High School is over     By Jessyka Coulter High school was awful for me. Throughout most of my four years in high school, I didn’t even know who was or wasn’t in my class. At my high school graduation last May, I knew around half of the 120 people sitting on chairs on the gymnasium floor alongside me. While I felt bad that I would look at people opening a locker in my class’s hall and wonder what in the world they were doing there, I couldn’t wait for high school to be over. I wasn’t one of those cheerleaders or jocks who thought the world would end after high school. The four years I spent in high school were slow and miserable. I am extremely glad college is so different from high school. It’s going to sound silly, but I love not getting dismissed from class by a bell. I am not completely sure why, but I grew to loathe the sound of the dismissal bell in high school. Now, there are times college professors go WAY past their allotted class time, and it would be nice to have a bell to remind them of the time, but I really don’t miss the bell. I love the freedom in college of getting to choose whether or not to go to class.  I will admit that I have woken up in the morning with a desire to skip class and sleep through the day, but I never have. Yet, in reality, what college student wants to go to class every day? While the freedom of college is enticing, the homework load is quite different from high school. I was told I would have a lot of reading in college, but I don’t really feel I received an adequate enough warning. If I sat down and made up for all the reading I haven’t done this semester, I would be reading for a good five hours straight if not closer to eight. Opps. Somehow I have managed to stay on the top of the rest of my homework, though. Most college students probably have similar reading tales to tell. I bet there are even some students who haven’t even opened their textbooks. The one thing I miss about high school is the days of no schoolwork: no projects to complete, pages to read, or homework to do. In college, it feels like there is always something that should be done, such as studying and reading textbooks. I want to pull my hair out some days, but I survive, as do most college students. High school didn’t prepare me for college in a lot of ways, but that’s ok. I’m just glad to be out of there. College has been full of adventure, and while I would like to have more free time, I know I’m gaining a great deal from my college experience. (Nov. 12)     Opinion Home