Realities of the real world

This archived article was written by: Cassidy Scovill

The average college students is woefully unprepared for live abroad without the financial backings of your parents. Students must learn to survive on what little money they can scrape together for the cheapest food money can buy.
I live in a state of perpetual fear constantly fearing that I have no money on my account so I manage to scrounge up the meager amount of food I have left and eating it. I literally was afraid that I had no money and ate a bag of broccoli for dinner. This is a issue I have with college and living away from the parents is that it costs. My cost while living with my parents: nothing, except I have to take the garbage. At college if you don’t take the garbage out no one does, you just carefully stack the garbage.
In high school they didn’t prepare me to be out of my parent’s. Nope, no crash course on getting your filthy roommates to do the dishes or take out the garbage. We learned to balance checkbooks and what college student still uses checks? That’s right none, this is the age of plastic charge and worry about the details later, that is what a college student does.
In high school you are not worrying about college, you’re counting down the days until you hit 21, because drinking is way better than college. I used to think college was just like nonstop parties and the craziest stuff happens. No college is school and you live with four other dudes. One dude is already gross and we have four times that. Our dorm is in such a state of gross that friends I’ve known for years refuse to visit for more than a minute. The smell coming off our sink has literally made the weak of heart faint in disgust.
The amount of Ramen I see consumed on a day-to-day basis is staggering. If they aren’t slurping noodles then their microwaving a frozen burrito. Vitamins have taken a backseat to cheap, bean burritos and chicken-flavored ramen. That is the life of a poor college student having to buy what’s cheapest so he doesn’t starve to death. Even though it’s the cheapest food imaginable, a college student will literally fight to the death over one packet of Ramen. High school should better prepare its students for college, especially about the realities of college instead of teaching us to balance checkbooks and write resumes. They should teach us how to buy on the cheap, clean
one’s own mess and how to hide your food.