A Familiar Feeling
Classes have officially started, which means that the traditional students are back on campus. When I was at the University of Maryland taking my science prerequisites, I was amazed at the changes in campus culture since I had been a co-ed in the mid-90's:
Instead of little or no make-up, flannel shirts, jeans and hiking boots, young women now wore lots of make-up, form-fitting, navel-showing shirts, low-slung pants or short skirts and heals. (It always seemed to me that professors would get quite an eye-full in a lecture hall filled with such young beauties.)
Few had backpacks--many had leather bags that I would use as a purse or a bag that I could use to take all my stuff to work.
I felt like an old prude. I wore a backpack (on both shoulders!), was married, had a mortgage, and rode public transportation an hour each way to class. I preferred indie rock to Britney Spears.
Granted, some of these differences may have been geographic--I spent my undergrad years at a liberal women's college in New England, with a stint at a Big 10 school in the Midwest. Neither being a place that was really warm enough for showing off midruffs. But I digress.
For the most part, my cohort of 2nd Degreers is much like me--people who have decided to change careers and are back in school. We wear jeans or outfits suitable for work, we wear backpacks and have the beginnings of crow's feet, laugh lines and the occaisional grey hair. While the traditional students are less Britney Spears-influenced, many still fit the description above.
Thank god I have friends this time around!
Instead of little or no make-up, flannel shirts, jeans and hiking boots, young women now wore lots of make-up, form-fitting, navel-showing shirts, low-slung pants or short skirts and heals. (It always seemed to me that professors would get quite an eye-full in a lecture hall filled with such young beauties.)
Few had backpacks--many had leather bags that I would use as a purse or a bag that I could use to take all my stuff to work.
I felt like an old prude. I wore a backpack (on both shoulders!), was married, had a mortgage, and rode public transportation an hour each way to class. I preferred indie rock to Britney Spears.
Granted, some of these differences may have been geographic--I spent my undergrad years at a liberal women's college in New England, with a stint at a Big 10 school in the Midwest. Neither being a place that was really warm enough for showing off midruffs. But I digress.
For the most part, my cohort of 2nd Degreers is much like me--people who have decided to change careers and are back in school. We wear jeans or outfits suitable for work, we wear backpacks and have the beginnings of crow's feet, laugh lines and the occaisional grey hair. While the traditional students are less Britney Spears-influenced, many still fit the description above.
Thank god I have friends this time around!
Comments
Isn't it great to be a part of the grunge/gen-x era?