Top 10 Things Only Students Do and Think It's Normal

School lunches can be a mixed bag. The quality is rarely 5 star…or even 1 star. While standards have improved of late, all too often school lunchrooms and cafeterias will serve things that can generously be called “mush.” But, on infrequent occasions, cafeterias will serve things that are hard to get wrong, like chicken nuggets or pizza. So, on the days these appetizing junk foods are served, kids will treat the lunch bell as the starting bell in a race. Supplies don’t always last, and being left with the same old slop when everyone else is eating pizza? Well, that doesn’t feel great.

For most adults, the most input someone has over whether we get to use the restroom is a polite acknowledgement when we ask to be excused. Bladders wait for no one! Except that, mind-bogglingly, many of us, both current and former students, have allowed our teachers to dictate if we’re allowed to use the facilities at some point in our lives! We’re sure more than one accident has occurred because of this, but students everywhere often accept teachers’ authority at face value. If you have to go, a teacher telling you to hold it in isn’t going to make much of a difference, except maybe to cause you discomfort and potential embarrassment. Oh, wait, we’re wrong! There’s another group who think this is normal too – prisoners.

To be clear, many college students don’t think paying an arm and a leg for textbooks (or tuition) is normal. They just don’t have any choice in the matter. For the last several decades, the price of textbooks has skyrocketed to the hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars! With so few textbook makers and students basically being forced to buy specific ones for class, publishers can essentially price gouge as much as they want. Maybe that’s where the oil industry got the idea. With many fields of study constantly changing, buying used books is often not an option. What should be a relatively minor expense is just one more thing students are forced to go into debt over.

While some fitness enthusiasts are up for running a mile, most adults aren’t nearly so physically fit. Which is why it’s so astonishing that so many of us didn’t think it was weird that we could just run a mile in 5 minutes or so, take a drink from the water fountain, and then go off to our next class! Imagine your boss telling you to stop work, put on shorts, and run a mile around your building or they’ll cut your pay. That’s essentially what students have to do for their Physical Education classes!

While it may be a trend among the famous and among shoppers at Walmart, wearing sleep clothes in public is still generally seen as weird by most people. But students aren’t most people. Whether you’re a kid or teen wearing them just because, or a university student who can’t be bothered after a long night, students just don’t adhere to this unwritten rule of fashion. They live it. Not that we’re judging other people’s fashion sense, mind you – wear whatever’s comfortable for you. But society still has a stigma attached to wearing soft, comfortable nightwear or loungewear when you’re out and about.

We’ve already touched on cafeteria lunches. Nutritional requirements certainly lead to some odd meals. But in college, students often have to start planning their own meals for the first time, and the results can be…shall we say, creative? College kids frequently find themselves working on a shoestring budget, so buying in bulk is common. Instant ramen is a longstanding favorite, but whatever’s in the fridge and pantry mixed together is also a tried and true “delicacy.” College cafeterias also tend to be more buffet style, so “anything that looks good” often goes on the tray, regardless of whether it pairs well together.

Doing laundry is a chore even for those of us who own machines. So, given the difficulties many college students face when doing theirs, it’s somewhat understandable why they don’t always do theirs regularly. Some schools charge money for laundry, and students aren’t exactly made of money. Their fellow laundry-doers aren’t always considerate either. It’s discouraging when your clothes are taken out of the machine before you get back to collect them or change to the dryer. Even so, that doesn’t make going for weeks or months at a time without washing your clothes any less unsanitary.

The bell rings, and hopefully your teacher lets you go quickly. You have somewhere to be so you just stick your papers and junk into your school bag. Or maybe you don’t have any folders or binders to put them in. Granted, not everyone can afford school supplies. This might be okay for students, but in a professional environment, this kind of behavior is unthinkable. Crumpling up documents or memos that other people need to see is not going to cut it. While some of us still handle our own papers like this (please don’t take a look at our desks), when it comes to work, this is a habit that students everywhere should probably break.

Many teenage and young adult students seem to like a good party. They also sometimes don’t know the meaning of the word “restraint.” This means that parties can often last all night and into the morning. Next thing you know, you’re looking at the clock, it’s 6 A.M. and you’ve got class in a few hours! Plenty of adults have to work when they’re tired or hungover, but without any sleep as well? The older you get, the less forgiving our bodies become of wearing them out. So while you may be able to pull this off consistently as a student, it becomes less and less normal once you get older. Or desirable. Jobs are less forgiving than teachers.

Skipping class is all too common among students. There are many reasons why, although it’s often in the name of something more fun to do. However, more academically minded students may do so for a surprising reason – studying for a different class. We can see why it might happen. For example, if you’re doing well in one course but not in another, you might ditch the one you’re ahead in to study up for a test in the one you’re in danger of failing. But later in life, skipping out on work to do other work feels significantly less normal – and a good way to get fired, if you’re not using a sick day or vacation time!