By Tyler Josma | Photo design by Driena Muca
The day I got the acceptance letter from Suffolk University, I was over the moon.
The headmaster had just sent my entire high school home to protect us from the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, even with all of this fear for my safety and anticipation, I still reported for my first day of class. My graduating class spent the end of my high school days behind a screen at home. However, I was lucky enough to have courses in person during my first year of college, likely creating the most normal freshman year that could have been.
As classes continued, time management wasn’t very hard for me. Yet, it was clear that my classmates were struggling. A year ago, we grew accustomed to a full day of relentless learning. Teachers were telling us what to do with endless reminders. Some students ended up lost without our teachers, and parents breathing down our necks to get our homework done didn’t help. I learned that many kids became overwhelmed. Experiencing their first year through a computer screen wasn’t helping either. No matter the initial struggles, professors in my classes taught eager students subjects we never had in high school. We were talking about real-world issues such as climate change, feminism, or racism in America. Even classes about the benefits and consequences of immortality. I knew from the beginning that my future would be bright.
As time went on, the environment was unrivaled. Everywhere you went, there were eager, kind, and intelligent kids in all of my classes. I came to learn that instead of classmates wanting nothing to do with school, I had a school’s worth of little Tylers running around. Changes needed to happen to succeed in the next four years. Every other student did their best in class, wanting to be part of the lesson, asking questions, and be the best, just like me. I came to know people from all over the world and people who lived in Massachusetts all their life. Suffolk was a way to get to know other people’s lives; we shared our favorite foods, movies, and homelives, taking on our college adventure together.
I’m from Philadelphia and have lived there for most of my life; I still consider it home. I even sport my favorite seventy-sixers hat. However, Boston has a beautiful downtown area. Since the Suffolk campus is right in the middle of it, rather than in the middle of nowhere, the college experience has been even more impactful. I don’t feel lonely or isolated because all I can see are woods. Social interactions have more possibilities with the abundance of shops all around. Even the events that come with being in the city make an ordinary Saturday much more enjoyable.
If someone were to ask me the significant difference between high school and college, I would say the workload. Yes, it was difficult, but it was well within reach(for me, at least). I am an English major, so a lot of my school work includes reading and writing. Instead of seven hours within the same four walls talking about another human conflict that no one cares about anymore, our classes are spread out more. I have had four courses each semester; we are trusted with the reading and assignments that come with it. We are expected to write a paper every other week for each class, and read a book on a dime. This explanation could be like a particular part of hell, but if you come to learn the stories told by the greatest writers of their time. Learn more about problems that you may experience daily. Jump into another person’s world, from their point of view. It becomes so much more than getting it done for a grade; it transforms us into better, more knowledgeable people. If we are trying to survive in an everyday task, if we call it that, it doesn’t taste so sweet. So I will leave you with this: a wise fictional character once said, “life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once and a while, you might miss it.”