So I started up a new semester here at Florida State University (I tried UF but fell short of the psych department’s 3.5 GPA req, mine was 3.49. Oh well) and I must say that it's been a pleasant experience so far. It’s not like I’m a freshman, I transferred in as a junior after finishing a community college up in Maryland and graduated with an AA (I lived in Florida before and I decided to come back cuz I’m in this prepaid program thing). I can easily see where things can get overwhelming for some because it can be a big shift to be on your own and having to take care of nearly everything by yourself. I’m lucky enough to have my parents cover the costs and I won’t brag about it because I certainly know that I would be on the verge of a nervous breakdown having to work multiple minimum wage jobs trying to fund all of this by myself, you guys who do that sort of thing are seriously something else and I hope you all can keep pulling through.

Anyways, I’m two weeks in now and my classes are not bad at all. Paying attention in class is no longer an issue for me because the perks of being this far in my undergraduate studies is finally being able to have classes, that are pertinent to my major, make up the majority of my schedule. I don’t live on campus so I’m not involved yet in the on-goings in FSU. I don't have many large classes, a couple of 60's-70's, and then one 220 or so large class. Being in a large class isn't really scary, it's just easier to blend in. For now I just go to classes and then leave the campus, but I think I’ll join an honors psych society just to see what that’s all about.

On the personal life side of things I have become more used to being on my own and preparing my own meals, my experience of being a line cook at the local restaurant at where I used to live at is really paying off now. I live less than a mile to campus so I'm making it a habit to jog to all of my classes and only taking the bus at night or if I'm running late. The apartment I’m in has 2 other roommates who tend to keep to themselves which is fine by me, I’m introverted to an extent. The guy across the hall though is way further on the introversion scale because I’m only reminded of his existence when I can hear him yelling party commands in what I’m guessing is World of Warcraft.

That reminds me, on the entertainment side of things I am grateful for making the switch to PC because I have basically everything I need in this desktop even though my free time has now dramatically decreased. My PS3 is at home and my 360 is still disconnected somewhere in here. As someone who is 21 I realize I can take advantage of a whole lot of parties but that’s not really my scene. I lost the appeal in drinking very early (17-18) and I realize that the only thing I would enjoy doing, even more so with others, would be to just smoke weed and enjoy movies and music with friends or on my own. I don’t plan on doing that either because I always stay sober during class time. I might smoke up again when spring break comes around.

As for negatives, there’s not much. You gotta be careful when going out late at night, apparently someone got shot nearby over a prostitution scam that robbed customers (not even making that up)…so basically just don’t be stupid. I have people who live below me who are of the idiot frat variety because they threw multiple late parties with loud shitty music. Good thing I invested in studio headphones. It’s still way early and even though they pulled that crap on weekdays I’ll be lenient…for now. Not only that but I walked into my apartment recently to the faint suspicious smell of something very dank. It looked like the geniuses downstairs think that hotboxing the bathroom with the vent on will clear out the smoke. The only thing that bothers me more than loud, obnoxious drunks are retarded stoners and luckily for me they just so happen to be both. If they do something dumb along those lines again I'll just go ahead and call the cops. Yeah, I'm going to be that guy.

So that’s pretty much it for now, I just decided to do this for no reason other than to delay reading a chapter for my bio psych class, it felt good just to sum up my first impressions on this change in my life. Thanks for reading or not reading.

Before last semester was out I'm very sure the calendar for my school showed that the first day of school would be January 22. Went to look over my classes this afternoon to find out that school had actually started today and I missed one of my classes. Kind of annoying.

Cool post. Yeah, I have been down with college for a couple of years now. I lived on campus in the dorms and then in a house with a bunch of roommates. IMO, try and find a group of people you can hang out with, or see if your other (non-warcraft) buddy wants to hang out. You don't have to do much, marathoning through TV-on-DVD seasons while ordering out chinese was always a cool thing to do on weeknights when you wanted some time to just decompress after class, but still need to get some work done later at night. Sunday-Fundays we would watch football, drink beer and draw in coloring books (one of the girls was going to school to be a grade school teacher, so she always had those things around). We would even do dinner once a week from like 5 until 7 and just sit outside, play cards and grill out on the patio, after the dishes were washed and whatever, everyone would kind of just retire on dinner night, and that would be are kind of catch up night for studying or sleeping.

Like you, I was not much of a frat person and kept partying basically to fridays or saturdays... I would rarely party hard on both days, but I did make sure I did go out, socialize, drink, make friends, ect.

And yeah, good luck with the people downstairs. I kind of had the same thing where I wanted to study sometimes on sunday nights or during the week and they would have music going. It helps to have more than you saying something to them about it. Like don't gang up on them, and don't become super pesty, but on weeknights, just keep it generally quiet most of the night, especially after 8 or 9 pm and I was good. Our house kind of worked out schedules and got used to each others sleeping (and mid-afternoon napping habits, lol), so I would keep it down when I came home from class in the afternoon when Linds would be napping, and she would be like pretty quiet at 6:30am when she had to wake up.

