I recently finished up my university career (in Political Science so my experience was probably slightly different than a science major, but bear with me) it was the usual length, 4 years to be exact. It was fraught with many perils, such as getting to class on time even with a head invaded by city workers hammering away. It was somewhat educational I will begrudgingly admit, although not in the way one might expect. I remember being a high school senior, ‘ruling’ the school and thinking I knew everything that was coming my way. HA! What an idiot!

I was a dope, a fool, a typical naive teenager.

I thought university was going to be like it was in the movies, going to class was mandatory, just like the parties, hangovers were something old people had and everything could be done the night before. University was a place to grow up and find yourself… right?

Well now I can say ‘based on experience’ unfortunately only some of what that foolish naive idiot thought was true.

University was a terrible amount of fun, that was true, but it was also not exactly the quiet hall of learning I was expecting.  The biggest thing I was wrong about was the way you would learn, you went to class and the prof explained things ONCE to the CLASS, if you didn’t understand, too bad. If you really wanted to understand, better hop on the google machine. The prof expected you to do the learning, in high school my teachers would help everyone figure each concept out, they made you understand. University profs could give a shit, it’s up to you. This leads into my second thought, university was not about learning facts and concepts, it was about learning how to learn. I remember probably less than half of what I actually needed to know to pass classes, that information was deleted to remember more important things, like what games are coming out in the coming months, I know valuable eh? My point is that I have been imbued with the gift of learning, I know how to research, how to understand things on my own, I don’t need a teacher any more. That’s the key.

The other thing is that university is way more fun than I could have imagined. If you want to have a good time, you will! My first year was for the better part spent drinking, drinking some more and then enduring the nightmare hangover the next day. It was an awesome amount of fun though, and I have no regrets, I don’t drink like that anymore and I don’t want to, but back then we had a great time and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Basically all my stories from those days begin with “we were so drunk when…” or “that [blank] party…” or “that time we drank soooo much…” you get it. The years after were much the same, at least second and third. Lots of drinking, I won’t lie, the thing I learned the most about was drinking… That and lessons of the opposite sex.

But that is for another time. 😉

What was your university experience like? Similar or different? It doesn’t matter to me, I’m just a curious person, so give me some insight.