f someone had told me during my first year of high school that in just four years, I would be an entirely different person who was worried about paying for school and managing a real relationship, I would have laughed it off.
But college came and soon excitement and anxiety about a new life, away from home, masked any feelings of being unprepared. I forgot that the school of my choice cost more per semester than I made at work in two years’ time. I forgot that no one had really given me any heads up as to how college classes worked. I forgot that I would be responsible for my own laundry and time management.
The worst part about it: I am hardly the only student who feels this way. College is a notable culture shock in nearly any child’s life. So much changes when you begin to live in a dorm room, rather than your home, and are called a professional, as opposed to a kid.
And yet, little is done to prepare students for this taste of the real world. And approximately four short years later, another transition is supposed to be seamlessly made from college student to full-time adult.
Guess what? The current generation hasn’t being given the tools needed to make these giant leaps in their lives. 50 years ago, students worked to support their families, not for themselves, so they felt financial burden. They were generally given more responsibilities around their home and they could take complete care of themselves at a younger age. They understood the weight behind the word “adult” and knew that, at 18, they would become one.
I always think back to the stories about growing up in the ‘30s and wonder what it must have been like to hand your parents your measly paycheck, because they needed it more than you. Until sophomore year of high school, I came home, plopped onto my couch and watched television. I didn’t understand the money situation in our house, I didn’t come home to a list of chores. I thoroughly enjoyed being a “kid.”
I’m not proposing a reversion to the lifestyle of the ‘30s or even any drastic changes; I simply want to see fewer students blindsided by adulthood than I have. In high schools, classes and programs should be implemented to offer real world situations, because I can tell you from personal experience that the part-time job one holds at Burger King isn’t going to cut it. Colleges should do their part too and try to make the transitions, both into and out of the school, smooth. However, the most important changes that need to be made are in the home. Excessive coddling of students isn’t helping them enjoy childhood, it is preventing them from growing into adulthood. Everyone must mature in his or her own time, but expectations have been changed and we need to adapt to meet them or we will end up leaving the “adults” we haven’t properly prepared in the dust.
