Alums take on college life at Georgia State
Sting Alumni Sydney Knowles and Katie Roth dish on their first impressions of college. |credit: Cami Schiappa
January 23, 2019
Sydney Knowles and Katie Roth always knew this day would come.
Meaning, the day they get interviewed for the Roswell High School paper as notable Sting Alumni, recalling their experience as freshmen at Georgia State University. Move-out day was December 11, and they both have a lot to reflect on concerning their first semester in Atlanta as they settle back into their hometown bedrooms for only a small window of time.
As the self-proclaimed capital of the south and the home of the busiest airport in the world, there’s a lot to cover about the freshmans’ new home. “I love it downtown, I would spend all my time there if I could,” exclaims Sydney Knowles, “I feel like each of the smaller Georgia schools has a specific vibe. The kids that go to State are definitely city kids, and the kids that go to Southern aren’t. And I get that, the city isn’t for everyone, but it’s nice to see that everyone likes it as much as I do.”
Literally no one cares what you do – you just get to be in charge of yourself for the first time in your life. — Sydney Knowles
But does living in the city change the way you see it? “You just adapt and start to have fun, the city molds you in a way and fits you in right away. It’s super diverse, which is what I love about it,” says Sydney. There is a definite sense of community, and there are some vague parallels to normal traditions of Roswell High, Sydney thinks. Sydney was never a high school sports person, but she says she feels it at Georgia State. “Basketball is more important than football, which isn’t usual for a college but it makes sense here. Kids kinda go crazy for it,” says Sydney.
There’s an obvious division between high school teachers and college professors, and the Sting wondered if that was jarring for college freshmen. Sydney Knowles thinks so. “They know that you’re an adult so they expect a certain amount of work. But at the same time they don’t want to see you fail. They’re really cool – the autonomy they give you is really liberating,” states Sydney. When asked about the infamous college workload, she nearly scoffs, “Classwork is easier than any at Roswell; the city is a breath of fresh air.”
The new sense of independence is a lot for some kids, but Knowles and Roth thrive off of it. New-found independence is a really intense change, when you’re living alone for the first time in your life and beginning to rely on yourself for basic needs. But adding that to a suburb-to-city shift? Sometimes it can’t all feel real at first, but both Roth and Knowles have a defining moment that it did. “My first day, my Philosophy professor showed up in a puffer jacket in the middle of September while also wearing blue plaid, blue jeans, red shoes and a banana bandana, sipping diet coke, and burping between each word.” Katie Roth recalls, and laughs. “It feels like a different dimension.” Sometimes it doesn’t take an eccentric teacher to really smack college into your face, sometimes it’s other students. “I was walking to the library for the first time all semester, and I got off the elevators on the fourth floor, and there was this boy, laying face-down on the benches in front of the elevators dead asleep. It was three in the afternoon. I said nothing, and passed him to go into the library. That’s when I knew I was in college.”
