10 Reasons Why I Hate College (and Why You Probably Hate It Too)

Before I get into all of the gory details and rant about why I hate college, I do want to say that I also love college. I love that I'm getting a good education, that I'm making new friends, and that I'm entering into the next stage of adult hood. I love being on my own and being in charge of my future and the life I want to have. But, while I do think college is wonderful and dandy and you do make life long friends there (shout out to all my Aagard girls!), there are some things that just really bug me about college. So, here are my ten reasons why I literally hate college, and why you probably hate it too.

1. Dining Hall Food
Yes, yes, we are all thankful for a school that provides us with food. We are grateful for the people that work for our dining hall and help feed us and take care of us. But, also...dining hall food can literally doom you to the toilet for a solid hour if you aren't careful. Also, did you know it's like, $10 a meal?! Yeah, I just found that out... I could literally buy Chipotle for $10 and it could be used as two meals. Finally, if you can't have gluten and dairy like me, then you are confined to a life of dry chicken and questionable rice... *shudders*

2. Having to talk to ten people, just to get one answer that literally any of them could've given
This is one of the things that is quite possibly the bane of my existence. Have you ever had to go to student life or the registration office or the financial aid office or your counselor's office, just to ask one quick question, and next thing you know, you are taking an adventure around the school to talk to like, fifty different people, only to get one answer that literally any of them could've given you? Yeah, me too. We have all been in this situation, where we waste probably an hour or two of our time, for the most simplest and basic of activities, that could've been answered by any one of the fifty thousand people we talked to, but didn't get the answer from any of them because that's not their "job description".

3. The rule where freshman and sophomores are required to live on campus
I have spent the last two years living in a dorm, and to be honest, I love living in a dorm. What I don't love, however, is the fact that I pay $10,000 for seven months to live in a dorm, whereas I could pay $3,000 a year to live in a nice apartment. Colleges everywhere - can you please let us live off campus whenever we want? Some of us don't have $10,000 lying around and don't want to be shackled to debt for the rest of our lives.

4. Mandatory hall meetings
I am all about having a healthy community with your main peeps in your dormitory hall. What I am not all about, is having mandatory hall meetings where if I don't show up, I get charged $50. Do these things really have to be so...mandatory? Also, what's with these mandatory hall meetings being on Monday nights? MONDAY NIGHTS?! Is there really any worse day to have a bunch of people gather? Probably not.

5. The fact that we don't have a fixed tuition rate
Okay people...seriously...why don't we have a fixed tuition rate?! I don't know about the rest of y'all, but at my school, the tuition keeps going up. And up. AND UP! Meaning that I am now forking over more and more of my life to college debt. I now pay $41,000 a year for school. That is literally the most insane number! Can we please just get a fixed tuition rate so that I can actually, I dunno, get married and have a family and a happy life without going into bankruptcy and debt due to college tuition prices? So many kids have to drop out of college or switch schools or never attend school because of the insane tuition prices. If you want us to come to your college, make us believe that you actually want us there, by not constantly raising the prices. Do you really want to curse the next generation of America to forty plus years of debt? I didn't think so. But every time I see the tuition prices go up, I will admit...there are tears on the inside. Ugly, Kim Kardashian tears.

6. Parking...need I say more?
What is it with schools charging us an arm and a leg for tuition, but then having no parking? If I am signing my life away to get an education, I would at least like for my school to invest into more parking at my dorm so I don't have to walk on the creepy back path from overflow, especially because there are two prisons on either side of my school. Please get more parking so I don't die.

7. The fact that I can only take apples or ice cream out of the dining hall
Okay this is like a serious issue for me. I am a huge foodie - I literally could eat all freaking day! And sometimes I eat at weird times because my schedule is so funky. But when I go to the dining hall to grab a quick something (this is where my rant begins) and just take it down to my dorm, I am reminded THAT I CANNOT BRING CERTAIN FOODS DOWN! Yes, my dining hall won't let you take anything out of the dining hall unless it's a piece of fruit or a small dessert. That means that if I am walking out of the dining hall with, say, a bagel, and I am physically eating it as I am trying to leave, the folks that work at the dining hall, tell me that I either have to wolf down my bagel right then and there, or I have to throw it away. If I am paying $10 a meal, I would at least like to take food out of the dining hall and eat in the gorgeous sunshine or in the comfort of my dorm room.

8. Registration
I have been going to college since I was sixteen, and I would like to say that over the last four years, I have yet to have pleasant registration experience. Every time I have ever tried to register for a class, there has always been some sort of thing that prevents me from registering when I actually need to do it. Is there a way we can fix this? Please? Because I actually want to take classes and graduate. Also, can we please have tech support when registering? At my school, we register at seven in the morning, but the registration office and tech support office doesn't open till 9. WHAT IS THE REASON FOR THIS?! To all of you awesome colleges out there, please be alive, awake and enthusiastic so we can register with your help and continue on the path of graduation.

9. The fact that we don't have elevators
My school is literally built on a hill. My dorm room is the second dorm farthest away from the classrooms and the gym. This means that when I have a class up at the top of the hill, I am huffing and puffing and a sweaty mess. It takes about ten minutes to walk all the way up the hill and the stairs on a good day. So can we please get elevators? Or escalators? Heck, why don't we get a gondola?! Since our gym is at the very top of the school grounds, it means that before I even start my pilates class I am already gasping for air and needing to take a break at the top of the stairs. It ain't pretty, I can assure you... The gif below is an accurate representation about how I probably look trying to hike the hills and stairs.

10. This whole "we're required to meet during finals week" madness
Part of me understands this, but for the most part, I don't understand it. Why do we have to meet during finals week?! If I am done with all my classes during dead week and don't have any final, official tests, then that should mean that I can be done with school and start to move out so I can go home. If I can be done, then I want to be done. Also, what is the point for showing up to a class where all of the activities are done and there isn't any things left to learn? Just do it. Just let us be done!

Now that I'm all spun up from my endless ranting and stressed out by the fact that I only have, like, two or three weeks left of school, I do want to address some things. The first thing, is that I freaking love college. I love my friends, I love (most) of my profs, I love the fact that I'm getting a great education, I love the fact that I'm one step closer to adulthood and an official job. I love the fact that I'm still in the PNW and get to have these adventures. I love my dorm and the community I'm a part of. The rants above are nit-picky things, and obviously those negatives can ever out weigh the positives of college and all the greatness that it brings. So if you can go to college, go! It's a once in a lifetime opportunity, and it's absolutely brilliant. And if you're reading this and you work for a college, or you're a prof or an advisor or something, then please take some of these into account so that we as students feel wanted as people, not just for the sake of our money.

I love college, and it breaks my heart to think about how it's going to end soon But I guess that's why it's so important to enjoy it right now, right?