College is…trade offs. It’s more freedom with less stability. The opportunity to eat S’mores Poptarts, unhindered by anything but my slightly pretentious ethics teacher, but no place to toast them properly. It’s a growing number of quiet places to study coupled with a diminishing expectation of peace in my own room.
And paradoxes… A longing for familiarity on my quest for adventure. Avoiding the social scene because I’m too busy e-mailing. Studying for hours and feeling behind.
I think it’s more exciting than I’ve made it out to be though. Yesterday, I played accomplice to a tree climbing adventure, read about “coffee shops” (drug dens) in the Netherlands, climbed to the top floor of the library and attempted to pick the lock leading to the roof, then resorted to playing tag amongst the book shelves and reading My Life Is Average when the lock picking proved fruitless, tried pumpkin cheesecake ice cream before dinner, attended the latest showing of “Whip It” and was the last person to leave the theater as it closed.
On an unrelated note: I just discovered a Bryan Knouse through a friend of a friend on Facebook. I realize Knouse is not an entirely uncommon surname but I still feel like I should know him.
The point you made about paradoxes is completely true, particularly the longing for familiarity. But I think familiarity grows with each passing day. For instance, I’ve been out here for almost two months and am only just now beginning to feel some familiarity and comfort with others as I get to know them. These things just take some time, and I think we all forgot about that because we became so comfortable with the concept of each other after four years of high school. I can’t wait to see what kinds of friends four years of college will bring us.
And pumpkin cheesecake ice cream sounds incredible.