It’s College!!!

Talk about stating the obvious. “It’s College.”

I have no idea how often I have heard this sentence ever since I first got here. And actually, it is not stating the obvious. As “it’s College” is used as an explanation for all kinds of weird stuff going on; a celebratory statement cherishing the joy of the moment; an excuse for behavior otherwise unacceptable in society. It’s a prayer and an instruction manual, a song and a love story, a mantra and a riddle. So whether it’s your roommate making chocolate chip cookies in a frying pan, a student sitting down on the table you are eating at, or a streaker running through the Sunken Gardens. “It’s College” and with that it all makes sense.

Coming from a country where going to college is not as much limited to a certain period of your life and where you would make sure to have friends, hobbies and a life off campus, the mentality of “it’s College!” still astonishes me. So does the fact that “it’s College” seems exclusive; college is what happens to you at a certain point of your life, yet isn’t real life. William and Mary students refer to themselves as college kids, not as college adults, college grown-ups or even college people. It is like a class trip going on for four whole years. And we all know that this is going to have its ups and downs. It is like you have been given the freedom to do whatever you want; all the craziness, intensity, and drama one could ever wish for! Yet at the same time I want to claim that you really need an outsider’s perspective and a bit more life experience to truly appreciate that. The typical gesture going along with “It’s College.” is a shrug and a smile, where it should be at least three pink exclamation points and jumping up and down: “It’s College!!!”