College Edition: What's Kind of Freaking Me Out

So, I had my graduation party last Saturday, and my parents gave me three books about getting acclimated to the various parts of college.  One of the books in question is called "How to Survive Your Freshman Year" by hundreds of Students and Some Great Advisors.  As I'm reading this book, there are a few things that are kind of freaking me out when I wasn't freaked out about going to college before.  So I thought that I would make a list out of it!

1. The Amount Of Drinking and Drug Use That Is Mentioned.  I'm not much of a party person.  I would much rather stay in with a small group of people and watch a movie or even go out for dinner.  This whole drinking and party scene is going to be one of the biggest culture shocks for me-- that is, if one really exists on my campus.  I've been lucky enough to have picked friends who aren't interested in drinking or doing drugs and my exposure to this kind of scene is limited to my adventures in France.  And I didn't even take part.  I was too scared to function.

2. The Roommate Nightmare Stories.  I think that I'm very lucky to have a little prior knowledge about my roommate since we've traveled together and we went to school together, but what if there's a third girl in our room?  What if she turns out to be some kind of nightmare child whom we end up babysitting half of the time?  This book contained stories about people who had to have five or six roommates before finally, someone was a good fit.  I don't want to have to go through that.

3. Time Management.  I've always been very terrible at this.  Sure, I get things done and I've managed, thus far, to maintain a Good Student status.  But I've read, many times over, that college is different because there are a few large, very meaningful assignments rather than hundreds of insignificant ones.  So I know that there will be more work that I need to do.  Leaving everything until the last minute is not going to be an option any more.  What am I going to do?

4. Balancing Everything.  Sleeping, socializing, studying... maybe this will come more easily than I think, but the theory that these are all things I will have to maintain, just as I have had to maintain most of my life, is a little scary.  Have you ever played Sims?  It's a little stressful making sure they don't have to pee, aren't hungry, aren't sleep deprived, have enough social interaction... it's exhausting making sure that they have all of these things.  That's what is feels like to be facing this challenge, even if it hasn't posed much of a challenge in the past.  Everything is different now, somehow.

I guess I made this list in the hopes that someone will commiserate or will volunteer advice or kind words to let me know that I'm overreacting (I hope!).

Thanks for reading and for helping!

--Jude