College and University Blog
Sick of School? 7 Things You鈥檒l Miss About Being a Student
If you鈥檝e ever grumbled 鈥淚 can鈥檛 wait to graduate and be done with all of this!鈥� you鈥檙e not alone. College can be tough鈥攎ost people don鈥檛 do research papers or study just for the fun of it. Even so, it鈥檚 easy to overlook a lot of the benefits of being a student.
It might not happen right away, but here are seven things you鈥檒l eventually miss about your college days.
1. The ability to make friends easily and always have them nearby.
College students are friends with other college students because it鈥檚 convenient鈥攜ou鈥檙e all in the same place at the same time鈥攁nd you share common objectives. The fact that everyone is approximately the same age doesn鈥檛 hurt, either. Once you enter the 鈥渞eal world,鈥� you鈥檒l be working with people of all ages. A lot of them will have families, which means they鈥檒l probably head straight home once the work day is done rather than go out to party. Introducing yourself to your new next-door neighbors and waving when you bring groceries in from the car or check the mail doesn鈥檛 have the same feeling as being introduced to a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend on campus.
2. Free time.
A lot of college students constantly complain about their busy schedules, but there鈥檚 a good chance you鈥檒l miss all of that 鈥渂usy-ness鈥� when you start working eight or ten hours every day. Weekends will probably be spent running errands and catching up on things that you didn鈥檛 have time to do during the week 鈥� because you had to be at work all day. And Monday rolls around before you know it. Sigh.
3. Long vacations.
Even if you鈥檙e a full-time college student, you probably wind up with four or six weeks off at Christmastime and three or four months off every summer. Recently-hired employees are generally offered two weeks of vacation per year.
4. Working part-time (or not working at all.)
And speaking of work 鈥� it鈥檚 not unusual for so-called traditional college students between the ages of 18 and 22 to have part-time jobs, but part-time jobs are just that. Part time. They don鈥檛 take up forty or fifty hours (or more!) of your week. Believe it or not, down the road there will come a day when you think back to that embarrassingly awful $7 an hour job making pizzas and smile about how much fun it was.
5. No bills.
We all know that going to college can be expensive, especially if you live in a dorm on campus. But many students have some type of financial assistance鈥攅ven if it is student loans鈥攖hat help take care of the costs while they鈥檙e in school. Even though you鈥檙e paying dearly (or racking up a lot of debt) to live in that residence hall, you aren鈥檛 dropping off a monthly rent check and paying for electricity and water. Once you have your own apartment and utility bills in your own name, you will miss those crazy dorm days and insane roommates.
6. Few responsibilities.
It鈥檚 not a wise idea, but the world probably isn鈥檛 going to come to an end if you decide to skip class just because you don鈥檛 feel like going. If you go to a large state university with big classes, there鈥檚 a good chance the professor doesn鈥檛 even know (or care) that you aren鈥檛 there. You can鈥檛 really do that when it comes to work. The boss will notice if you don鈥檛 show up or come in late every day.
7. Pulling all-nighters.
Staying up all night to cram for a test or finish a project happens to the best of us. Hitting the clubs and stopping at an all-night diner for breakfast at 4 AM is also probably something you鈥檝e done on more than one occasion. Once you settle into the routine of working all week, you鈥檒l start going to bed earlier and earlier. You鈥檒l think back to your college days and wonder how in the heck you used to stay up for 24 hours straight!
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Melissa Rhone earned her Bachelor of Music in Education from the University of Tampa. She resides in the Tampa Bay area and enjoys writing about college, pop culture, and epilepsy awareness.