EPTActually even though I didn't do anything this weekend, I still have thoughts about college and being a freshman. As a freshman you are at the bottom. From being a senior in high school, there is a transition phase from being a big fish in a small pond to being a fish in an ocean. You are no longer big, and there are bigger shit like sharks and whales in the ocean.
As a freshman, the things you can do every weekend are pretty limited, well at least at my college they are. We have a couple parties that go on every weekend that freshmen can get into, but you usually have to pay for drinks or to get in and it's generally not worth it because ALL THE OTHER FRESHMEN that have nothing to do go there too so it just gets really crowded with freshmen fast. Frat parties and house parties you basically have to know people. Especially being a freshmen guy, it all comes down to who you know and how well you excel socially.
After the crazy weekend nights of trying to find shit to do so you feel like your living the actual "college experience" that everyone sees in the movies, during the day time you have to work hard to get all that work done that you said "ill do over the weekend". After having a bloody awful night trying to find something fun to do, you now have to focus your attention on the hours of homework that you probably have to use to get it all done for your classes.
It sucks. It is a game changer. It is definitly different than high school, but I won't say for better or for worse because it all chooses how you look at it.
As for me, I already know what I want. I have clear objectives that are in my mind that help motivate me to get things done. I have spent a lot of time observing other freshmen. They travel in packs of a varying amount of people. To me it looks like they are just clinging on to a bunch of people they know and they go around the campus exploring what possibilities they have as freshmen. They can either go clubbing if they have a car, drink if they have people to get alcohol from, and the list goes on.
Freshmen are also very....uptight about their stuff. Granted, I have noticed that about me too. This one guy tells me what he's doing for the night and then asks where I am going, and then I say just walkin around (which is partially true, but not a full truth like his was). After the conversation, I reflected upon the fact that I had
1) no reason to hide anything from him
2) no reason to lie
Why did I instinctively lie if I knew there was no benefit from lying? Maybe it was just the way I grew up, keeping things to myself. Maybe I have problems building trust with people. Maybe I froze up because I didn't feel like talking or socializing. In all fairness though, I just ate about 1,000 calories worth of chinese food. I took several naps and still felt like shit so I sort of "ruined" my saturday night by incapacitating my ability to actually do anything that night. Im ok with it
As for other freshmen that I have noticed, when I smoke weed with them, I have spent a lot of money smoking people up. It is smokers etiquitte and I do it because I am a nice person. I know my financial limits though. So far right now though, that phase I mentioned earlier about transitioning to college still exists with many freshmen. They are trying to find the hottest thing to do for the night, following the coolest people that they think will get them what they want tonight. I will give this phase a couple more weeks before I go back on my word on this and say that I was dillusional in saying all of this because granted I am a freshman as well and I've only been in college for 2 weeks so I don't really have much ground for saying it. They are just my current observations and thoughts.
As always, my quest for finding new people to add into my life continues. I found two women yesterday while I was studying who I like a lot. I had a nice conversation with them and they were equally friendly back to me. The great thing about living on college is that you can see anyone anywhere on the campus at any time of the day so its just a matter of time before I run into them again.
Maybe I will meet some new people today, or maybe I will take the day to just be alone. Sometimes I just like to be alone and have silence. Other times I am very very social and always a part of the conversation, it's pretty much personal preference of what I'm feeling like at the time.
Networking
In order to succeed at college, I would say the people business is definitly a large factor. You want to get a good tutor, ask around to see who knows the best tutor for the class? You want X? ask XYZ in network to get X. Of course, this is a double edged sword. There is the point of view from the person who is looking for X, and then the perseon that is giving X.
Why would that person give X to you? Do they owe you? Are you both good friends? Does he have your back on that matter? Is he trying to suck up to you? Is he doing this for a different matter entirely? At this point, from what I've seen, the majority of people are still working on making their own little networks while mine is almost entirely in place. Therefore, a lot of their goals are more simplistic than mine.
For example, I befriended this pick up artist to see how he got laid. He is a heavy stoner and already ran out of money before the first week was over on weed. So now he uses his network to get weed every day. It's a pretty big charity case. Only he knows if he will be able to be more disciplined about his money use with weed or if it will end his college career.
Despite what kind of person he is, I still made friends with him because he has a particular trait of being a good pick up artist. If I had to estimate, I would say I've given this guy about 25$ worth of free weed. He has paid me back in green for the most part, but I am basically that guy who he wants as a part of his network because I am never dry, but that is for a different discussion entirely.
Now, I can go up to him, say whats up hows it going, and join in on the conversation. If he is gaming a woman, I help him out by assuming a wing man kind of role in the conversation. Ultimately though I basically get to observe at a close distance. Its a great learning experience
I guess I've rambled off enough this sunday afternoon. I should probably get out now because I have a bunch of stuff that needs to be taken care of
