Plato's Allegory of the Cave is incredibly relevant to the life of a college freshman. Prior to starting college, I believed that it would be a whole new world. This world would be one in which I could break away from everything I had known before, truly becoming my own self, without any pressure from my peers. Though this vision may have been a reality for many people from small towns who had graduating classes of 28 or less, for me it was a devastating disappointment. I discovered that from my graduating class of 439, over half my former classmates are now my current classmates. The rut that I fell into during high school is one from which I am still trying to crawl out. I cannot go anywhere on campus without running into people from my past. These people are not terrible, I just want to start again, make new friends, expand my horizons, and be my own person. When I was in my cave, I thought the new world would be glorious. Instead, it is gloomy. I understand that it is my choice to be around the people that I am, but it is hard to completely detach myself from my old friends when they are five minutes away. .
My trip to college has not been a step into a larger world of different people, ideas, and values. Many of the people are different from me and my group of friends, yet they all seem to be the same. Everyone snowboards or skies, smokes marijuana, attempts to dress as different as possible, pierces and tattoos whatever they can, and listens to alternative rock. Too bad through all this battle to be different they are all becoming more and more alike. This group of lemmings may soon find themselves following each other over the cliff of college drop outs. .
I thought that college would be challenging. While chained in my cave, those who had already seen the sunshine told me that college was completely different from high school. They were right; it is different.
