After I finished my senior year of high school at Spring Hill, I decided to attend Allen Community College. The small-town environment and getting to start over sounded like the real deal but little did I know; college was not exactly what I expected.

Starting out the first couple of weeks, my classes seemed great and I was also getting to meet a bunch of new people. I was content and happy with how it was all starting until the homework started piling up. I realized just how relatable the tweets from college students ranting about having no sleep and too much homework on Twitter really were.

Freshman Shelby Yoho explained she doesn’t get enough sleep because of how much homework she receives.

“I feel as though I don’t get enough sleep with the amount of homework I get,” Yoho said. “I can’t perform well the next day if I don’t have enough sleep the night before.”

Another misconception about college, especially at Allen, is the number of snow days we get. It is a known fact that Allen rarely cancels class for weather-related reasons. Luckily, this past winter we got one snow day.

Another freshman at Allen, Hunter Crane, believes that the snow days at Allen are not used enough.

“I personally feel like the snow days at Allen are underused,” Crane said. “There were a couple of days when many students including me would question why we wouldn’t have a day off because of snow.”

You’d think with all the winter storms we got this season Allen would allow us more snow days… but that wasn’t the truth! However, other schools throughout Kansas like Pittsburg State University or Kansas University had multiple snow days.

My lesson learned from my first winter at Allen was to cherish the little snow days we got and not to embarrass myself by falling in the parking lots.

Although on a good note, in college you get the afternoons to spend on yourself. Normally in high school, you didn’t get off school until around three in the afternoon, but in college most students are finished with classes by noon.

This gives students the rest of the day to go to athletic practices, work or sleep (my personal favorite).

Freshman and Track and Cross-country Athlete Garrett Gantt likes that he can have practice earlier in the afternoon and have the evenings to himself.

“I get to use my time in the evenings to relax and socialize with my friends and get practice done with all in one day,” Gantt said.

Although it is an adjustment in college, getting more time to yourself is something to take advantage of.