I recently visited the College of William and Mary as a high school student shadowing a college English professor as a part of my Capstone project. I was there to study the differences between high school teachers and teaching versus higher level education, and so I spent a day following Professor Sharon Zuber around as she taught her writing center class and a freshman seminar. I sat in the front on both classes and doodled in my little notebook and felt like a tiger on display at the zoo, someone so foreign, so different, that all you can do is really just stare.

Considering my lack of experience on a college campus, I FELT at home in a place with students who were once in my shoes. But somehow I didn’t feel like i knew what I was doing; it was strange because I knew in less than six months I too would be a college student walking down the beaten paths of those alum before me. As I drove through campus, I could not immediately tell what the difference between high school and college were (except for the whole not living at home thing and the walking outside between classes thing, which was not a problem since it was 70 degrees that day). We are all there for the same reasons, right? To learn. So what’s the difference?

Raise your hand if you would voluntarily go to class every day, rain or shine. I know I would not mind missing a day of calculus or an hour and a half of government, but on college campuses, you go to class because you genuinely want to. College is considered one of the best experiences of your life because you actually go for the classes, for the teachers, for the homework. High school is mandatory, students here petition for closed school days, but in college, you pay and choose to take certain classes and sleep in dorms without air conditioning. College differs because there is an interest and passion for learning, high school feels like prison. And where do said teen prisoners want to go come graduation? College.

But why choose college just for the name? Just because you go to college does not mean you can necessarily enjoy it, yes everyone wants to go for the parties and for the freedom, but use that time to discover what interests you the most, what your direction in life is. Don’t just live the moments, experience them.