College Crisis

I absolutely love to dance. It’s not good dancing, but whenever I hear one of my favorite songs playing I am the first one to bust a move. You’ll see me trying to doing any type of dance move from “screwing the light bulb,” to “moving the lawn,” to Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” or Beyoncé’s ‘Single Ladies.”

I was one of those girls who made it through high school without ever having a boyfriend or having sex. I understand that it’s more common to not date in high school, but it still bothered me that all of my friends did. I’d complain a lot and subsequently get told two things:

Studying abroad is a tremendous and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Although I am not studying abroad, I watched my two roommates try all fall semester to find subletters, which is a hard process. Fortunately for them, they each found a girl to live with my roommate and I this semester. It’s been two weeks since they moved in and… it wasn’t friendship at first sight.

I was told before that you don’t really know people until some of the ugly comes out. There wasn’t a doubt for me that Josh* wasn’t perfect—I accepted all his flaws for what they were and he accepted mine. For over two years we felt that we really could work. It wasn’t hard for me to accept him.

It’s not exactly surprising that college students don’t have the most glamorous part-time jobs. Sure, you or someone you know got lucky and got a great job that requires very little physical or mental effort and somehow pays more than minimum wage.

In every relationship, there comes a time to talk about the future: a conversation so pivotal yet so volatile, it’s like waiting for a bomb to drop. My personal catastrophe hit around 2 am last Thursday.

A few weeks ago I wrote a College Crisis about how I developed feelings for Jack*, one of my coworkers, and that I had to make the first move. Today, I follow it up with this: Jack is now dating someone.

If you and your roommate immediately hit it off, consider yourself lucky. Your roommate is the friend that’s always there when you need them, your own talking mirror who let’s you know if your outfit is a hit or miss and your automatic wingman whenever you go out.

When I think of entering my senior year at Penn State, it’s overwhelmingly bittersweet, but I never expected a feeling of dread when thinking about where I’m living next year.

I first met Jack* last September – we were both working at the same place. We were both new and went through training together, but during the fall semester we rarely worked together. Last spring, our schedules always lined up and we started talking and becoming friends.

Considering myself a mature young woman, I recently decided it was time to start investing. Financiers say that the first step in the financial decision making process is to evaluate your worth.

This goes without saying, but being in college is hard. I’m always stressed out and I’m always trying to find time for things that I just, quite frankly, don’t have time for.

When you’re in college, you expect to make a tight group of friends. There’s probably a funny story of how you all met, you’ll do everything together, and you might even be able to visit each other during the summer.

Congratulations: You finally have graduated past the ever-exciting and unbearably cramped dorm rooms, and have officially moved into your shiny, new downtown apartment or house.

As John Travolta and Olivia Newton John sang, “Summer lovin’ had me a blast, summer lovin’ happened so fast…” Now that summer is over and classes are in full swing, I look back and ask, “Where has the time gone?”