Generation Game...

Ok, so as people who know me are aware, I am at University. People say you should go to university not only to study, but for the experience. It has certainly enlightened me. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy it. I have some great friends, I enjoy the course and the city of Lincoln is amazing.

However.

When I decided to leave home and go to university, a big part of me wanted to mature and experience life away from family and home. In other words, to grow up. This is what (almost) every student wants from university; to be seen as able to cope with everyday things on their own without adult superiority. Hence my assumption that the people who are paying over £3,000 a year to learn would be willing, nay eager, to do just that. So why then, do the vast majority of students decide that a lack of 'authority' gives them an excuse to act like small children? The first chance given to prove maturity levels in actual fact proved how immature most people are. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a laugh as much as the next guy; going out, drinking too much and making a fool of myself is the mark of a good night, but even so I like to think I do it in moderation, and only as much as my parents did when they were my age. What I don't do is decide that a lack of 'supervision' allows me to do things I wouldn't do if I were at home. Like:

Set the fire alarm off.
Scream in the Hallways.
Invite the football team back and throw a party at 4 am.
Kick glass bottles down the stairs.
Hammer on peoples' doors at 4 am.
Play loud music upon arrival back at the flat after a night out.

Things like this are the reason that I oversleep and miss lectures. And it gives the 'adults' a reason not to trust us, and I say 'us' because unfortunately a small group tarnish the rest of us, who actually are here to mature and learn, with the same brush. And what worries me most of all is the fact that the people who do this are our future lawyers, doctors, teachers and politicians.

So I say this. If you do want to be seen as able to handle yourself and as 'acting your age', then grow up, and act responsibly. Maybe then the bad press on students would cease to exist and people would view us as established and valued members of society instead of drunken wasters who are using public tax money to pay for cigarettes and alcohol.

Oh and the next time I'm woken up at 3 am because some idiot has decided it would be funny to set the fire alarm off, then I'm going to put it forward to the student union that we organise a public stoning and/or rotten fruit throwing contest.

Thank you for reading.

P.S, I realise the olny people who read this will be in fact like me, and not the people it is written about. Sorry.