Hitting the books instead of coffee
The exciting life of the pretend-a-freshman
By Aisha Stern, blogger
February 27, 2008 | 11:54 p.m.
I am a social person by nature. My favorite place to hang out is Donkey Coffee and Espresso, where all of my friends tend to go for their daily coffee fixes. Since my first day as a student at OU, I have found my schedule cramped and complicated, filled with meetings, classes and deadlines that take up all of my time. While I am still a regular at Donkey, you're more likely to find me somewhere in Alden Library, either taking notes or reviewing them, then curled up on a couch in Donkey, talking with my friends about our lives.
The past four months have taught me that I am terrible at keeping in touch with my friends, whether they live in town or are in school three hours away. If I'm not seeing them every day, I don't think much of it. We have Facebook and cell phones, so what do we need to see each other for? If I want to bake a cake for one of my friends, I can use the SuperPoke application on Facebook. If I want to know how the quarter is treating someone, I can text them and ask. So what if I haven't seen a friend of mine in over a month? I have Facebook to tell me about his current job search and my cell phone to congratulate him with. I may not win any points for a balanced life, but I should win some for an electronically-based one.
It's not just friends that I have trouble keeping up with. I can't remember the last time I really got to spend time with my family. My youngest brother is turning nine years old next month, and I can't remember the last time I had a conversation with him that didn't start with “I'm on the phone,” or “I'm studying!” Somehow, the conversation doesn't go beyond that. My conversations with my parents have rarely strayed from three topics lately: my plans for spring break, my FAFSA and other financial aid-related applications, and what I have to do over the next several months to graduate and end up a “real” college student. Occasionally, we'll talk about Britney Spears, the kids I baby-sit or a book my mother is reading, but it's not as often as I wish. I live at home, but for the amount of time I spend there, I might as well not. It's where I put my head down at night, and sometimes that's all it is.
The only relationship I have been marginally good at, of late, is the one I am in. My boyfriend lives four hours away, so a lot of our interaction is of the phone call variety. If it weren't for my cell phone, I would probably be spending far more time on an instant messenger than is healthy. Any sort of relationship is hard, and being in a long distance relationship is harder than most, but I wouldn't trade it in for anything. My guy makes up for the distance by being one of the best people I know, though I might be a little biased about that.
I like to think that my life will be simpler and, once again, social next fall when I am a freshman living on campus. I'm not looking forward to dorm life but being able to walk to classes from my residence hall will almost make up for living in those prison cells OU so affectionately describes as big enough for two. It'll certainly give me more time to run to Donkey in the mornings – or to debate if I want sleep more than coffee.
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For more from the mind of Aisha Stern, check out her blog at fusionofme.blogspot.com