College: What they didn't tell you.

       So there you are.  Freshman again.  all set to reforge your identity to a more hip version of you.  You will have been warned about the upperclassmen, the "freshman 20", and maybe even local spots to avoid.  Mom and Dad just pulled away and its just you and your dormie.  Unless, like me your broke ass went to community college for the first half, and walked 2 1/2 miles each way (Not kidding) because after tuition and books you had no money left for the bus, and damn sure not enough for a car.
       No matter.  The part that you were not warned about remains the same.  I am looking for the most delicate way to phrase this, and I think I have found it.  No one gives a shit.  That's right, you heard it here first.  The reason college kids act crazy, dress crazy, and generally do other stupid things is that suddenly they are confronted with a world where no one cares.
       You are friends with everyone, and close To no one.  Maybe you know what you want to be when you grow up, maybe you don't.  Either way, no one cares.  Talk to a counselor.  They have no frickin idea what classes comprise your major.  Don't care either.  So you look it up yourself.  They tell you you are wrong and need fewer credit hours than you thought.  You trust them, after all they do this for a living.  But guess what?  They have no vested interest in you.  Next time you go looking for a counselor, odds are it will be someone else you talk to.  Either way you end up n school a semester, or two, longer than you should because of someone else's apathy.
       The professors are a study in apathy.  Unless you are flirty and they are the sort to take advantage.  Then they care for as long as you put out.  Otherwise, on the "give-a-crap-o-meter", you don't even register.  Again, mostly because you will be gone a short time from now.  You are just another blank face, hung over and not paying attention, who will bitch if you get less than an "A", even though we all know you deserve an "F".  Colleges just push you through, so long as you pay.  That professor came by their apathy the hard way. When they tried to fail one too many people who deserved it, and had a long talk about the effect failure rates have on funding, with a half-wit administrator who only sees you as dollar signs.
       The exception of course is the gifted person.  They care a lot about you, and keeping you in a major they teach.  So they can take credit for/steal your work.  That book isn't going to publish itself.
       The overall tone is one of transience.  You will move on soon enough.  So college is a world where there are no consequences, and thus, no one cares.
       The other thing they don't tell you is that there are consequences... but that is another post.