Pleasures of University life

Memories are magical and precious and so are hopes. To the young
imagination of a college boy, the word ‘University’ is wonderful and
fascinating. It gives him delightful moments of wishful thinking. It fills his
mind with beautiful images, hopes and ideas. He dreams of the day when
he will join university and live a free pleasant life. He knows that going to
university will be the recognition of his independence and maturity. His
parents will stop teaching him like a child. They will let him have his own
way in quite a few things. These hopes of a college boy are not mere
illusions.
The very first thing a boy feels on entering university is a sense of great
relief from the pressures of college. There he was treated as a child who
must be pulled up, pushed around and forced into doing things which was
considered good for him. The atmosphere of the university is the very air of
freedom and bliss and he can breathe at will. He feels that he has left his
cares and worries behind him. He is elated. His professors talk to him as
they would to a young friend. He likes it and feels that at last he is
important, that he is somebody.

“The heights by great men achieved and Kept, were

not attained by sudden flight”.
The sense of freedom and importance does him good but more pleasures
of university are ahead. As he gets used to his liberty, he finds himself in
the Centre of an interesting intellectual atmosphere. He may not have
expected this. At first, he is a shy and reluctant spectator. But gradually he
gets bold and discovers new pleasures. The university union, the debating
club and other societies attract him. If he remains aloof and ignores all the
activities of the university, he will repent later. Is it not wonderful to stand
before the cheering sneering audience and prove one’s eloquence? Even
the shouts and boos, peels of laughter and ridiculing remarks do not
dampen one’s spirit when one is young and confident. Then there are the
pleasures of the sports field.
There are other activities and other pleasures too. There is the university
library for instance. The student finds perhaps for the first time that there
are other books than the prescribed textbooks. He has access to all of
them. Pleasures of reading he discovers are many. He enjoys the company
of great writers. These broadens his sympathies and outlook.
But these pleasures are only for those who look for them and wish to live a
full and active university life.
Fizza Rafaqat.