Hey.
My name is Paige. I am a freshman at the University of Arizona. Here most freshman come into college at the age of 18 and than on average stay in school for about 4 years. Then they graduate and go and make money doing something that they want to because they have the education to do so. This is my goal. I would like to graduate in less than 4 years, and get into the psychology field. I would like to be a psychologist. Sometimes I can get a little discouraged because college life isn’t easy. When kids out here ( in the United States) go to college it means they, most times, leave most things that they’re familiar with and go to a completely different world. I’ll explain myself.
Well, I can explain my situation. I didn’t leave very far. My home is only about 2 hours from here and I usually go home every other weekend, but I still get very homesick because I live in a dorm and now have to do most things that I relied on family to do for me a few months ago. The dorms are very small rooms that I stay in with a girl that I know very little about, and just met at the very beginning of the school year. The dorms are similar to a small hotel room, but two people are supposed to live in them for the 9 months that school is in session. In my dorms, I actually have a bathroom that includes a toilet and sink that me and my roommate get to have to ourselves; this is not the case in most dorms. In most dorms, two people still share a small space, but they do not have their own bathrooms. Instead they have to use community showers and bathrooms. So if they want to use the bathroom, take a shower, or even brush they’re teeth the must go to a community bathroom, kinda like a public restroom. Everything is very expensive. The tuition to attend school here is thousands of dollars a year. Everything cost so much money. Books can cost hundreds of dollars, and students have to buy new books for each of there classes every semester. So that’s EIGHT TIMES before they graduate! Most things are done over the internet. English papers are both hand written and turned in on a website. Some students have quizzes to take online, and some students have very important tests over the internet. So, if I didn’t have a computer I would have to use the campus computers for EVERYTHING. College students here generally eat fast food more because they are away from home and there is no one to cook for them here but themselves. So, if you don’t know how to do simply things that you should by the time your eighteen, you will learn them here. For instance, I didn’t know how to do my laundry before school started, because my mom always did it for me. This is a bad thing. So, I had to just learn how to on my own. Even though, it seems like we are just thrown here and don’t really know what we’re doing it is also fun too.
Whenever I don’t have homework, or I just would like to be with friends, there is plenty to do. Here at the University we have plenty of clubs that are easy to join and extracurricular activities to do. Some people are on the many teams that we have on campus like football, girl’s and boy’s basketball, and softball just to name a few. These students get to play other college university teams all over the United States. And the students that aren’t on the teams go to these games and support their classmates and friends. Games are fun to go to! However, I haven’t found the time yet to be involved in any extra activities just because I have so much homework all of the time, but for people like me there are other things to do. There are other things down here called clubs, but they don’t have the same definition as those clubs in the previous sentence. This other kind of “club” it where young people go to have fun, dance, meet new people, and stay our late. Also, I can also go to the recreation center where there is a swimming pool, gym, and other fun stuff to do to get exercise. I can still go to the movies or rent a movie and watch it with a friend. Sometimes there are carnivals and fairs that come out here, that have rides and good food. In college here we also have sororities and fraternities. These are a group of college students that usually do tons of community service and help to relate students with other students like them. The sororities are what the girl groups are called, and fraternities are the names of the boy groups. They represent brotherhood and sisterhood and sometimes it’s hard to get into these groups because they usually have initiation processes that consist of silly things that a pledge, or person trying to become an actual member of the group, must do to get in. Sometimes the group members make the pledges do things that are illegal or dangerous and this can be the bad part of each group. But once a student becomes a member of the group that they choose, it is a lifetime commitment. Even after they graduate, he or she will be able to meet people around the world in the same group and make life long friends. And of course, if anyone still feels that there is still nothing to do out here, students can go anywhere else that they’d like. Mexico is very close to us, so some students like to go visit Mexico, mostly so they can drink illegally and cheaper, but this is fun I guess. Also, California, which has plenty of fun parks like Six Flags, and Disneyland are about a six hours drive away. Some students also find it fun to visit places like this. Then, because our parents aren’t here, like they were before we got to college, we tend to make bad decisions, and have too much fun. But I’m sure you all make similar mistakes. And most of us learn from these mistakes and can then do better in college and learn how to have fun and also work hard in school. But, I’m still learning how to have fun and work hard. I stay home a lot, and try to limit my “partying.”
So how do you like college and what do you like to do for fun?


Sincerely, Paige