Being a university student in Lebanon.

After high school graduation, you don’t get the ultimate “college experience” in Lebanon. You usually don’t pack your bags, say goodbye to your parents and travel to another city. It’s either Beirut or Jbeil; if there is any traffic it only takes about 45min-1h to get there. Being a university student in Lebanon, my college routine is procrastinating during the whole beginning of the semester until the last day to register your courses, miss the deadline, and beg every course chairmen to add by force, and then stay at home during the whole week of add & drop because “it’s only the first week, it doesn’t matter”. Being a university student in Lebanon is arriving early to park your car at the best spot, passing by the coffee shop 2 steps away from uni, sipping the morning coffee and scrolling on Instagram and finally arriving 10 minutes late to the first course. Being a university student in Lebanon is begging your professor to upgrade your D to a C in order to not repeat the course.

You don’t get into sororities like “Kappa Kappa” in the movies, or get invited to frat parties and play beer pong, but you drive back home and have dinner with your parents, it’s a more simple life. You stay connected with your high school friends and spend long breaks cruising with loud music around with them, or go for a swim at the beach in summer. You have your own spot at Latte Art, and the barista knows already what you will order, “Good Morning!” — “Caramel Latte?”- “Yes please!”. You take a bathroom break to smoke a cigarette when the hour’s too long and skip the last course because you are “exhausted”.

Truth is, being a university student in Lebanon isn’t different than being a high school student in Lebanon. Being a university student in Lebanon doesn’t teach you to have responsibilities, because you have easy access to a Doctor’s health report, it doesn’t test your ability to live alone and on a budget, because your parents will always be there for you, it doesn’t projects you into a new life because you’re still in this very small country where you’ll see the same faces at campus or at the club Saturday night. College in Lebanon doesn’t change your world, it only changes the location of where you have to be everyday at 8:00am, and for the real life-changing experience, it will have to wait until you apply for masters in another country. At least in my entourage, that’s just the way it is, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy it and create some of my best teenage memories during these 4 years of my life.

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