This Christian College Student's Learned . . .

Living is a learning experience . . .

Especially at college.

I love thinking back to before I came to college. College, then, seemed like a big, scary world, where I would never be able to keep up.

Now I'm trying to keep up with college.

College kind of runs away with one thing, then another. First, ya gotta have that one crush. Yes, on that one person everyone else is crushing on. Then after you've grown up from that, you fall for your best-opposite-sex-best-friend. THEN you realize that you're Julia Roberts from My Best Friend's Wedding, take a semester off from all dating . . . and unfortunately, or maybe only occasionally, start the whole process over . . . unless you learn from your "mistakes." You've now decided that it's time to grow up, be mature, find a real man or woman.

Best advice I've heard so far: Don't settle. Opportunities don't end at Baptist Bible College. ESPECIALLY when the boy or girl pool is under 500 each, save the ones already taken.

Then there's the academics. Yes, that one part you wish you could go to college and not have to deal with, yet simultaneously the MAIN reason you came to college. I love how that works out. Freshman year, you're diligent - or the complete oppostite. You're usually one extreme or the other. This usually depends on how social you become in the first few weeks. I joined the nerds that year. And yes, my grades were good.

By sophomore year, you're either "seriously" dating that first lucky person, or you're looking. You make fun of the freshman. Why? Because you can. You're not that freshman that used to get labled as . . . FRESHMAN! So while you were a freshman, frustrated out of your mind for getting made fun of for your freshmanness - and yes, you knew you had that - you take advantage of EVERY situation to play jokes on your freshman roommate. Plus, you're a sophomore, the o-so wise one.

You still take naps as a sophomore. Maybe not quite daily like you did freshman year, but you find the time. This college thing isn't that bad after all. Why do those ridiculous upperclassman always complain anyways? Plus, you have to take time for Walmart's guitar hero and your group of 6 friends.

Junior year hits you. What's a nap? The dean's list actually requires you to WORK to earn it. Every weekend isn't party time. A job is no longer a money machine, it's a necessity. But your freshman roommate . . . you don't mind so much. You find out from all of your classes that you're not-so-wise afterall, and while your freshman roommate sleeps 2 hours a day and your sophomore roommate is crying over the boy from last week, you're remembering that you're at college TO LEARN!

The creepy part is, while you find yourself disgusted by the younger ones, you see yourself in them just last year or the year before. Maybe that's why I don't mind the underclassman so much. (Disclaimer to those I've complained to about the freshman!)

And you know what ONE thing that's been consistent throughout each year, empty refrigerator, bare portfolio, ripped bookbag, holy wallet, I-just-need-to-drive-somewhere-to-get-alone-but-am-driven-mad-by-all-the-khaki-pant-wearing-college-students?

Wal-mart.

Welcome to Christian College.