College Life

College students at the Ames church potluck on Sunday:
Front L-R: Aston F. (West Bend), Andrew M. (Lester), Logan L. (Oakville), Kurt B. (West Bend), Katie P. (Lester). Back L-R: Billy, Jared S. (Oakville), Reed W. (Oakville), Caleb L. (Oakville), Jake S. (Burlington).

I am now a college student, which means that I now find excitement in mixing 1 milliliter of hydrogen peroxide with 1 milliliter of sodium bicarbonate and watching it bubble. But, the pains of the geeky goggles, goofy aprons, and plastic gloves that tear every time I try putting them on kind of take away from a lot of this excitement...and maybe the fact that we have to write down every little detail also makes it less exciting. Thankfully, what I have just described is my least favorite class, Chemistry Lab, and I can enjoy the more fun classes like Calculus.

Being a college student is kind of weird and awesome at the same time. Weird, because unlike high school, I don't know everybody I pass on the sidewalk and now try as hard as I can NOT to make eye contact with the people I walk past rather than say hi. It is also weird because there are a lot of students that act and dress weird- by my standards- and I'm sure I act and dress weird by their standards. It is awesome because it is a new experience and I have to grow up, be responsible, and make decisions for myself, rather than let mommy and daddy do it. As of now, I like college. Ask me during finals week, and my answer probably won't be the same.

I also came up with a list of my own tips on how to survive the first three days at college:

1. Always act like you know what you are doing, even when you have no idea, especially when navigating campus and the bus routes. Confusion will show right away that you are a newbie.

2. Wear compression shorts; you will walk a lot and it helps with chafing.

3. Go to your classes; they cost you a lot.

4. Say "hi" to the person next to you in lecture; its really awkward for the entire lecture when you just plop down next to someone and don't even acknowledge them.

5. Study and do your work.

6. Remain focused on God and don't let evil thoughts enter your mind, because this can be hard to do on a college campus.

I guess I also should tell everyone what other classes I have. Engineering 101, ME 160, ME 170, and Chemistry. I also realized after I listed those that everybody except for Mechanical Engineering majors would probably have no idea what most of those classes are...sorry!

And that's it. Hope everyone has a good rest of the week!