Dear Kid,
Not everyone has a smashingly successful first semester at college. (For the record, I’m not talking about your sister—she had a great fall semester.)
Sometimes the first time at college can be a time of difficult adjustment. A time of figuring out how to be on your own for the first time. A time of meeting all new people for the first time since Kindergarten. A time of all new classes and having to figure out a new way to study.
All that “all new” can be tough. And overwhelming.
Some get the hang of it pretty quickly.
For others it takes a while.
For some it doesn’t really coalesce at all. (Coalesce—one of the words that doesn’t come together the first semester of college. Does not have anything to do with what Santa leaves for children who misbehave.)
I overheard (and by “overheard” I mean saw a post on Facebook) one such person talking about her experience. She was feeling overwhelmed (my interpretation) not only of the experience she’d just gone through at college, but by the number of times she heard how wonderful everything was for so many of her friends (and friends of friends).
The thing is, I’m sure it was wonderful for some of those people.
I’m more sure it was partially wonderful and partially difficult for most of those people and they are only broadcasting the good parts.
As humans, we tend to go to the polls (not the voting type—we ‘Muricans don’t do that enough) when we talk to people. Even more so when we post on social media. It was awesome; it was awful. It was the best; it was the worst. OMG, I’m sooooo happy; OMG, I’m so miserable. It was the easiest final ever; it was the hardest test ever conceived.
No one ever posts: Just finished my Calc final—pretty much what I expected.
Because that’s boring. So we either don’t bother posting that one and go straight to something more interesting—or we embellish. “Calc final—Nailed it!”
I really admire the college kid who posted honestly that it was not the experience she’d hoped it would be. I hope she gets the support she needs from her friends and family. And I hope she find the right experience as she goes forward.
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