Student life is the doorsteps of adulthood and some even perceive it as actually being an adult. If you're about to enter this state of life, here are five things no official student brochure advertising for their particular campus will ever tell you.
Singularity
Nobody's dependent on you, you only life for yourself. If you skip three courses in a row, the only one eventually suffering is you. If you skip dinner (which you very well could do), the only one who bothers is you. This might is the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde of student life. Because after all, sometimes having an ice cream as dinner or left-over sweets as breakfast could be really really comfortable. My advice is to embrace solitude and make being alone as an advantage. (Hang on, this does NOT mean ice cream for dinner three days a week just because you can!)
Better get used to ordering one cappuccin-ice
Short economical times
Studying might be the road to riches, but it certainly isn't the peak of your bank account. It's basically a diet for your debit card and I genuinely struggle to figure out how people on three or four times more money than me annually can consider themselves poor. If it wasn't for my parents leading me a hand on a regular basis (you have no idea how crucial it is, thanks Mom and Dad!), I would've been beyond bankruptcy three decades ago.
Worries occur frequently
On the brink of proper adulthood, you need to sort out somewhere to live, a monthly income both in present and future, pay bills on time and generally do all the stuff adults do. Addtionally there will be worries of you never getting a proper job, maybe a future spouse, loneliness will inevitably knock on the door occasionally. Additionally, you have exams hanging like a massive shadow over you at all times. And yet I haven't mentioned the feeling of having two weeks until the next scholarship fee arrives and «only a couple of pints» emptied your bank account, which you realise when waking up hungover with a half-eaten pizza as your spooning partner.
Close friends become acquaintances
Or they even fade beyond that, without it being anyone's fault in particular. It's the chorus of student life, and after spending the first 18-20 years in your hometown before discovering new horizons, it might be the first time you experience this properly. People move on with their own lives, change cities or even countries, and at the end of the day, the only person who will stick around forever in your life is you yourself. Because yes, your parents will die (hopefully long time after you walk out the door of uni though) and no matter how much they love you in the current state, your boyfriend or girlfriend could leave you tomorrow.
Annoying small-talk
As more of an introvert than an extrovert, I genuinely despise small-talk with a passion. The worst part is probably «discussing», or more precisely explaining, my studying courses and plans, to people who don't even have a remote clue what I'm doing. I don't know what I'm doing with my life, so I'd very much appreciate if we'd talk about something else. Additionally, if you actually have a full-time job, I have no clue what to ask for about your life, because you actually have sorted it. (The last time I tried, the bloke worked at a boat and it was kind of awkward as I have no clue on anything maritime and I was left without further questions.)