New Freedom Time Zone: The College Clock

The first hour after your parents leave from dropping you off at College, you will realize how much freedom you have, freedom to go wherever, whenever and do whatever you feel like. This new found responsibility and college schedule makes college students adopt a new time zone. I call this the college clock.

While still in high school, your Monday to Friday was a rather strict schedule. Wake up early, go to school, after school practices and go home for dinner. But that first free week at College, your classes may be scattered throughout day. In high school, you would never have though about night time classes. But class schedules that begin between 10a.m. and noon are more common than you think at school. This leaves you with a different schedule than you once had under the structure of High School.

One staple of college is the late night food run. My friends and I would make a late night shopping run to Wal-Mart at least once a week. Not only was this a fun experience, but the lines were shorter than popular evening times making our time their much easier and quicker. Besides awesome late night shopping runs, have you ever tried the gym at 8:00? There are no lines, not many people and you practically have the gym to yourself until closing. This happens because all team practices last from around 6:00pm to 8:00pm, in effect leaving you a gym to yourself.

Within my dorm complex, there were only a few washer/dryer stations. When every college student decides to try and wash their clothing at 6:00, you can imagine the line. Pretty much any time before 3:00pm and after 10:00pm, the better the chance you will find no one running laundry. Another college classic is the late night movie party. While gaming before and during college is the same for students, movie marathons you will find are much more common than they once were. It is 10:30pm, all homework is finished and your friend just called, “let’s watch Animal House”. Of course you are going to go see it.

The new college freedom time zone is something that happens to all college students. With the proper responsibility, you will enjoy all that college has to offer you and these new hour commons will become a part of your dorm experience.

Dylan Swartz