Back to basics
Kate Sytnik is a fearless 18-year-old Russian studying Liberal Arts & Sciences. Embarked on a journey of self-exploration, she tries to make the most out of each day and have some fun along the way.
Yes, you swapped your coke with a bottle of vodka. You changed your diet from mommy’s home cooked meals to delivery pizza and döner kebab. But you are wrong if you think that that’s enough to call yourself a student.
What university life also brings is a transition to whole new and different mode of dealing with information and managing your workload, which can be fairly intimidating, to say the least. And the fog clouding up your brain after a party night is not likely to help.
Frist and foremost – something that you have probably tasted and chewed upon the deliciousness of it – there is no control. There are no more teachers to supervise you and your homework progress. Yes, the homework is still inevitably popping up on that last irritating slide of the Power Point, but whether or not to actually do it is completely up to you. The only check that is placed is an exam and even then – if you want to fail, be the Exam Board’s most welcome guest, as long as you are ready to take the responsibility.
Yet another overwhelming aspect is the size of the workload. It’s not like you can solve your 20 equations for tomorrow’s Math lesson and go peacefully watch the Simpsons while sipping on your warm Chocomelk. Out of the astonishing variety of concepts that, we as students, have to master, “peace” is the most foreign one.
To wrap up the candy, the chasm that used separate you, a little scared child, and teachers at school in all of their grandeur, got a tad smaller. Even though you still have to be respectful to your professors, you can now also e-mail and call them to have some personal attention and get your burning questions of life and death answered. Don’t be afraid to approach those quirky academics, there are many cool guys among them. They just know how to hide it.
From my experience, this liberation might be an overwhelming poison. As they day, there is nothing as limiting as the freedom of choice. But on the other hand, once you plunge into this whirpool of what’s called ‘adult life’, it feels incredibly good to be the captain of your own ship. Still, there are good days and bad days, but I am going for the second option as much as I can. What about you?
