As early as last spring, I was stressing about the transition to college. I would lie in my bed, my mind awry with a flurry of thoughts concerning what I would do with my time and freedom. I thought about things like having girls in the classroom with me (since I am from a single-sex high school) and being plunged headfirst into a dormitory, an environment that allows almost no privacy. These were just the beginning of my thoughts, but I realized that, as much as I tried to lie to myself, I was kind of nervous for the transition. I was scared of the academic and mental challenges that accompany such a drastic lifestyle change.Another thing that echoed incessantly in my mind were stereotypical statements like, “College is the most important time of your life, your future relies on it, blah blah blah.” I didn’t even know my major and I had no good idea of what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, so statements like those were not very reassuring. To add insult to injury, I found out at SLU 101 that journalism, the major I was at least slightly intent on, wasn’t even offered at Saint Louis University. All these pressures mounted, and instead of making me more prepared for the transition, it almost put me in a state of paralysis, because I was expecting an onslaught of changes and challenges.I was once again the product of an over-hyped life transition. Remember how you were nervous for high school because you were told by the teachers to expect at least four hours of homework every night? Remember the corny high school TV shows where the pizza-faced kid hated his life because he had such a bad experience? Well that’s not how I remember high school. I remember coming home and playing video games or playing music or just hanging out with friends; I even had a pizza face and I did just fine.I would like to offer a response to everyone who paralyzed me with the scary college statements: College, and the transition to it, is not nearly as difficult as people make it out to be-academically or emotionally (knock on wood). Thus far, I have attended every class, but many of them seem arbitrary to me because the teacher stands up there and says exactly what’s in the reading assignment. What’s more, in some cases reading the textbook is even more interesting and productive than listening to the teacher. Now it all makes sense when people talk of how they missed most of their classes and still pulled off a B. Just read the book!The enjoyment you get out of college is obviously subjective. Don’t let some jerk make you think that if you don’t join X amount of clubs or attend X amount of parties you aren’t getting the full experience-since when do other people dictate your experiences? Ignore the expectations and the statements made about college (including mine) and just form your own. It’ll be much more enjoyable that way.Nick Otto is a freshman in the College of Arts and [email protected]