Chris Brooks Blog Post

Growing up, you hear a lot of things about college: from how it's going to be the most fun time of your life, to how difficult the work is going to be, to how hard it is to live on your own for the first time, to how great the freedom is, to how nasty communal bathrooms will be. In fact, you hear so much about it that you create this fantasy world in your head of what it’s all going to be like, and you become excited about this new frontier that you’ve yet to explore. For—at least—a year of your life all you ever think about is how magical college is going to be and how you’re going to hit the ground running.

That is until you get there and you’re all unpacked, and you watch from your dorm room window as your parents pull off of Hemenway Street and begin to make the 250-mile trek back home to New Jersey you think to yourself, “I don’t feel any different than I did the day before.”

It’s incredibly likely that it’s only because I’m just a weirdo who thinks their life is a Spike Lee movie, but the greatest thing I’ve learned in these past seven months is not to over-sensationalize everything and enjoy the little things life has to offer. I’m still not entirely sure what I was expecting to be in college to feel like, but it definitely wasn’t what it actually ended up being. And that’s not to say there’s anything wrong with that. My fantasies about college life weren’t any better than reality, just different.

I really enjoyed my first year of college, and not because it was this extraordinary place that fulfilled my every expectation the second I stepped on campus. Rather, it was the culmination of all these little moments that made my freshman year so memorable. All the times eating the subpar dining hall food in Steast, waking up at 6:00am for morning practices, riding around Boston on my bicycle, staying up late cramming for exams with my roommate, spending time with the people I won’t forget, are what made me enjoy my college experience.

 College life is really just that: life. You take it day by day, roll with the punches, and make the most of what it gives you. Personally, I believe there’s real beauty in that. Way more beautiful than anything I could’ve come up with.

It's been real, yall. Stay safe and be easy.