Ironically...

“So… Where are you off to college?”

That must have been the umpteenth time that I had heard that phrase that seemed to go around my alma mater from person to person. It’s like, “Hey, good to see you again! Where are you off to now?”

A normal person would shrug and keep silent for awhile before admitting that their future was still not planned.

Well… not me!

When faced with that question that I have heard so many countless times before, I hold my chin up high, take a deep breath and say, “I’m off to the mall!”

Of course, there’re a few awkward moments of silence before they see the humor on my face and laugh.

Ironic, isn’t it? But it always happens to me.

I don’t know why people try to make a big fuss of asking where they’re headed off to for college when I’m sure that even if we’ll be on separate routes by then, we would still see each other. I guess what I’m trying to say is that there’s nothing wrong with looking for people that you know to go along with you but I personally believe that college is a time for everyone to get to meet new people. Not stick around to the old ones they have and be contented with that.

You got to explore new things and try them out.

Take this for example. You and your best buds are part of a blue team. You guys are just absolutely crazy about the color blue and this is perhaps the reason why you guys have grown so close together. But during a meeting of what shade of blue you would like to paint the club room, you realized that these people all want the same thing but a different thing at the same time.

Sure, they all love blue. But they want different shades of it.

There’s one who likes navy blue. The other royal blue. Yet another one with blue green, you with blue violet, some others with sky blue, baby blue, etc.

Well, I think college is sort of like that.

You may want to all go to the same college but like the rest of unique individuals, you have to go to different courses.

And hence, the difference factor which affects everything.

And ironically, when you get to college with people from the same course and the same college, you release that they would start asking you the opposite.

“So… which high school did you come from?”