As a student in exchange at the University of Connecticut, the first thing that was struck was the size of the campus. The second thing was how busy it is. In a university with 24 356 First cycle students, it is easy to be a little outdated. However, while you are starting to settle in day the day of life of this university, you realize that the affairs of university life here are normalized and routine. It is easy to get caught up in the rhythm of life in this more silent pocket of Storrs, so much so that you wonder where all the free time has passed. In the end, what I found is that this campus takes place on a culture “working hard, playing hard”, one this article seeks to digest.
After a few weeks in Uconn, I noticed that students everywhere on campus embody this duality. Seeding conferences, you see a wave of faces to impatiently pursue a 4.0 GPA. Then you would undoubtedly see the same faces during the next bar or the party to which you would assist. On the Uconn Storrs campus, there is a total of 41 Different chapters of sorority and fraternity which are affiliated with college. After talking to several friends and fraternities and different sides last, one thing has become clear: they live for this duality of a lifestyle “ working hard, playing hard ”. They were often the last dancing on a table at a party and the first in a conference theater, in the library or at the gymnasium the next morning.
However, there was an equal number of people who told me that they had trouble maintaining this balance. At first, it may feel good, as if you meet each obstacle head -on. In the middle of the semester, many of my friends who had so much energy during the previous weeks now seemed drained. Some of the first -year promises for the fraternities I had spoken, either at the end of a party, or in the perspective of the next, informed me that the entire semester had been spent in promising or Kiss for the next quiz, test or test.
Adding to this is a sports culture in Uconn which is particularly omnipresent. As a sports school in division 1, the majority of the students I met while I started to find my feet in this giant school were fanatical on sport. Basketball takes the crown as the most popular sport on campus, students who assist religiously to games, regardless of how overworked they are or to what extent their schedules are occupied. This is exacerbated by the university’s wave of advertising and encouragement so that students support the teams. Both word of mouth and social media, the incentive to support UCONN athletics is incredibly large. Each third message on Uconn Instagram The page is linked to sports, and each game I was able to attend the fall filled with full capacity.
With both academic rigor, the intensity of sports and the prevalence of the social scene in Uconn, you are starting to wonder: when do students have time to rest? The answer is simple: this is not the case. Most people I was talking about in my different classes said they regularly had less than six hours of sleep per night. During a 16 -week semester, this “All Go” structure is required to leave the students tired.
For the Huskies which are courageous enough to start their days with a conference at 9:30 am and ending after the closing call of the Ted bar or the Taverne Huskies at 1:30 am, the cost and the reward are one and even. The possibility of exhaustion, mixed with intoxicating thrill to be able to design your life as you wish, is what makes the university such a good time. I myself found a lot to love with this philosophy.
It is often difficult to remember that a large part of university life is to learn to balance your time. Two years at my original University, the University of Warwick, taught me this. You go in the experience with a “kid in a candy shop”. First -year students with wide -wide eyes on so many new experiences possible, only to find themselves in the need of a lot of mental and physical rest on the other side. Being in Uconn from August to December, without my family of family or immediate friendship, taught me the need to find this. It’s different for everyone, but when you do, everything else is set up.
Coming back to Storrs at the early hours of Saturday morning after a five -week break, I found the campus brought back to life. There was a new cohort of students in exchange and several new faces in my courses and conferences. After only a week in college, you start to feel this familiar sense of business failure, whether in the packed leisure center at 7 p.m. on Monday evening, students where students trip to find something Intelligent to say or say or in bars that are crowded with three rows deep to have a drink.
I have no doubt that the upcoming semester of the Storrs d’Uconn campus will be occupied. My lesson to undergraduate students is: “Work hard, play hard”, but be sure to maintain balance. Whatever this may look like you. There is a lot of diversity in thought, ideas and paths taken from this university. However, if there is one thing that people unify behind it is a “Students today, Huskies forever” mindset. College can end after four years, but the lessons that it gives you are with you forever. Learning to face the life of life can be one of the best things that Huskies of all ages can do.