Cliche as it may sound, but high school and college are completely, entirely, purely, absolutely (and all those -ely words) different from each other.
College is like a teen-aged drama show where being a natural showoff and being a wallflower are – sometimes – considered perfectly normal. Cliques are everywhere. It is a survival of the fittest.
A typical first day in college goes like this; you go inside your classroom (maybe holding a map or something), sit, look at your classmates, and then approach the guy/girl sitting near you and talk like you two are in kindergarten. On the first week, you meet your first circle of friends. And having a circle of friends means having lunch buddies, CR chaperones, and may-I-copy-your-homework-because-I-forgot-mine classmates. But after the first month, things are starting to change.
Let me introduce to you, *drum roll* the five people you meet in college.
FIRST: The Recipient of Pinaka-kinaiiritahan Ng Lahat Award. A loudmouth. I strongly believe that in each and every freshman block section, there is this poor showoff who still thinks that he is in high school. He usually talks loud in order to get attention. He usually is the professor’s pet because of some weird reasons (well, we know that professors usually have not-so-good preferences). The presence of the feeling of irritation is very visible every time he is near you even though he is not even talking to you. And the feeling of being with your friends and looking at each other and smiling, like your minds have built-in Bluetooth or something that allow you to communicate with each other without words being spoken, is just wonderfully awesome.
SECOND: The Guy in Glasses. He may be a school organization officer, or a school paper writer, he usually is on the top of his classes. We usually see him inside the school cafeteria or the library, looking like Carrie Bradshaw. I am not generalizing them but most of them enjoy really simple things. They are usually the home-school-home guys, unlike some who are home-mall-school-mall-club-home guys. They are also very polite because you can borrow their homework at ease.
THIRD: Mr. Talent. People know him because he knows how to play the guitar, to skate, to draw and to doodle, to sing and to dance, to put his fist inside his mouth, to swallow a live rooster, or to walk in debris or fire. Whatever his talent is, there is no doubt that he is… well, talented. College is like a heaven of talented people. Of course, there are a lot of organizations in a school that help people to hone their skills and talents. If you are into music, then join the school’s chorale or band. If you’re good at sports, then look for open tryouts. If you are involved in drama, then the school theater is for you. And if you can eat a live rooster or swallow a sword, then join the… em, circus.
FOURTH: The ATM Card. Usually the leader of a barkada, he thinks that treating his friends to Starbucks or to the movie houses is the eleventh commandment. We may never know if he’s doing it the good way or the bad way, but at the end of the day it still seems that his wallet is a money machine.
FIFTH: The Hey-C’mon-Let-Us-Party-Like-It’s-The-End-Of-The-World Lad. Also a loudmouth. Of course, his all-night partying makes him high and upbeat. Anyway, what’s good about him is that he doesn’t really give a damn with teen-aged crap (or maybe that’s what we think) like love, drama, and other oh-it’s-so-sad stories. It’s like he’s an optimism-booster because of his lively aura. He may be a school basketball varsity player, or a mama’s boy, or even a natural stand-by, but whatever he is, he still smells like alcohol – sometimes.
As what I’ve said earlier, college life is like a typical teen-aged drama show. It is so diverse so you got to be versatile because you may never know, there might be chameleons around you. But nonetheless, college is !@#$%^& fun.
Who do you think you are?