Tuesday, 25 February 2014

By Anum Shaharyar

Two Year Experience Of University Life  


The thing about describing a university experience is that you’re both at an advantage and at the same time at a loss. Your advantage comes from the shared experience; a greater percentage of your reader population has probably been, at one time or another, been in a university, and so you have an automatic portion of their feelings, their emotions, their memories clinging to your post. Unfortunately for you, because this experience is so common, it is also hard to say something which hasn't already been said before. Keeping that in mind, here’s how I know how to describe the two years of my life that have been spent gaining a university education:

1.            “Your university life will be the best time of your life.”
2.            “I’m going to University. I’m actually going to start university! This is going to be so exciting!”
3.            “Wow. That’s a lot of new faces. And opinions. People to impress. And weird clothing choices. Also, where the hell is my department again?”

4.            “Well. This isn’t exactly how I imagined it would be.”
5.            “Junk food! And more junk food. I could spend my whole life just eating in this place.”
6.            “Are we lost? I think we’re lost. Let’s ask someone where we are.”
7.            “Did you read the notes? I haven’t even bothered buying them yet.”
8.            “Let’s bunk this class. Someone will mark our attendance for us.”
9.            “Wow, I love this professor!”
10.          “Ugh, I hate this professor.”
11.          “Ugh heat. Ugh late classes. Ugh university.”
12.          “When are the mid terms? How come no one has any idea?”
13.          “Do you have any ideas? I don’t know anything either.”
14.          “Let’s attend this book fair. Let’s not attend that seminar.”
15.          “A bomb went off. There’s a clash going on in the lobby. I think someone died. I heard there’s a protest going on. Classes off tomorrow?”

16.          “What am I doing with my life?”
17.          “I think I’m going to fail this exam.”
18.          “Did anyone check the marks yet? Please, please, just tell me I passed.”
19.          “Oh God. Did you hear the names of the courses we’ve got for the next semester?”

20.          “So. Is your university experience turning out like you thought it would?”

1 comment:

  1. Nice read. Some day, I guess, I will share a teacher's perspective to convey a composite picture of what the whole damned thing is. While I blanket agreement with everything that has been said in the post, I do wonder if I will get paid in the same currency !

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