So after narrowing down your choices, ranking the pros and cons, and visiting again and again with your parents, you’ve finally chosen your college. As an added perk, your future campus is at the beach! As you sit back and imagine the days of nonstop sun, sand, and surf, you can’t help but feel excited for the next four years of college.
Not everybody is lucky enough to have ocean waves crashing so close to campus, but for those of us who are fortunate to call the coast home, there are many beach cliches that ring true. Here are 5 signs you go to school at the beach!
1. You don’t even bother styling your hair.
There is really no point in putting effort into your ‘do, because the weather ensures your hair will have a mind of its own. Some days, this will leave you with tousled, salty waves that our inland friends could only dream of. Other days, maybe the humidity will take over and leave you with a nice halo of frizz. Either way, there’s no controlling beach hair!
2. Bikes. Literally everywhere you turn.
Small beach towns are typically bike-friendly, and students are likely to use bikes as an economic and environmentally friendly mode of transportation. Cute bikes, sporty bikes, bikes that are rusted to the core: they are a staple of a beach campus.
3. Sand is everywhere.
Dorm showers get a bad rap no matter where your campus is located, but there’s one extra icky feature of a coastal dorm shower: sand. There is always going to be sand in the shower. And everywhere else in the bathroom. Even in your dorm room. You may even sit down in your math class and find a few stray grains ground into the floor. While making sand castles is a beloved beach day activity, it may be a little less fun when you make one by accident, simply sweeping your dorm. Still, the sand is a little extra reminder of how lucky you are to be in a prime vacation spot, all the time!
4. Everybody is tan. Everybody.
And maybe you show up on your first day and feel washed out by all the golden, glistening bronzeness, but have patience. Just walking to and from classes for a few days is all it takes to get some color when you’re at the beach. Or maybe to get sunburned… It’s best to slather on the sunscreen before you end up with a nasty burn. Even the most seasoned beach bums can attest to this.
5. No matter the season, you always have a prime location for socializing.
Surfing, paddleboarding, and fishing are always popular, but even if you aren’t into those activities, the beach is simply a fun place to be. Summer brings tourists and bikinis, and winter brings calm, peaceful, solitary days on the shore.