Thursday, March 28, 2024

College life more than only studying, work

January 30, 2001

I realized something important this weekend. I forgot how to be a college student.

Well, OK, that’s a lie. I had no trouble remembering what it is my parents are paying MSU for me to do; I just forgot there’s more to it than that.

I forgot I’m supposed to be having fun, too.

I could by no means be called the most social person at this university. I’ve only been to three parties since I started here in Fall 1999. And while I’ve never been really big on going to parties, I’ve still had my share of fun.

Last year, I had a blast. Being that I had a single – and a nice big Brody Complex room, no less – my room was the social center of my circle of friends. A core group of five of us spent nearly every spare moment watching movies, playing heated games of Trivial Pursuit and laughing until we fell asleep on the floor.

But things changed. Last year we all had schedules that allowed us to study during the afternoon, which left evenings and weekends open to do as we pleased. However last semester, both my roommate, Emily, and I had schedules that kept us out of our room for about 12 hours each day.

Emily is a music education major and was in class more than her credits showed. On top of that, she worked 12 hours a week. I had morning and evening classes, sandwiching my internship at The State News.

By the time we got home each night, we had only about enough time to get the most pressing studying done before we fell asleep, exhausted.

By the time the weekend hit, we spent most of our time sleeping in a vain attempt to make up for the lack of it Monday through Friday.

The rest of our waking hours were spent finishing the homework we should have done during the week.

In the whirlwind of classes and work, we lost sight of one of the most important parts of college. These are supposed to be the “best years of our lives,” right? So what on earth were we doing?

This semester, we’re starting to get back on the right path. Emily, in an effort to decrease her stress, lightened her class load, and I, too, have a lighter load and a more stable position at The State News.

Though not a tremendous amount of extra time, we certainly have more than last semester.

Finally, this weekend, I realized how much fun I’d been missing. Despite getting rear-ended Friday and ending up with a nasty case of whiplash, this weekend was one of the best I’ve had in months.

Saturday night, after a long, arduous day of depleting the clearance racks of local stores, Emily and I hatched a plan.

We would have our boyfriends over for pizza and just hang out. Still stuck in I-have-no-time mode, I expected I’d have plenty of time to get a good chunk of Jane Eyre read after we devoured the pizza, but fate had another idea.

Emily’s former roommate, Heather, called to see what we were doing. Being that we hadn’t seen Heather very much this semester, we immediately invited her to our little party. And let me tell you, Heather made all the difference.

It was just like last year all over again. Five people sitting on the floor, having fun. Somewhere along the line, someone suggested we play The Dating Game. That turned into who-knows-the-most-about-each-person, which turned into a gigglefest long into the night.

Besides finding out how good, or bad, a friend I am and learning more about my friends, I realized there’s a lot more to college than studying and work. You have to have fun, even if it means a few hours of sleep forgone here and there.

Besides, what good are the “best years of my life” if they’re not spent having fun?

Michonne Omo, State News opinion writer, is skipping work to play The Dating Game with her friends. Tell Omo her whiplash will improve at omomicho@msu.edu.

Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.

Discussion

Share and discuss “College life more than only studying, work” on social media.