***
I knew this would be different about a month ago when I went to campus to talk to my advisor. I’d applied to the school without having ever visited before. Not the way to go about it generally, but it was the right program in the right location, so I did what I had to.
Anyway, my campus is actually the satellite campus in downtown which handles most of the graduate programs (The main campus is a bit outside the city in a suburb). Now, it does have most of the grad students, but it also does a brisk trade in undergrads, the realization of which hit my like a ton of bricks when I made the aforementioned trip to see my advisor. Having never actually been to the campus before, I went early to look around. It’s a pleasing place in that modern, sterile, big-atrium-with-palm-trees-and-a-Starbucks sort of way. I was struck by two things: There were computers everywhere and every single one of them had an undergrad on it.
2004 doesn’t seem so long ago. And at the time dear St. George was considered to be a highly “wired” place. Lots of computer labs with modern, powerful computers. I remember clearly when wireless was introduced to the library during my, I believe, junior year (so ’02 or ’03). Since nobody yet had a wireless-capable laptop, the college bought 15 or 20 new laptops with those old-fashioned pop-out wifi cards (the ones with a little green light that blinked, like a mini-router) that students could check out. People did, but for the novelty. What did we need these things for, anyway?
Much has changed.
My new campus is entirely wifi-capable, of course, and the student center has (based on my own unofficial and unscientific census) at least thirty internet kiosks. They’re everywhere. St. George had but one when I graduated.
I used one to register for classes, and it was tough to find an open one. Each had an undergrad nailed to it, the vast majority of them checking Facebook or MySpace or their fantasy football league or whatever, almost none of them performing what could even charitably be called school-related tasks. We have reached a point, apparently, where our young people are so addicted to the internet that a half-hour delay in Facebook-status-updating (the time class ends to the time they hit their dorm room) is now much too long. As I registered, the guy next to me (I guessed he was a sophomore or junior) was on Facebook looking at a girl’s profile and talking on his cell to some other dude about a girl, presumably the girl represented on the page in front of him. Evidently there had been a party of some sort the previous night, and whatever happened was being debriefed in detail. I couldn’t pick up whether it was the guy next to me or the guy he was talking to who was all tied up about this girl. I guess it didn’t matter.
But it made one thing clear to me: If we simplify human life enough that it breaks into three basic phases, college is the last great endeavor of childhood. I spent a good portion of my post-undergrad life teaching high school juniors and seniors about civics, shepherding them around a big city, watching them talk and laugh and flirt and break hearts in hotel ballrooms. These were kids that couldn’t wait to go to college and get away from mom and dad, and have this kind of freedom all the time. Where spending time with that girl on the Facebook page in front of you depended entirely on your having the guts to ask her and her desire to do so. Parents, teachers, nobody would have any say over your life but you.
I’m finding that undergrad kids are still these same kids. Before going back, I always thought that you did a lot of growing up in college. Now I’m finding that, really, it’s what comes after that grows you up. College insulates you from that. I’m very interested to see what comes next.
Next, how did my first day of grad school go?
I really enjoyed this post. I am looking forward to this blog. You'll find that grad school is rather different. Everyone is constantly talking about call-backs, networking, and good old-fashioned small talk. Laptops have become a staple in the classroom, but in law school they are practically required in order to be competitive on exams. Grad students don't necessarily need them.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of growing up, I believe most of one's maturity comes from their life experiences. That being said, I think we both did plenty of growing up in undergrad. You became calmer and more peaceful. I became less of an arrogant tool. Although, we certainly still have our
moments . . .