Author: Pink Holographic Glitter

School can be a huge stressor for me. I struggle with remembering all of my assignments, and I have to rely on my planner to remember all of my assignments. I mean, as soon as you’re done with one, another one pops up right after. For example, my biology professor assigns readings from the textbook sometimes back to back. It’s stressful, leaving me in a constant state of anxiety, not knowing whether I have an assignment due or not. Normally, I’m stressed out enough, but recently I had a seven-week math class start. That definitely threw me off. I was so focused on my math class and those assignments that new assignments given by my other professors were quickly forgotten. I have a routine, so when it’s thrown off, who knows what could happen? In the morning I have a routine to get ready for the day, if I wake up ten minutes late, everything is out of order and I’ll definitely end up forgetting something. Sometimes I remember specific assignments for a class, but then they quickly take first priority and I forget about any other assignment I had for that class.

One possible reason I have such troubles with memory could be because I have trouble keeping track of time and visualizing it. When it’s Tuesday and a new assignment is due Thursday, my brain forgets that I have only about a day to complete it. I have to put effort into remembering that I need to do it; otherwise, I’ll either procrastinate or completely forget about it. In my head, I have plenty of time to do it. Until I remember it last minute and have to rush through it. That doesn’t happen often, but the addition of that math class to my schedule will definitely take some time to adapt to and add to my regular routine. One thing I will say, is having a planner has definitely been a positive addition to my life. I don’t think I would have made it past my first semester without failing if I didn’t have one. I used to resort to leaving post-it notes on the back of my phone to remind me to do things. Before that? Writing things on my hand in sharpie. Forgetfulness has been a lifelong struggle, and I think it’ll continue to be just that until I’m gone. Until then, I’ll need to find out ways to remember my responsibilities and adapt to changes more quickly.

High school and college differ in a lot of ways, but the biggest difference for me is the amount of freedom you have. In high school, almost every hour of my day was planned for me. Eight classes, each about forty-eight minutes long, four-minute passing periods. The doors to my high school locked at eight a.m., if you were more than five minutes late you would need to check in through the office and would be reprimanded if you were late more than three times. Skipping was strongly discouraged, and if you were caught leaving you would be punished. There were even teachers assigned lunch duty to make sure no fights broke out or that no one could wander the hallways during lunch. There was a designated teacher who would practically guard the entrance/exit to the cafeteria, making sure to check every student’s ID every time you came back after lunch if you left campus. High school was very strict compared to college.

College was a bit of a surprise, and it was almost jarring to know you can skip most classes with no repercussions. No one holds your hand here; everything is on your own. There are no teachers monitoring the exits or scolding you for being late or skipping. You can come and go as you please, and it’s definitely the biggest change I’ve noticed. Another difference that’s almost painful is the differing duration of classes. College classes can be the average fifty-five-minute class, or the insane three-hour long class. When I first saw my schedule, my eyes almost popped out of my head when I saw my biology lab was three hours long. All in all, college is nothing like high school, and whether that’s a good or bad thing can differ from person to person. It’s a big jump from high school to college, but we’re not little kids anymore. Taking responsibility for ourselves is important, and college is definitely a good place to practice being independent.

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