooms. In fact, I’m surprised people don’t lose fifteen pounds their first year of college from not eating dining hall food. I’m sure a number of students (at least Cal Poly students) even go vegetarian after the first night of mystery meat in the dining hall. Don’t even go near the dining hall at dinner time, just keep snacks in your dorm room mini fridge.
Day Five
Only one more week to go before I graduate at Cal Poly as a high school student! (How impressive does that sound?) One thing I can say college students definitely don’t lie about is the ability to make such close friends so quickly. My roommates and I stayed up well past lights out last night (most likely the sugar high from the cake) laughing about the stupidest things, and though I woke up exhausted this morning, I know college will be just like this. I’ll also know to bring my own mattress to college, no matter how strange I look.
60th Reunion
Today confirmed what everyone has been saying this whole workshop, that after it’s over we’ll still keep in touch with one another. At the 60th Reunion I ran into my journalism adviser, and she had come with her friend that she made here twelve years ago when she was my age. To me, that’s crazy. People do tell high school students that no matter where they end up going to college, they’ll connect with people and make great friends, but you really don’t know how true that is until you see a classroom full of instructors who all kept in touch with each other after 30 years. Even though this isn’t really college, it still feels like it is, and I’ve made some of the best friends here.
Also, something everyone should know about dorm rooms–no matter how clean you are, it’ll start to smell after a week. No matter what. Leave your shoes in the bathroom, leave the windows in both the room and bathroom open constantly, and find a room freshener that your roommate(s) can all agree on. (Febreeze wares off pretty quickly, by the way.)
~RIP Amy Winehouse~