SO YOU THOUGHT EXTENDED PERM TIME WOULD BE FUN?

"It’s Saturday! Can’t wait to chill in my room." (Wait, what?)

- Every student who isn't a freshman

Hello everyone! Hi again! I know, it’s been a long time and well, for those who were wondering if I had died- bad news- I haven’t. But hey! ‘Better late than never’, no? (Not always.)

Anyways, coming to the point, guess who’s in their second year of college? ME! I made it, I survived freshman year and here I am, two months into second year, and I must say… there is nothing similar between the two years.

Let’s start with college! In freshman year, everything seemed so amazing! WOW, COLLEGE! WOW, PEOPLE! WOW, CLASSES! WOW, TEACHERS! WOW, ASSIGNMENTS! And other things too- WOW, CLUBS! WOW, PARTIES! WOW, PLACES! WOW, LIFE!
Second year? OH GOD, COLLEGE! GOD… CLASSES! (In some cases- GOD… LACK OF CLASSES!) OH NO, PARTIES! OH NO,PEOPLE! OH MY GOD ‘EVERYTHING’, PLEASE GET OUT OF MY FACE!

Yes, I know- major difference! But no change is greater than the way you spend your time! I’m going to focus on that. Let me begin!

Well, in some universities, like mine, second year students and above have the privilege of an extension in perm time. Some colleges have the same curfew for all students, and some don’t have a curfew at all! Honestly, when I had a curfew of 9:30pm, I couldn’t stop cribbing, thinking that I could change my whole life if I had a better perm time! That was in my freshman year. In my second year, we no longer have to come back to our rooms at 9:30pm. We can stay out till 10:30pm! One hour extra, that’s all! More time equals more things to do, right? But suddenly, you don’t know what to do with so much time… like all the extra time you have, which is basically just an hour, will still manage to drive you crazy! You go all “Um, got to find new ways to spend this time! Got to put it to good use! So… let us parttyyyy!” Yes. That is the ‘good use’! In the first month, when you’re just back from home, you’re like “damn, now that I have time, I can’t go back early to the room and waste it, I’ve got to do something… anything!” And like you promised yourself, you do go out. You meet new people. You look at your juniors; you totally judge them. That’s probably because they are like 12345345234 times hotter than you are or ever will be. (I wonder what our seniors thought of us!) It’s worse when the juniors don’t care about your existence. We should matter, shouldn’t we? After all, they’re still embryos. Reality check- nobody cares. They get their shit together within two days.

Coming back to partying, you suddenly find all the places crowded with freshman year students, obviously excited about everything in life, and realization dawns upon you… “Oh my god, I’m no longer important!” Well, guess what? It’s true. So you eventually get bored and irritated of the noise, and you leave. And then you never feel like going back to place which was practically your home in freshman year.

I think being in the second year is the worst feeling ever. The freshmen become the centre of attraction- it’s like childhood again; they’re the shiny new toys. And you have your seniors; the final year students who suddenly become so important because they’re somehow running half the college now. And what do you become? You are the second born child (Is that even a thing? I don’t know how to put it!)… I think that explains everything.

By second year, you find a way to deal with stress and assignments and other bullshit like that, and they no longer drive you crazy like they did in the first year. Not that the work load is any less, it’s just that ‘completing it’ becomes more important that ‘giving your best’, and you scrape through it. Like, in first year, we usually go “oh man, exams are almost here! Gotta study! Gotta score well! Gotta top the class!” and other things like that! Second year? “Dude, exams are here! What marks would I need to pass? Okay then!”
Yes. Hopeless.
Of course, there are few who would prefer dying over getting a mediocre GPA, but… we’re not talking about them. We’re talking about humans.

In the first year, I think we focus on getting to know everything about the place and the people- so much, that we actually don’t end up seeing more than half of it! It’s only in the second year, that you’re used to doing things you almost always do, that you make time to do new things, see new places and actually go around meeting new people. You meet new people every semester. Friends change every semester. That’s life, face it! Eventually, you get introduced to new subjects and you realise that you’re actually interested in something else, and not the ‘life goal’ you came to college with. That shit will happen no matter what, because interests keep changing and so do people. Just make the most of everything you get.

You start putting your time into things that are more productive and not just ‘fun’ or ‘new’, is that what they call growing up? I don’t know (because if that is ‘growing up’, I’m clearly bad at it!). It’s still September. I guess we’ll know that by the end of this year!

Until then, let us survive college.

P.S: I miss high school.