May 2003

Adjusting to Life Away from School
By Nathan Stal

As May arrives again, another school year ends. For a few brief days the partying ends, and in its place people cram as if these things called finals were some of the finest things in life. Then, in return for all this work, a piece of paper defines your accomplishments with a simple "A" (who are we kidding, a simple "B," "C," or "D" and hopefully not anything else). Then comes the strange part. Finals are over, which means school is out for the summer. Or, if you are Alice Cooper, school's out forever.

The end of the school year can be a very difficult time. Some people stay at school for something called "Summer School." This is handy because it involves very little adjustment. The biggest shock for these people is the fact that most college towns tend to clear out during the summer. That means the joint that used to be packed every Thursday is now cluttered with a few grad students who think they are the coolest kids in town.

Other people make the journey back home to live with the folks. These people tend to find summer jobs and maybe even sign up for a government or history class at the local community college. Adjusting for these people constitutes a much greater task. Not only do they have to deal with a lower concentration of college students, but they also have to deal with the presence of parents and a world that seems to work in a different time zone.

Those who have done their "time" in college and have decided to become permanent members of the "real world" make up the final group. The real world is in quotes because the working world is no more real than college; it just plays by a different set of rules.

If you are a member of the first group, take advantage of this time during the summer to get things out of the way. That way you can make the most of the fall and spring semesters when opportunities for stereotypical college activities become more abundant. For those of you in groups 2 and 3, pay attention. The smoother you can make the transition from college to summer away from college the better.

Living with the parents

After spending nine months away from the parental nest, I promise you have developed habits which do not work as well at home. The most obvious of which is probably the schedule you operate on every day. They average college student stays within normal hours of those living three time zones to the west. You won't be expected to adapt instantaneously and completely to your parents' schedule, but a few small steps in that direction will go a long way.

A good example of this would be making yourself available for dinner a few times a week. Also, instead of staying out until 2am 6 nights a week, cut it back to 2 or 3 nights. Ultimately your parents want to see you and spend time with you, and they don't want you to bother them outside of their normal waking hours, which coincidentally are the normal hours spent by people in your time zone.

Computers

High speed Internet connections in the dorms, 24-hour computer labs, friends online all day every day. Computer life at school is nice. Then you get back home and your folks are still running dial-up. God willing, they have a 56K modem, and you aren't connecting at 28,400 like I do at home. For many people, adjusting to slower and more inconsistent computer access can be difficult. Here's a few tips to get you started:

• If you want to download the trailer for the new Matrix movie, get online at night and let it download while you sleep. With any luck it will be there when you wake up.

• If you are making a CD, and you already have the song you want on another CD, take it from there instead of downloading it. Yes, with a broadband connection you can download it faster than you could even find the other CD, but it doesn't work the same on dial up.

• So you want to chat with you friends, all of them, at the same time. Cell phones can be handy for this. Most plans have blocks of time where you get virtually unlimited minutes. Coordinate your time appropriately. You can also take advantage of 3-way calling and party lines. Be careful with these if you are using your anytime minutes; you usually get charged minutes for every person you have on the call. Also, many phones now come with instant messenger features. That means you can chat with your friends who are online from your phone. (For more information on chat text messaging, visit www.vtext.com) Another disclaimer with this one, make sure you have a plan with enough free messages, or you could be racking up the charges. Also, learn to use the typing feature on the phone that predicts what you want to say. That way you don't have to hit the 7-button 4 times to say, "S."

Conclusion

There was a time when summers were the greatest thing ever. We had no responsibility, the weather was always nice, the water parks were open, and the outdoors called our name. By the time you get to college, all that is gone. You're expected to be more responsible year round. That means summer school and/or summer jobs. It means not getting to play outside whenever you feel like it.

If you haven't graduated yet, by the time August rolls around, you'll be ready to head back to school. If you are graduating in May, you'll still be ready to go back to school in August, but you won't get to. But do not go to grad school trying to prolong your college experience, it just isn't the same. Get a job, get your own place, and spring for the high-speed Internet access. It sounds pricey in the short run, but in the long run you're college friends still online all the time will be glad you did.

Nathan Stal

Note from GenXnowEditor . . . Nathan Stal has a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Texas. He has been in the working world for a semester, I mean, since January.