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College Life – Conversation Lesson

AJ: Yeah, so I’ve been talking to my cousin recently and, y’know, he’s in school and he’s been telling me about some of his experiences in college and it was bringing back a lot of memories of my time at university.

And, yeah, it was a great time in my life. I really, I’ve got a lot of great memories of going off to school. And I think it’s great because it’s a time in your life when you’re… you’ve got freedom, you’re away from your parents, but then you don’t really have any responsibility.

You’re not working a full-time job. You don’t have a career. If you’re lucky, your parents are paying for it or at least helping you pay for, or loans, or something. So you… it’s kind of like a lot of freedom without much responsibility and lots of like a whole new world and, yeah, it was a great time for me.

Kristin: Yeah, yeah, you’re right. Y’know, I had a little bit different experience because I stayed at home my first two years and drove to a little community college, like 30 minutes from where my parents lived.

So even though I was starting to… y’know, they were giving me more freedom, obviously, because I was technically in college. But it still wasn’t the same as you going away and living on campus somewhere, because I was still living at home with them, my first two years.

AJ: Mm-hm.

Joe: Yeah, there’s a huge difference between going away to college, or I guess what they say, commuting to college. I mean that’s what we used to call it at least.

AJ: Hm.

Joe: But if you commute to college and you’re staying at home, it’s kind of like just an extension of high school. But if you actually go away to college, it’s totally different.

It’s the first time that you’re on your own, away from your parents, so you have your own time schedule, y’know? There’s no curfew or anything and you’re responsible for doing your own work.

I mean you have to have your own schedule in place and there’s really a lot of freedom that you’re given that you just wouldn’t get if you stayed at home or you didn’t get when you were in high school.

Kristin: Yeah, that’s funny you say if you stay at home and commute it’s like an extension of high school, because Gainesville College where I started out going my freshman and sophomore year, the freshman year, the first year was considered the 13th grade.

That’s what people would say, like if you… “Oh, you’re staying and going to Gainesville College? Oh, you’re just going to be in the 13th grade.”

But yeah, once I transferred over to Athens and started my junior year and finished my senior year at UGA, it was great. I had such a fantastic experience.

And so, y’know, I bypassed living in a dorm. I went straight to living in an apartment, had a roommate, and just suddenly had more responsibility, which was good. It made me grow up a little bit more, but also so much more freedom then. I loved it.

AJ: Yeah, I loved, I loved going to Georgia as well and I liked going to a big school. Y’know, there’s a big difference I think between the experience of going to a large university like I did and like you did for your last two years, or a smaller private one.

Like my sister, she went to a small private college. I mean her college I think had fewer students than my high school did, because I went to a really big high school.

Whereas, y’know, UGA has, I don’t know, 20,000 or more students and I loved that. There were so many cool clubs and organizations and so many awesome classes and interesting topics. Like for me it was so stimulating.

I hated high school and I was instantly, y’know, thrilled as soon as I arrived on campus at Georgia because there was just so much to do. It was amazing.

Joe: Yeah, I went to a small private school like your sister did and the experience of the life on campus must have been drastically different from what you guys had.

I mean you’re describing like all these different clubs and stuff like that. That definitely wasn’t a part of my campus life and I know that where you guys went to school, sports was just a big, big draw for the town and for the school.

I mean, yes, we did have a football team and people used to go to the football games and tailgate, but it was nothing like what you guys would see. I remember being in Columbus, Ohio, where the University of Ohio is, on a day when they had a football game, and the place was jam-packed with people. I mean it was crazy.

Now, on a Sunday… on a Saturday, excuse me, when Lehigh University had a football game, you wouldn’t even notice that there were more people in town.

Kristin: Y’know, I was… I’m not a big sports person, but yeah, football was definitely big at UGA. But I think football in the south is pretty big anyway and I didn’t come to realize that until I met you actually, Joe, because you weren’t into it and I couldn’t understand.

I thought that… I don’t know, I just thought all of… college football was like popular nationwide.

Joe: Yeah, it’s college football that’s really big in the south. And I mean football’s big in the United States all over, but in the south specifically, it’s college football and there’s a lot of large universities so it’s about their football programs.

Kristin: But something else that I really liked, once I transferred over to UGA, and with it being a huge school there was just so much diversity as in people.

Like suddenly I felt like there were so many different kinds of people I was exposed to. And I just, I love that. Not just undergrads, but a lot of my TAs, graduate students, were from so many different countries.

Joe: Mm-hm.

AJ: Yeah, yeah, lots of… a variety of, in terms of international students, and also just people from all over the state or the region, especially.

I just loved it because it just, I felt like that, at that school, a really large school like that you could, anyone could find their own little niche, y’know?

It didn’t matter if you were kind of like a, y’know, a geeky science person or you’re really into sports or you’re like a frat and sorority person. There was sort of a little niche for everybody at the big school and that’s what I loved because I loved just exploring all those things.

Joe: Yeah, you see, I definitely didn’t get that. One of the great things about where I went to school though was that it was so close to so many big cities in the northeastern part of the United States.

So what I mean is Lehigh University was about an hour and 20 minutes from New York City. It was about an hour and 25 minutes from Philadelphia, y’know, a few hours from Washington, DC, five hours from Boston.

So one of the things I liked to do in college was to go see my favorite band play concerts. And they would play in these big cities that were all around the northeast part of the United States. So that was something that was great for me.

But what I wanted to mention to you guys is not only did you go to a big school but you also went to a school that was in a town that was pretty cool. I mean Athens, Georgia is a really kind of a neat place to go to school, I think, y’know?

Because I think you could go to a big school but not get the real experience that you guys got, because it wasn’t just that you went to a big school, it was the fact that Athens was a really cool spot to go to school also.

AJ: Yeah, I loved Athens. I think that’s why I got stuck there after school. I stayed a while because, yeah, you mentioned sort of big cities and bands, but Athens also had quite a strong music scene but it was lots of little local small bands, little clubs and things around the town.

I mean the band REM started there and the B-52s, but there were lots of other bands that no one’s ever heard of that were really popular.

So there was a whole music scene there and it’s kind of a funky little artsy town, lots of artists, lots of musicians. Yeah, it was a cool place. It was a great experience.