Friday, May 15, 2009

University Life...

Yeah, yeah, I know...I'm not very good at updating. Sorry.

I have tons of things to talk about, just not enough time to write about it! And now that I finally have a bit of time, I forgot what I wanted to write about. Oh, wait, no, I remembered. Please keep in mind that I started writing this at 5 a.m., so chances are, half of it will not make sense and/or be grammatically incorrect. I apologize in advance.

I've discovered that there are two types of people (well, there are a million types of people, but for the sake of this blog right here, we're going to say there are two types...just go with me here); there are people who actually felt a strong connection with the university or college they attended and there are people who didn't. I'm in the people who didn't category. This is not to say I didn't feel I "belonged" or anything, I just don't feel as strongly towards it as others.

I was perusing Facebook this morning, and I noticed that there was a group made called "I Miss My Trent Friends." It got me thinking. I don't have any "Trent Friends." I went to Trent for four years. I met lots of people during that time. None of them are "Trent Friends." They're just friends. Or aquaintances. But they're not specific to the university. And then I thought, "Did I not experience university the right way?" And the answer is: Maybe.

Not that I had a bad experience of university by any means. The difference was, however, I never lived in residence and I never lived with roommates. In my first year of unversity, I lived at home with my parents. Saved money and I didn't have to share bathrooms with an entire floor of strangers (Not feeling like I missed out on anything with that, I'll tell ya!). After first year I got married and moved in with my husband. Avoided the roommate from hell issue (although sometimes that's debatable, ha ha).

I never lived like a student. I didn't have the old, brown and orange tweed hand me down chesterfield (do people still call couches chesterfields? I feel it's only appropriate to call them that when they're from the 60's) that would "do for now," since people would just be drinking and passing out on it. I didn't have that one roommate who would do her share of the chores (oh wait, I had that husband who didn't do any of the chores! Kidding...he did the dishes...once). I never wore pajamas to class, because my bedroom was 3 seconds from the lecture hall (I wore pajamas to class because I forgot to do laundry that morning and had no clean pants! Again, kidding...I think).

These experiences seem to be what many think make up a university experience. I never had them. However, I don't feel like I missed out on anything. I had a different university experience. One that didn't solely involve school. In fact, university seemed to be the background to my life, as opposed to being my entire life. My family and my job seemed to come first. And then, when I got around to it, came university life. I also found it funny whenever I mentioned the fact that I worked while going to university, many professors seemed shocked. I never realized that so many people didn't work while going to university. I don't know how they could afford not to! Even student loans don't cover everything.

It's just funny, how everyone sees things differently. Some cherish all their university memories. I cherish the memories I had while I attended university, but they don't necessarily involve the university. But I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.