We just got back from moving our son out of his apartment at UCF. It actually wasn't too bad although I did mention that the tub was actually white, originally! :)
It is hard to believe that our son, who is 21, has finished his junior year at UCF! How fast it went! He decided to move out of his apartment because he seemed to have gotten the booby prize of roommates. Don't get me wrong, the guy was nice enough, and even helped my son with an internet problem, but MAN is he weird. He acted as though my son did not exist most of the time! I know he was not wild about having a 20 year old junior move in when he was in his mid-20's and a grad student. But come ON! At least give the guy a chance to show he is not some moronic twenty year old who parties all the time! My son seems more adult than I do most times!
Anyway, my son is going to try his luck with a three bedroom apartment instead of two. This way there will be two guys other than himself and maybe, if he's lucky, one of them will be decent. Heck, maybe even a fun roommate he can do things with occasionally! Plus the three bedrooms are cheaper than the two. Can't hate us for that!
Both of our kids went to pretty large universities. UCF has 50 thousand students and is the largest in the state system here in Florida. There's not a whole lot of stuff going on, at least not the way it was back when my husband and I were in college. My daughter went to FSU and also did not have a lot of stuff going on. Weird. Such big schools and not a lot of college sponsored activities!
My husband and I went to a fairly small, or maybe mid-sized, college in the State University sytem in New York. We were in Central NY in a town called Oneonta. A cow town really, with two colleges, SUNY (State University of New York) College at Oneonta and a private college called Hartwick. The writer of the Dilbert comic strip was at Hartwick while we were at Oneonta! Small world. In the three years we were together at Oneonta (hubby is a year older than I am) we saw: The Kinks, Stan Rogers - watch him here,, Stanley Clarke - watch him here, Carlos Montoya- watch him here, The Dixie Dregs- watch them here, How to Change a Flat Tire (I know, weird name, but it was Celtic music), a guy from Africa with the Mbira or African Thumb Piano, Peter Gabriel, Howie Mandel (when he was with The Comedy Store) and so much more! All in three years! We saw Stan Rogers, now deceased sadly, many times!
We are sad that our great college experience was not the same kind of experience that our kids have had. I am not sure if it is just the way things are now or what! Anyone have any insight? My college years were the best years of my life! The most free and the most fun!
I think it might just be the huge schools, Karen. I went my first two years to a smaller school (Univ. of Richmond) and there was a lot going on all the time. Of course, we all lived in dorms, too. Then I went to UF. It was kind of an anonymous experience. I got my degree, but was happy to get out of Gainesville.
ReplyDeleteAnyone would want to get out of Gainesville! :)
ReplyDeleteI think you are right. The huge universities can't offer as much, IMO, as smaller schools.