LXXI: A Couple Of Things That I Wish College Bree Would Have Done?

College, for me was not all that it could have been, but, don’t get me wrong, it was still great! However, there were a couple of things that, looking back, I wish I’d done:

LIVE ON CAMPUS

Let’s start with the reason why I emphatically said, ‘NO’ to living on campus in the first place:

So my undergrad university had an open house where incoming students come to campus before school starts and sleep in the dorms to get to know each other. The idea was that the people around us would be our classmates for the next 4-to-forever years.

So, my dad drops me off at the campus for this night of fun and interaction, and I’m excited and ready to go! Just kidding, do you even know me! I didn’t want to get out of the van!

He finally convinces me to get out and we all gather in the game room. You know, put us there so that we think that this will be a fun experience. At this point, people are chatting, laughing and looking around. Everyone links up and I find the people who share similar loves as I do — I bond most with those also hovered around the food table.

After that we’re given a tour and are told to shower and go to sleep. They take us to the shower room which, to my surprise, was a room with showers in it! Showers, but no doors! No shades! No dividers and no mats on the floors to protect our bare feet from germs!

So, the next morning, when I woke up in the comfort of my own bed [at home], I decided that that was where I belonged. And throughout my years at my undergrad, that was where I remained. I was completely turned off to the whole “living on campus” deal.

But, I do wish that I’d experienced living on campus because I saw so many bonds being built just by living in close proximity to those within your own cohort. College is just lenient enough that you are able to create relationships with people while partying and still manage to pass all of your classes, so I should have taken more advantage of the on-campus life while I was a student.

EXPLORE MORE

I have lived in the same city since leaving high school ten years ago, but, honestly, I still know nothing about this city.

I have only become interested in learning more about this city because of my love for photography, but I do wish that I would have explored it more while I was in college.

There’s something much more fun about seeing the world through young, impressionable eyes than through my now older and cynical ones.

So, I definitely wish that I would have explored the city during my college years and with the people who were in my life at that time.

STUDY ABROAD

I am pretty sure that I thought that travel outside of the states was just out of my reach during college.

Of course nowadays I know that there are literal programs made that help you through the “study abroad” process from start to finish with funding and packing, roommates, etc.

Unfortunately for me, however, I went into college with everything set already: I had a best friend, I had the boyfriend, I hung out with my family at every chance, and because my boyfriend lived in a different city, I spent my time either preparing for him to drive up or driving down to where he was.

I just didn’t see a need to spend a ton of weeks away from what was already so cozy and so comfy. But, of course, NOW I regret not going! Not that I can’t just book a trip and go, it just won’t be the same these days!

TRAVEL MORE

Now, because I was a military spouse for a while, I did have the opportunity to travel a bit. But, I didn’t start taking the bigger trips until I was out of undergrad.

I am glad that I did start to travel, but I wish that I would have learned how to travel back when I was taking those smaller trips and not during the bigger, across-the-pond trips that I was taking post-undergrad.

Learning how to travel simply means: knowing how to find the best flight deals (or packages), figuring out which hotels I prefer, knowing the best days to book flights, knowing the best days to take off and land, knowing what times of the year to go where, how to pack for long travel, how to pack for short travel, etc.

These are things that I’ve only recently began to learn that I really could have benefited from knowing on trips like Paris, for instance. So, I definitely wish that Undergrad Bree would have just booked more flights, stays, and vacations. I’m sure she deserved it!

TRY A LITTLE BIT HARDER

Clearly, there were classes that I had to put more effort into than others, but, for the most part, I don’t feel like I really truly tried in college.

Why? The answer is beyond me! Why don’t I try now? And I’m still in school!

While I was there, I literally just wanted to do enough to pass and maintain what little sanity and “life” I had. Looking back, however, I completely see that college was a joke compared to Grad School and I definitely had the time to put real effort into my education (regardless of my forever-feeling that I am just an average student).

So, boom! There you have it. College Bree was fun and definitely had fun, but there was always more that she could’ve done that definitely would have shaped some of the experiences that I have today.