College is a whole new chapter in a young adult’s life. It’s where adolescents discover what they want to do with their life, who they want to be, what their interests are and so on. Throughout this process, it’s not only classes that are on students’ schedules, but also their extracurricular activities and social lives.
By Nashelly Moronta and Mariah Posey
April 25, 2018
Two things come to mind when one thinks of college: partying and the best time of a young adult’s life. And while that cliché is true for some, it’s not the case for every student.
According to a report done by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which presents data from the American Time Use’s 2013 Survey, nearly half of a college student’s time is spent between sleep and work-related activities. Additionally, in 2014 the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at UCLA found that students are less likely than in the past to spend more than 16 hours a week socializing.
Alexis Franzese, sociology professor at Elon University, says that allowing students to see that there are many different ways to be a student is important so that they don't feel like they have to behave in a certain way.
“The image that is constructed of what college life is like heavily emphasizes substances and heavily emphasizes very casual sexual behavior and other things that students might not necessarily want to partake in," she said. "But they feel like they have to because that’s what it means to be a student.”
College life looks different for each individual and by the time students reach their senior year, they’ve had a range of experiences. Due to this variety in experience, grasping the perspective of a few students who are soon to finish their college career provides a window into the reality of there being multiple ways to live out college life.
Jenny Sigua, a senior public health major and Odyssey Scholar, describes herself as a student “about her sh**.” But on the weekends, she enjoys “playing extra hard” as a reward for all the dedication she puts into her school work Monday through Friday.
Coming to Elon hasn’t slowed down her New York state of mind when it comes to her party life. She enjoys going out with her friends Fridays and Saturdays, but only if they follow her number one party rule: “Nobody can be boring.”
William Henderson, a senior music production and recording arts major, describes himself as someone who is “not very talkative” and doesn’t typically socialize much throughout the weekday because of his heavy workload. He dedicates Monday and Tuesday evenings to working in the studio, but also utilizes a majority of his weekends to work on his music.
“I really get lost in the creative process of making music,” he said.
Henderson sometimes attends outings on the weekends, but considers himself more of a “kickback” kind of guy. “Komodo,” his alter ego as a performer, is more outgoing, jumps around on stage and enjoys his skills as a public speaker.
Senior accounting major Kaitlin Laureano considers herself an introvert and says her ideal weekend is spent inside debriefing from the week. Though she remembers her freshman self as being more open to going out and mingling, her senior self has found a core group of friends that understands her homebody tendencies.
But there’s one major person missing from the equation in Laureano’s life, causing her to resort to spending more time alone than ever – her father. The summer of 2017 proved to be especially difficult for her as she dealt with the passing of her father just a month before returning to Elon. She says the experience has “overshadowed” what a traditional senior year would look like.
“I don’t personally find things as enjoyable,” she said.
