readingfreshmanyear

Freshman Year:

This reading really opened my eyes to a view that college life really is like living in our own little world. We do things differently, we say things differently, and act in ways that adults may think is out of line or in a way that they don't understand. It interested me how Rebekah Nathan, the author, related her experience in college to the way she lived overseas. An example of this is when Nathan spoke about the different language that college students used: "There were other unexpected elements as well that reminded me of doing overseas fieldwork. One of these was language...It was as if they were using a different dialect of English-the way an American might feel overhearing a group of Welshmen speaking English informally." Everything about this article is very true, with being a student now I recognize the things that she discovered in her year of research. Some of the issues that Nathan pointed out was that some people may not agree that this data is a good representation of all undergraduate students. People may think that every school is different, which is true but in the aspects that were pointed out in this book, they hold true to the majority of the undergraduate students. Another issue may be that Nathan is an older student and she may be able to do the same things and talk the same lingo but she won't really be able to feel the same stresses and problems that college students face that comes along with that age. This problem could change the ways that Nathan and a regular college student could think. I agree that everything is pretty accurate as far as a daily schedule for a student contains. The flyers of activities hanging around the dorms, the getting lost while walking around campus, getting involved and getting to know other students as being a struggle, and just trying to adapt to the college life; are a few of the things that Nathan pointed out and that I agree with makes up some of the elements of college life. I really understand all of this reading and now that I read this it really makes me think and look more into the daily hustle and bustle of college life.