…Only then do you realise you had it good. The next step is obviously college. Now college is great, new friends, new lessons, more respect. But of course with all the good the heightened work load can be very exhausting.

I am always stuck in limbo with my opinion on college. I love it, I really do. There is so much more freedom and the whole time there you are actually working towards opening the door to the grown-up world.

However it is also quite intimidating. Lessons have gone from half an hour sessions where you talk and pass notes the whole time to two hour classes where the lecturer is expecting you to note everything he says in detail and if you don’t then you fall behind. You have gone from one small building to a whole campus of them. Schools teach children in the hundreds, colleges take on the thousand. With so much change its no wonder college appears daunting at first.

After all the time bashing school you cant help but wish sometimes you were back there. Everyone was a friend and naughty behaviour earnt only a detention. Now for the slightest disruption you can find yourself kicked off of the course. At school you could almost guarantee you’d be home by early evening, in college you find yourself crawling through the door at 6pm. And it’s not just the late home times that are difficult, it’s the early starts. Most college students don’t actually live anywhere near their chosen centre and this mean catching a bus, normally between 7-8am, this obviously means a very early alarm call.

Although just going to college can actually be worth it. The facilities are much more advanced then at high school. Computer rooms and much better stocked, the library caters for all types of media needs and just looking at education recourses in the lessons is amazing. In school the most enjoyable English lesson was being able to act out a scene from a Sherlock Holmes novel, now students can find themselves in other countries to benefit their education.

The amount of lessons to choose from also adds some excitement. Schools mainly only covered a few basic lessons, now you actually get to choose what you want to do and most colleges tend to have a choice of over 30 subjects.

College can also be the chance for a new start, , the geek can turn into the most popular one in the class. People who may have failed school can make this up in college. It can be seen used as the moment to turn your life around and mould it to how you wanted it your whole school life.

Of course there is a downside for some. The smartest kid in the class can now be just like everyone else, this goes with those who used to be the most popular and of course it can be a shock. But it can also be a lesson, they might like to fall into place with everyone else and it may well be a huge weight lifted, and of course if they still want to be the most popular or the smartest they have to work for it. Everyone gets a fair chance in college.

So love it or hate it, or maybe like me, a bit of both. Everyone can see the upside to college. Even if you can’t, unlike the decade long school run, college only lasts around two years. If you can get through school, college will be no problem.