Consider this: every summer herds of wildebeest in Africa cross over in hordes,

(summer migration) a time fraught with the threat of predators, drought, starvation
and many myriad dangers.
I find it interesting how one can draw parallels in different situations such as one
might compare this crossing over to the entry of freshmen into a college system.
Its interesting how hundreds of people when they graduate from school converge in
one place all from different cities, culture, backgrounds added to that theres the
constant complication that comes with adolescence and hormones. Its like a free for
all !ungle and in this case Im talking especially about residential colleges. An
otherwise "day college is what Id compare and out of body e#perience to $ you
wake up in your own home and presumably an environment youve known and
trusted all your life, you go to college and you come back. It is like living outside of
you for a while for the main purpose of education. %ut hostels& A whole different ball
game all together. A hostel sort of impacts us in such a way that you are forced to
spend time with yourself and introspect ,as leaving an environment youre
comfortable in and moving away from home your first real taste of independence is
'uite a heady feeling $ but at the end of the day youre being thrown in the to deep
end. As here you are living with strangers, and perhaps for most first years people you
hardly know forever surround (you and this often leads to this deeper kind of need to
understand your self in this whole other dimension almost.
In this new social structure its the survival of the fittest. )ith most of these students
who have !ust barely become legal to vote, youre still in limbo over the whole "adult
or teenage phase. %ut there is a certain immortality that one feels at this age that
older people complain is gone, by the time you reach your late *+s, which frankly is
so disappointing. ,o theres this fren-ied urge to do everything at once when you feel
like it, whenever you feel like it. Also at first theres almost this disconnect that
happens with the "real or "outside world.
It feels like a cage yet not for in this cage most people tend to find their freedom and
themselves in many cases. .he first true lack of monitoring of every activity you do is
like the removal of the /big brother0 from your life. ,o if no one is watching you can
do whatever you want and you dont even have to feel guilty if you do something as
no ones there to tell you to feel otherwise. Its a cycle every generation probably goes
through of this general constant state of anarchy. 1veryone wants to escape societal
norms at this age or shall we say rise above it, but what truly frightens me is in maybe
ten or even five years from now the very same people who challenged societal norms
and conditioning tend to strive to observe them and stick to them. 2oes that mean
with age comes this certain acceptance of what one must have previously disdainful
of&
Its why the whole rebellious teen trend never goes out of fashion, because it hasnt
and cannot be institutionali-ed and cannot be repeated in the same way ever. .he
youth now cannot replicate the youth rebellion of the 3+s , and thus there might be
many reference points for this sort of thing there are too many uncertain variables for
the youth of one generation to ever be e#actly like the youth of another generation.
.heres never any stagnation because of this. .heres always going to be something
new to talk about and rebel against.
,o basically even if you do become the stereotypical conservative aunty or uncle you
can fondly remember your intrigue danger filled college years and tuck it under the
reference for the number of things you did /when you were young speech0 to recite
to your children along with /I told you so0.