On the End of College

“College is the best 4 years of your life” – Many well-meaning people

Well. College was certainly four years of my life.

4 days ago I finished college and so I suppose it’s time to look back on the experience. I’ve been thrown out of my dorm and moved in with five juniors, nearly blown myself up, organized building a drivable car, done experiments with the flu, got a master’s degree in 4 years and was the last freshman to leave campus. You may say that I had an exciting time.

So in the essence of trying to understand what happened to me. I’ll discuss some of the surprises and chaos of how college started and ended. I will also be inserting random graphs I made of the experience throughout this write-up. Why not.

To begin, I entered college intending to change how I was in High School. Have a stable friend group, varied interests, and a good sleep schedule. I ended it without a friend group but knowing everyone like high school, going truly all in on some niche clubs and groups, and an awful sleep schedule. Should’ve known that was going to happen in all honesty. But I don’t regret it. Mostly.

I became the civil and environmental engineering (CEE) gossip most likely in my senior year when I became to talk at length in senior design about whatever people wanted to share. Yet, that only grew as I entered graduate school and I was one of the few links between the undergraduate and graduate student population. And oh boy was there rumors. Professors were married in the department and divorced each other later then continued to work together for another 30 years. (I even have the new york times article proving their marriage). Professors called each other idiots behind their backs. At one point professors started asking me for the scuttlebutt on their songs and reputations in the department. I knew of internal department dating (and a very messy love proclamation). The ASCE trip to Chicago went hilariously wrong one year, truly proving that civil engineers despite what they claim do not have more stable relationship lives than the environmentals.

Of my dorm room friend group, I was the first to leave it and the last one to have communication with every member of the group. I cut ties with them rather dramatically after the falling out we had during freshmen year when I left the dorm. I swore I would never associate with them again. And to some degree I was right. I met a few of them in the weeks past when they saw me but I believed that I had done what was necessary.

Yet the next year when it all fractured many of them never spoke to each other again. But in an odd twist of fate, I was talking to one when they hosted a chai party the day of me writing this. Another faction, including my own roommate, I still am in contact with partially because two of them are part of my major, another part because my good friend Anna (Kilts) and her entire house are great friends with Evan my first roommate. A third faction I know because I’m still friends with Anna Smegal to this day. In all honesty, I should write a post just about the various Anna’s I know in my life. But yet to this day, I keep up with each group to some extent. Life is humorous in that way.

I’ve been subject to more OSHA violations and near-death experiences than I thought possible. I went from dropping a ball in a freshmen physics lab to drilling into an engine roughly an hour later at Baja (We started quickly back in those days). I watched Jacob blowtorch a flammable cabinet to defrost it faster and nearly blow himself through the nearest wall. I watched Nathan split his entire arm open and try to superglue it shut before we shoved him to the hospital and he needed 26 stitches. Not to mention spending my senior year playing with 30 kV power sources and telling the Ph.D. “Yea sure I got this”. For context on the consequences: I once heard a story of an electrician who managed to through themselves through a wall when they touched the high voltage wire.

I watched Rachel tell me freshmen year that she intended to leave college engaged and she accomplish it. We won’t discuss how many dates she went on in a row to get there but one must have respect for those who accomplish the goals they intend.

I’ve become far too used to all-nighters, I slept on library floors and drank far far too much coffee. I ended up in Kentucky where I asked if there was anything I could eat (aka vegetarian). I was then handed whiskey and a laugh which I drank with the two other kids who flew in from California. 2 hours later I pulled an all-nighter when the other 8 teammates rolled up, told us that the car was broken, and some of them desperately needed to sleep. We then started a 3-day competition the next day at 6 in the morning.

I skipped every 80% of my classes during the second semester of my senior year of undergraduate not to get drunk or go on roadtrips but rather to spend it in a greasy machine shop attempting to build a car that for some reason I got roped into as an environmental engineer when I was just trying to buy a coffee.

I’ve written about my experiences with Baja at length on this site and also in transition reports for the team. But going back to classes the next year I had professors show my memes on lecture slides, question their previous marriages (in front of the class), and somehow my professors liked me. In all honesty, I’m surprised a few of them didn’t stab me.

I’ve had 1 roommate and then another 13 housemates. They’ve gone on to get married, had to move out, dated each other, and overall been a riot to be around. In this group alone I’ve had roommates in med, law, engineering, business, acting, poli sci, and statistics. By going with them and their friends I got to learn about how different college is depending on your perspective. I won’t pretend my method was the best but the differences are astounding at times. I might do a full post on that later. Looking at where they ended now it’s even crazier: One of them is married, another few live with their significant others full time, and many of them have scattered outwards in the country.

