Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
If you have an email ending in @hotmail.com, @live.com or @outlook.com (or any other Microsoft-related domain), please consider changing it to another email provider; Microsoft decided to instantly block the server's IP, so emails can't be sent to these addresses.
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
"Where are you going to college?"
"When are you leaving?"
"Where is it?"
"Are you excited?"
"Are you nervous?"
FUCK YOU, STOP ASKING ME THIS!
Can't tell you how many times people have asked me this question this summer. But I'm sure there are some of you who know how it feels.
Comments
> are you excited
no
no I am not excited in the slightest
in fact I am resentful
I don't think I'm getting the full story on this.
It's people making small talk based on whatever tidbits they can find, don't sweat it too much.
It's a combination of small talk and the desire to seek empathy through gossip (the same thing that makes human interest stories popular).
. . . I never realized what this ties back to: I hate small talk in general.
OP, I knew that feel and I kind of know it constantly because so long as I'm still in college (one more year!), all the adults (by which I mean older adults of course) are going to ask it.
Everything about college small talk is annoying in one way or another. I have to explain again and again not only what my major is, but that I have no concentration within it and that I'm not doing a senior thesis. I am reminded every time someone asks me about my living situation that apparently living in 4 different dorms for four years of college, never the same one twice and never off campus, is not a given/obvious to everyone. And then there's of course the people who have never heard of Brandeis (a sure sign, BTW, that an American is not Jewish) or have but literally think it's in Boston, or the people who once they realize it's not in Boston seem really disappointed when I tell them I'm not running into Boston all the damn time...
I hate small talk too. As you can tell from my posting style, I try to turn everything into big talk. I'm aware of this and know how to keep it in check usually, but my idea of "in check" is still way too much for my mom, who I'm around when I make most of my small talk with people. So I come to dread it because I know I won't be able to keep myself from going too long and getting an embarrassing rebuke.
Frances is one of the few people I don't mind going through the casual motions with when we're not having one of our usual very involved discussions about whatever, because I actually find her everyday life interesting. I also seem to be able to almost make better small talk about her life and upcoming plans than my own. Because really, what I'm most excited for about going back to school this fall is seeing her again.
>What school are you going to?
>Congratulations! Don't forget to study! Students nowadays are so stupid/entitled/whatever.
How the hell do you think I got into this University? By praying to the Flying Spaghetti Monster?
I really hope I get back into college before running into any highschool acquaintances who ask how school is going...:/
^Y'know, you could just...lie?
True, but still
Speaking from experience, it is still really annoying to lie about it.
Lying is really annoying because you have to, almost on-the-fly, think about every eventuality that comes with lying, and how you're going to cover your ass in each possibility.
> And then there's of course the people who have never heard of Brandeis
I've heard of Brandeis. Besides randomly hearing about it, I remember once I was vaguely interested in some random girl there who had listed her profile on a site called matchup.mit.edu which was supposed to be a dating/social networking site between various greater-Boston-area colleges. I think that site later became thematchup.net but now neither website has anything so I don't know what became of it. It probably just went and died somewhere, like most websites you've never heard of.
I am still living with my parents, though.
A lot of people I talk to are super-impressed I finished college then expect me to be working for the pentagon or something.
Fun fact: When more people get college degrees, either the job market ponies up or people are underemployed and unemployed.
All Nines,
...I never realized what this ties back to: I hate small talk in general.
Yeah, I agree that small talk can get pretty annoying. I feel like it works the best when both sides of the conversation have the same opinion on it too. It is not so fun to get stuck in a situation where you do not really want to say much but the other person wants to ask you a bunch of questions, especially when some of those questions start getting pretty personal (e.g., ones about politics, religion, relationship status).
While I feel like the college question (or job question) is pretty inevitable even if it can get repetitive, one strategy might be to answer it quickly and then change the subject by asking the person about him or herself. I guess keeping some interesting anecdote on hand can also get you through small talk easier and in my experience, being able to talk about sports is a define plus as well. Unfortunately, I have not really found a good way to get out of small talk completely. I doubt there really is one.
I find it useful to have a bunch of stock answers on hand for common things people might ask you about.
"How are you doing?" "Okay." or "Good.", followed by "how about you?"
"How is the U.S. doing in the Olympics so far?" "Well, I haven't followed it too closely, but I think we're second in medal count between China and the UK, so we've been doing pretty well."
"What's your opinion on gay marriage?" "I personally believe the term 'marriage' refers to a heterosexual union, but I don't think I should be the one to tell others what they want to do with it."
"How's life been?" "Okay; I'm about to start school so things are pretty busy lately."
"Mac or PC?" "I prefer the interface design of Windows machines."
"How's your love life?" "This is a private question I don't have to answer."
Or when people keep asking me when I'm gonna graduate or how many years I've been in it. I don't want to be reminded that I'll be graduating as a 7th-year.
Dat feel when you tell people you're taking more than 4 years to complete your degree.
so, where are you guys going to college
This fine building.
^^ Northeastern University, with my first semester to be spent in London.
University of Toronto, Scarborough campus (and hopefully transferring to the main campus after first year)Susquehanna University, in Pennsylvania. Though I think it's worth noting that I was admitted to Northeastern, as well, and could have gone to school with the Forz.
Toronto Film School.
There will be lightning and thunder the day i meet nyktos
or you know
just awkwardness
University of Zulia.
According to Google Images, it's like this:
> Dat feel when you tell people you're taking more than 4 years to complete your [bachelor's] degree.
Oh fuckin' axolotls, I know this feel. I got so much flak from my parents over it.
> so where are you going to college?
See this high school?
Find a university that has the same school colors, and is located in the region whose nickname is the name of this school.
I will be done with Brandeis next year, and on to a certain graduate program at Simmons if all goes according to plan.
I count among my classmates the esteemed current leader of BTL, Autumncomet, who I knew back when she was an actual troper, innocent to the evil swirling around her. It only took a few months for realization to set in...
Unfortunately, I didn't meet any tropers when I was doing my master's.
I wonder if there are any tropers in the DC area.