Stressful. Enlightening. Learning time. Disappointing. University. Bangin’.
Whatever you want to call it or however you describe it, most of you (college students) are used to college by now, whether you’re only in the second quarter of your freshman year or your six-year stint that you justify by saying you’re earning a master’s degree. It’s Ohio University. We understand it’s challenging.
My point is, many of you are taking all of this for granted by now. Whether it’s the dorm food, the 4-day weekend party scene or access to a (shameless plug) first-class student newspaper.
Many, if not all, of you forget that it wasn’t that long ago you were all just like me. Well OK, maybe you weren’t a lanky white kid that loves Chiddy Bang, grape soda, Angels and Airwaves, and mayonnaise (no, not all at once), but you catch my drift.
It wasn’t that long ago, even for that six-year master’s-degree guy, that you were all thinking hard about a decision that evokes a wide array of emotions in high-school seniors: where to go to college.
For me, that decision is fairly easy. I love journalism, and I just so happen to be growing up two minutes from a university with one of the best journalism programs in the country. Beyond that, I’ve had the incredible opportunity to work at The Post and get a head start on my journalism career before it even started.
But the purpose of this column is to point out the underworld of Athens that most of you do not know exists. And if you do, 99 percent of you don’t know how to get in contact with it.
I’m talking about the high-schoolers who invade your house parties (sorry, Mom).
The high-schoolers who always ask annoying questions in your history class. Yes, the guy who raises his hand five times in one hour isn’t a worn-down grad student — you guys aren’t very good at judging age.
The high-schoolers who run around on campus with nerf guns and get more pumped about HVZ than OU students. (For the record, I’m not one of them.)
So can we be an annoyance to you, the average OU student? I guess so. But I think the benefits we receive from living in a college town far outweigh the harm we cause.
We get a taste of college life, and it helps us immensely in making our college decision. We get a feeling for what kind of university we’re looking for, and whether we want to live in a place with endless spring fests or a quaint little main street.
The point is being high-school townies gives us the advantage of knowing what to expect in college. Instead of growing up in a rural farm town, we get to experience everything OU has to offer for fun, both good and bad (whether it’s age-appropriate or not). And oh yeah, we can accrue some college credit, too.
And for all my Athens High School seniors out there: we are the one percent.
Will Drabold is a senior at Athens High School enrolled in classes at Ohio University and is a writer for The Post. Email him at dd195710@ohiou.edu.