My best advice, moderation. Just keep everything kind of in check every once and again, an you will have a good time. And keep the videogames to a minimum. I kind of already phased out of my game-playing days a few years before college, so it was not a big deal, but dont play WoW like you buddy in that room all the time. Heck, even try to get him involved in house activities and going out. I did have my playstation at school and would play in down time, but my game time was basically what it is now... like maybe 3 hours or so a week. Some weeks I would play a bit more, other times I would go a few weeks without playing at all. Like I said, just enjoy it.

Don't call the cops on the dudes downstairs. They got the dank hookup.

At 4am I wouldnt care if I snitched on a bunch of inconsiderate assholes.  I can act like an asshole at night but at least Im considerate of the neighbours.  

Hopefully Ryan Davis isn't walking by while your lighting up and twitters the smell. Narc.

@McGhee said:

Before last semester was out I'm very sure the calendar for my school showed that the first day of school would be January 22. Went to look over my classes this afternoon to find out that school had actually started today and I missed one of my classes. Kind of annoying.

You're lucky you didn't do that here cuz they have a mandatory first day policy where you're dropped if you're absent the first day of class.

@WickedCobra03: I talked to the other guy and he's alright, I'll talk to him some more when the weekend comes. The video game guy is more bothered by the noises downstairs than me, I'm used to the vibrations cuz I used to have a 5.1 sound system plus sub that could vibrate my whole 4k square foot home and I always listen to music with my headphones so I never notice the noise most of the time. And yeah, the main thing about living on your own is simply having good time management, I'm getting hang of it.

@frankfartmouth said:

Don't call the cops on the dudes downstairs. They got the dank hookup.

Nah, my friend in south Florida has some ridiculous hook ups that I doubt the smart guys downstairs would have shit that could compare, maybe, but like I said before I tend to not smoke during class time. I'll get some bud again when I go down south to see friends.

@the_OFFICIAL_jAPanese_teaBAG: Yeah, I tend to be a heavy sleeper so I would have slept through it but I keep unnatural sleeping habits so I was already up at that time and hearing glass shattering and the sound of people unable to hold their shit from intoxication is just annoying.

@I_Stay_Puft said:

Hopefully Ryan Davis isn't walking by while your lighting up and twitters the smell. Narc.

Haha.

@I_Stay_Puft said:

Hopefully Ryan Davis isn't walking by while your lighting up and twitters the smell. Narc.

Yeah man, Fuck Ryan Davis! That dude Narc'd me out for trying to hot box it up with some hunnies!

@Colourful_Hippie said:

@McGhee said:

Before last semester was out I'm very sure the calendar for my school showed that the first day of school would be January 22. Went to look over my classes this afternoon to find out that school had actually started today and I missed one of my classes. Kind of annoying.

You're lucky you didn't do that here cuz they have a mandatory first day policy where you're dropped if you're absent the first day of class.

The fuck? How is that even a useful policy, since like 1/3 of people change classes the first few weeks anyway? Even in college barely anything happens the first day anyway besides getting your syllabus. I'm curious how they'd even enforce that in a 500 person class...

My university (York in Toronto) is scary. It's like the rape capital of the city, I wouldn't even think of going there if I was a woman. The emails reporting crimes don't stop coming cause they put the damn place next to our city's worst neighborhood. Which is a double whammy because when I'm not at school I live next to the 2nd worst neighborhood in town.

I'm glad I don't have to deal with loud frat parties and such at my house. I do have to deal with scum who don't flush the toilet all the way after dropping deuces and jerks who won't clear their dishes from the sink.

My condolences.

@MarkWahlberg said:

@Colourful_Hippie said:

@McGhee said:

Before last semester was out I'm very sure the calendar for my school showed that the first day of school would be January 22. Went to look over my classes this afternoon to find out that school had actually started today and I missed one of my classes. Kind of annoying.

You're lucky you didn't do that here cuz they have a mandatory first day policy where you're dropped if you're absent the first day of class.

The fuck? How is that even a useful policy, since like 1/3 of people change classes the first few weeks anyway? Even in college barely anything happens the first day anyway besides getting your syllabus. I'm curious how they'd even enforce that in a 500 person class...

You're telling me, and it's pretty clear cut. The teacher would call out names or in cases of bigger classes make you turn in a signed paper and if you're not there then that's it.

@Enigma777 said:

My condolences.

All my classes are in the recently built psych building they have which is pretty nice actually. The old district in campus is just shit though, my main bummer about not getting into UF is that I liked the area a lot more than here. Maybe I'll try again for my graduate studies.

My last semester (unless I decide to go back for something else, which is definitely a possibility ) I'm not sure I could be less motivated. Ugh. So ready for a break.

@TooWalrus: I ended up taking a semester off after graduating from the 2 yr college. I was nervous starting up again after taking such a long break (summer + fall) but I got right back into the swing of things. I don't regret taking the break.

@Colourful_Hippie: As a Seminole Alum, welcome to the family. If you ever get interesting in grabbing a drink, go to Bullwinkles. They're stricly 21 and up and its a shit show. Anything I can do to help, let me know. I graduated in 2009, so I guess I'm not too far removed from my FSU days.

@Seauton: Thanks a lot, I'll be sure to check it out sometime.