I’m not sure if the message was delivered by e-mail, Instagram, text or what. When I was sending emergency messages from college to my parents, it was by means of a long distance operator informing them that she had a collect call and would they accept the charges? Which my parents almost always did. A lot depended upon which one got to the phone first.
And I have no idea what that college student and her roommates were doing that prevented them from having time to pay their bill. Protesting over the war in Gaza? Debating the relevance of Proust in post-modern 21st century neo-classicism? Comparing notes on the nearest bar most likely to accept a fake ID?
I’m not sure even sure what college year the student was in.
Probably not freshman.
After 18 years of being told what to do, when to do it and when not to do it, freshman year may be a taste of independence, but only an appetizer. Most colleges still have requirements that students need to spend their first year away from home in supervised dormitories, an arrangement designed to pave the road to the entrance of the real world, where things such as electric bills need to be paid by the people who use the electricity.
And, most likely, they’re not juniors or seniors. By the time they’re upperclasssmen they’ve either grasped the concept of paying their electric bill or they’ve frozen to death.
So I’m guessing sophomore, which is the year in which college students are confronted with the inconvenient annoyances of life. That laundry will not wash itself, nor will it wait until you take it home on Thanksgiving break before it starts to emit nasty vapors. That the restaurant food in front you may taste a lot better than the college cafeteria stuff included in your meal plan, but at the end of the meal there will be someone handing you a bill and expecting you to pay it instead sliding it across the table to the nearest adult.
Sophomore year can be the big step toward independence. The year in which you’re allowed to move out of the dorm and declare to the world, including your parents — especially your parents — that you’re an adult, capable of making your own decisions.
But also the year in which the world replies, “OK, then, pay your electric bill.”
Contact this columnist at dlstew_2000@yahoo.com.
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