Everyone has an idea of what their college experience will be like: late night parties and food with friends, football tailgates, meeting new people and fueling yourself on ramen, coffee and energy drinks. At least that’s what I was expecting. Boy, did UW Madison exceed my expectations. It was everything I wanted and more. But then, school took over. Okay okay, I know, college IS school, but I guess I was just so excited for everything else that I forgot the reason I was there. The biggest thing that was different from my expectations was the amount of strenuous work that is required to succeed at a school like UW Madison.
Don’t let this post scare you though, if you’re here, you can do it. I guess if you’re here you probably already know that you’re going to have to work hard. This is just something that took me by surprise. Maybe I forgot how hard I worked to even get to Madison in the first place. My dad went to UW, so I grew up on stories of his fraternity life and football games (he actually got kicked out of one of them for playing tug-of-war with people from a different section of the stadium). Between the fun and crazy stories, there simply wasn’t time to detail the mundane aspects of school. Not to mention, college movies glorify all other aspects but school itself, so I guess I was a bit ill-prepared.
That’s what I love most about UW though, that the environment is work hard-play hard. You get your stuff done, and it feels so good to turn in that project or finish that exam that you’ve studied all week for. Then it’s even more fun to celebrate and it feels like you’ve earned it. So congrats, you’ve made it to the best school ever, and these next four years will be tough, but oh so worth it.