Hello everybody! I am a student here at Northeast Community College but you would never know that. Why you ask? Well, I am mostly an online student. I have one on-campus class at night, and does that even count as a class? I mean half of the people should be paying attention and aren’t.

The reason I decided to go mostly online, is I that transferred from Wayne State in Wayne Nebraska, for an internship at my church and there are no set hours so I couldn’t exactly go to class. So I am a virtual student. I have never met most of my professors except through email, and have no clue what my peers look like. I love it and hate it.

I’ll start with the reasons I love it. First off, I am a night owl. This seems like a weird benefit to being an online student…but it means if I want to do all my school work at night, in bed, in pajamas I can! I know, I know, I am living the dream. Another pro is I can be a literal hot mess while doing school work and nobody knows it. I can wear my over-sized hoodie with Cheeto dust finger prints on it, have zero make-up on, and have an intellectual conversation with a complete stranger. It is amazing! On the flip side, I can put on my cute “Pinterest-y” outfit,  go to The Downtown Coffee Co., study, and do all my work there. I mean, I may be the only young-adult there at eleven o’clock a.m. but I sure look cute living out the hipster dream.

Now the cons. No social interaction with peers my age. At my internship I interact with older adults, and I have my role I play there, the “got-it-together college intern”. I ask people how their kids are; I try to relate. I love it, I love being an “adult”, I love going to meetings, planning, and dressing business casual, but sometimes, I want someone my age to talk to.

Now you are probably thinking, don’t you have a social life outside of work and school? My answer is no, no I don’t, I just transferred to Northeast, I literally know no one here. So imagine, a nineteen-year-old female trying to make friends in a night class full of retirees, people who have fallen asleep when they should be paying attention,or online with strangers, it is really fun. So basically what I am saying; want to be my friend?  No really, I love the freedom of online classes, but I do miss the social interaction of in person classes.

Now this is just my lifestyle, it isn’t for everybody,  it works for the time being, but it is not going to be my forever situation. I would prefer to have more in-person classes. But if you want a free schedule, I am here to say, it is possible to be a virtual student. I don’t recommend it for everyone but it is always an option.