College vs. “The Real World”

Anyone in college hears a variation of the phrases “College isn’t real life” or “Wait until you get into the real world!” all too often. College certainly creates a sheltered lifestyle, safeguarding the majority of students from stresses like full-time jobs, paying their own insurance or phone bills, and so on. But if college students are consistently being told that they are not living real lives, where does that leave them? How the proclamation seems to directly contradict the other comment that college students are always told–that the four years are some of the most important and formative of their lives–adds to the puzzle. Those who have been through college or the workforce speak as though there is a harsh line between the two periods of time–you’re either here or there, across the finish line or still going. But, the implication fails to consider all of the things that are, in fact, real, just situation-specific to college life and being in your late teens or early twenties. There is no doubt that college provides a structure, but we, college students, aren’t simply playing hopscotch and skipping over all the bad parts. The branded “fakeness” of college life along with the weight of its role in shaping our lives creates a juxtaposition that makes me question what we are paying for? Working for? Growing towards? 

The implication that college is not real life minimizes the significance of things that happen during that time. It fails to consider what is hard and what is easy. If something is hard it’s not that hard, and what is easy is fleeting. Furthermore, some things seemingly get their “realness” because of the sheltered environment, and appear harsher than they would in a post-college world. There’s a sense of inescapability from yourself; you’re surrounded by people and opportunity, constantly confronted with choices. That being said, how could someone measure what was real in another’s life? Who was holding the scale?

After college, our relationship with the world will change; we will have to align ourselves to fit the moment and find new things to depend on for a sense of continuity and rhythm. There won’t be little plastic aliens in the drawer with the dish towels. The ‘Happy Birthday’ banner won’t remain hanging long after the celebration and the disco ball that hangs too high for the sun to hit it, but still holds the promise of shining altogether, will come down. Being in college is like being in a bubble, where everyone who is already free floating reminds us that it will pop. In eight months I would walk across the stage and everyone would see me come down to ground-level, out of the bubble and into the separate world that’s been presented as something like a grenade wrapped with a pink bow. Still, all that has happened and all that has reminded me of my place in the world will retain its meaning. I’ll take the disco ball wherever I go next, and it’ll remind me of the way it used to be, maybe this time around hanging low enough to get sunlight and reflect on to things in new ways.