High School versus College

If you would've told me six months ago that I'd be dropped out of high school and be enrolled in college, I probably would've laughed in your face. Not just to be rude and make you feel like an idiot, but because the thought of dropping out of high school had never even crossed my mind. Sure, there were times when I bombed tests and thought it would be great if school just got abducted by aliens, but I had never actually thought of leaving. Then, after a long streak of trouble, not learning anything, problems with some people who liked to run their mouths, and just being bored in general with the school atmosphere, I decided to leave.

After dropping out, my mom made sure that I was enrolled at Coastal Bend College, taking fifteen full hours of classes. (Isn't she a sweetheart?) So now that I've spent approximately six weeks in college, I have basis for comparison between high school life and life at college (Even if it is just a twoyear). First of all there are differences in curriculum, social life, money issues and many other things. Sure high school is great when you're sixteen like me, but what about college? Two very different places I've had to make work for my benefit with many differences, both good and bad.

In high school, you learn the basics: reading, writing, and arithmetic, then you're forced to enroll yourself in a fine arts class and one extra elective. Colleges let you choose which classes you take for the most part, but there are classes that you're forced to take for graduation or for a degree in your major. High schools are also extremely strict with their attendance rules: if you're caught out of class without a note from a teacher, a doctor's excuse, or a valid hall pass, it's to the office you go with a nice referral in your hand. If you choose to not go to class when you're in college, you won't get sent to the dean's office for skipping, you'll simply get a warning when you're on the brink of missing too much class and a little slip that says you shouldn't bother coming back when you hit over the limit of absences.

High school social life is something that most people cringe about when they sit and remember the socalled "best years of their lives". People talking about people who they're supposed to be best friends with, switching boyfriends and girlfriends every week, fights at the football games, smoking in the bathroom between classes, and many other acts of stupidity that we've all engaged in at one time or another. Not to say that college is any better; but college students are less likely to be running around, flapping their lips with gossip about one another. Reason being because they're more interested in their own lives (finally) and they've matured to the point where talking about someone just doesn't bring the satisfaction that it used to back in high school. Couples also start to get more serious in college, because some people are actually looking for a marriage partner instead of just someone to take to a dance somewhere. Your friends in college are your true friends, instead of just around because you're popular, because in college, you are who you are and there really isn't a select group of "popular" students like there is in high school.

Finally comes the issue of money. You write and scribble all over your books in high school and miss class the maximum number of days that you can, because you simply don't care. You could care less about going to class because you're already too smart for everything they teach in there, or so you think. Once you hit college, you realize two very important things: you or your family are the ones paying for your books, and they're also paying for your classes. Sure, you still miss class the maximum number of times, but this time around, you actually use your sick days when you're sick, instead of just playing hooky from a class you don't care for. As for your books, you make sure every page is smooth, straight, and unmarked, because if they do happen to get ruined, you won't get as much for them when you sell them back to the bookstore for someone else to use.

All in all, high school and college are two completely different places that require some maturity differences to handle. High school should be fun, free, and an experience that you'll look back on and laugh at because you had so much fun. College should be fun as well, but it should also be a time when you gain maturity and "sober up". You should really be thinking about the rest of your life as an adult and what you're going to do to make sure that your place in the world is going to be one that you'll enjoy being in. So, which do I prefer? They both have their good points, and they both have their downfalls, which makes it hard to choose. In my opinion, you should enjoy both to the best of your ability, make the best of where you are presently, and work hard to prepare for the future.