alright, two major topics for tonight: the transition from college to the real world and long-term relationships between the ages of 18 and 22.

i'll tackle the long-term relationships debacle first, cuz i can prolly explain that one a little quicker. i'll come right out and say it (since the recent common observation amongst everyone is that i am in fact blunt), i am mostly opposed to lengthy long-term relationships in college. i guess i'm sorta loosely defining that -- i'd say a long-term relationship in this case counts as at least 2 and a half or 3 years, and typically either starts freshmen year of college or even back in high school. the funny thing is, i'm against these kinds of relationships mostly for my own benefit, since the people in these kinds of long-term commitments are traditionally harder to get along with.

this is only based on my own experience, i can't guarantee any of this as fact or the case for everyone. it's simply harder to get somebody in one of those to bend just a little to break out of their usual mold that they've gotten so used to. when somebody's been in a real long relationship, you can basically just look at them and realize that they haven't been out and met anybody of the opposite sex and really been able to connect with them, because if they did their sig other would most likely not be able to handle it. unfortunately they typically make for less well-adjusted type people and make it harder for you to get close to them, because they've already proven they don't put a lot of emphasis on meeting new people in general.

there's a big part of me that actually wonders how they were able to even pull off such a lengthy relationship in the first place. i mean if you told me i had to keep the same gf i had in HS and remain faithful in college and make things last, i don't think i'd have been able to do it. does that make me an overly shifty person cuz i couldn't do that? no i don't think so, i think it makes me about average. i think if you came here with a gf or bf and you never got to play the field here or just ogle people in classes or something then you're not really understanding what a lot of this is all about. sure you're here to get your education and whatnot to be successful in life, but look at all the opportunities around you. how can you pass all that up? are you that convinced that you met the right person back in high school or early on here when you were only 18 years old? how? how did you do that? i think you gotta go out with several people before you even understand what you even want in another person. i guess it shows there are still plenty of old-fashioned people out there that think they've got it all planned out before they can even buy a drink. guess i'm not one of those people, heh.

relationships are great -- when you're the one in 'em. have you ever noticed that? how many times have you had one of your friends be in a great mood all the time cuz they've got a new boy/girlfriend, yet all of a sudden you can never spend time with them or you just find them obnoxious? sometimes that shit seems to happen like that. when you try to transition between classmates/co-workers with somebody into real friends and such, all of a sudden you have to clear all this shit with everybody's gf/bf's and it's just a whole huge deal most of the time. that's where it sucks to try to be tight with somebody who's had a really serious bf/gf forever. i've been on both sides, where i'm trying to pry the girl away from her bf of 2 decades or whatever, and where a guy's trying to pry my girl away from me for a night. either way, it sure is a bitch.

i'm trying my best to be open-minded about it (c'mon, gimme a break, i've been burned really bad by these kinds of situations) but i have to say statistically you're gonna be happier if you don't try to be real tight with these kinds of people. i refuse to say that you shouldn't become friends with somebody you meet that's been in a long-distance relationship. it isn't that black & white. i've seen examples of people that have been dating the same person forever but they're still able to make enough time to have fun with other people. i'm just saying, give me 2 girls, 1 who's single or in a new relationship and 1 who's had the same bf since sophomore algebra in high school, and i'm gonna pick the first one to try to have a meal with. it's just... i've been burned too many times by girls just cuz they have boyfriends. you get sick of that happening to you. you think, "y'know, find me a girl that's not hitched so she'll be available now and then to just go do something, for christ's sake." it's hard enough to work around academic and personal schedules, working around a jealous boyfriend or girlfriend is just an unnecessary obstacle.

eh, that's prolly enough about that, you kinda get my point. i think i had a point. i'll buy you a 6-pack or something if you text msg my cell explaining to me what my point was on that.

alright, the college to real world transition... why do i phrase it like that though? as if college isn't part of the real world? yeah, that's cuz it isn't. here's why:

-- at least for me, look at my post below on sleeping patterns. you can't pull that shit off anywhere except at college, man. you can't go work for a company and sleep from 5-9am one day, then 8am-3pm another day, etc. that isn't anything close to reality.

-- at least at texas a&m, people try to pull off this 3 day weekend shit. that doesn't happen after college. you can't just go crazy on thursday nights when you've got work the next day and expect things to just work out.

-- our priorities are all kinds of fucked up. if you're any kind of good student (why am i putting myself in this category?) then grades matter so much to you. everything you do is to ensure your stupid good grade. life isn't about good grades. life is about being happy and doing things so that you make others around you happy.

-- students don't operate on any kind of reality. there's gotta be like at least 10,000 students that go to church here and they're a lot holier than me when they're anything but. that's a whole other blogpost though. so many people on campus are just completely fake and you meet so many people in so many places that you can't remember anybody's name, but you pretend you do.

the way i see it, everybody in college is sorta scared in a way. as a freshman and sophomore, you're still a little uneasy about a lot of shit that comes along. when you hit junior and senior, you've been here long enough to feel comfortable and you're prepared for everything that comes along, but you're so damn worried about getting a job afterwards.

i've met so many people at the senior level that are scared shitless about what's about to come after college. whether it's regarding living scenario, relationship or job, everybody's worried about something. the easiest example i see of that stuff is so many people i know trying to get jobs. i admit i'm fortunate to have something real good lined up after school and i don't really have to worry, but it sucks that so many people i know have to go through all this shit just to score job opportunities. the most apparent example of that is in my INFO courses. a lot (not all) of INFO majors, their biggest skill is simply asskissing. they want to sell shit and be businessmen or whatever in their career, and that's fine, but they're gonna have to kiss ass in order to do that. seems like being in wehner is all about just watching people in suits and nice clothes kiss other peoples' asses. these poor bastards spend all their damn time going to informationals and shit like that just to get some crappy chance at a job with a decent company. they kinda bug me, but i feel for them. it just sucks that majors like IT and computer science have students that graduate with a degree and don't even have a job afterwards.

i guess that's about my 2 cents on a couple more topics for today. let me know if you feel what i'm saying or if you think i'm completely off here.

much love,
justin