Shifting gears somewhat, some of the more mundane decisions in freshmen year were questionable looking back. I would spend every day going over material for a variety of classes just trying to prove that I could make it through. The University suggests that a student starting in LSA that they take 3-4 classes their first few semesters, and work on easier ones first. I took 7 in one semester for no reasonable reason. It was absolute hell. I didn’t even know I was going to graduate early then. How dumb does one have to be to mess up their course credits by 30 credits, which I did? Graduating late is a pretty common experience (and not a bad one! Shit happens in life!). Graduating early as a mistake though? I haven’t heard of someone else who is dumb enough to pull that feat off.

I learned how to make drinks (thanks Mom!), hosted a New years party for every high school group I was a part of, and put on wine nights, jeopardy nights, and generally ripped off game-changers. I spent one of my last Friday nights of college spending 6 hours playing a Jane Austen themed Dnd game. I also learned that a common psychedelic makes me incredibly good at differential equations. It turns out that even trying to be a cool kid gives me the ability to be a nerd.

For summers I worked in epidemiology, Judaic studies, and the aerospace industry. None of which is the water or wastewater treatment my own major prepared me for. Add on to that Baja and my resume is one hell of a mess but thinking about it, I think it reflects it well.

We can also talk about other friends I had the pleasure of meeting in Ann Arbor. I once had my aquatic chemistry homework sent to me “accidentally” under the condition that I start drinking for St. Patrick’s Day at 10 am. The other St. Patrick’s day I spent the entire time moving half a dozen people out of the dorms. The most recent one I got to party with the department PhDs and learn about what it’s like to be at an older different stage in your life but also oh my god they ground flights during the South Korean college entrance exam to not provide distraction during the English listening part of the exam. I was into two separate lesbians throughout college, and when they learned we laughed and continued on with life. As friends too, which props to them for putting up with their oblivious selves. One of them ended up dating something with the same name as my ex just for kicks. 

I had to learn that saying no to a new activity or group can be a poor idea. I was scared as all hell about rock climbing and yet the first time I did it I drank a Redbull halfway through just so I could more chances at the wall before my body yielded. Nearly made it up a hard one too. Scrawny white boys trying to defy the laws of physics only get so far though before they have to put in actual work. Funny enough that was with someone who I thought I’d never speak to again before we realized that life is too short for such nonsense. I’ve spent days in windowless rooms running experiments as an environmental engineer. An environmental engineer who wouldn’t touch grass for days on end until I left the building for a bus home. And let it be said what fresh air does after a day of machines whirring frustration, and simple errors.

Things also went wrong in college. So incredibly wrong. And many of them were in ditches I dug myself. There were consequences to not forming a single friend group. It can be exhausting to try and figure out what to do every weekend. Studying alone might be more productive but its also lonely and much easier to give up. Trying to find people to take graduate photos with? Good luck when you’re 100 people’s 9th favorite person. Taking as many classes as possible or doing clubs and research were great for life experience but to say it didn’t have a physical effect on myself would be lying.

And so with my college experience ending soon, I suppose it’s time for the next chapter in life. Am I a little nervous? Yes. I would say so. I’ll be moving to a new city, needing to make new friends, and becoming an adult. Plenty of people say the post-college transition is hard. And I’m going to miss college. It was where I did a lot of growing up in life. And I’m incredibly thankful to be in a situation where I will miss it. And many I know have already moved on.

My freshmen year housemates: Maya, Madds, Hannah, Jolie, and Mary. Off to NYC, Boston, the army, Seattle, and others

My sophomore year housemates: Amelia has graduated, Kaila is long gone to Shakespeare threatre

Those who came before me on Baja: My mentor Stephanie. the original seniors Max, Hendy, Vishnu, and Adam. Devin and Carlos. Even Mariana, who graduated with me but didn’t stay around.

The seniors I graduated with in environmental: Kalina, Becca, and Bella now in Washington DC, Duluth, and Colorado Springs respectively.

Even others who don’t fit categories like Jinny now heading back to South Korea

I could also stay at the University. I’m sure I could find the funding for a Ph.D. somewhere or go do a Ph.D. at Berkeley. And I might in the future. But I think a change of pace might be good for me. Or rather, a jarring transition to a new world. Travel makes you realize that no matter how much you know, there’s always more to learn. To steal a phrase from one of my favorite fantasy books about magical university: Time to go chasing the wind.