The general consensus is that students, after roughly 14 years of school, are ready to be launched into the dog-eat-dog world that optimists like to call ?college.?

Most of my classmates cannot wait to graduate ? admittedly, I am one of them ? but I still wonder who says releasing us into the wild blue yonder is a good idea. From what I gather, most parents are biting their nails at the prospect of sending their kids off to a place where there will be no one to tell us to finish our homework or clean our rooms. I doubt parents are the ones who agreed to any of this.

So who out there thinks we are actually equipped to head off to a university, oftentimes in another state?

I like to think I?m equipped. Food will be taken care of in the cafeteria. I can tie my shoes, write in cursive ? all that jazz. I may fear the horrors that lie in wait with the whole laundry adventure, but I can stand turning a couple white socks pink before I get the hang of it.

Other than that, what do any of us know how to do?

Sure, we?ve all had summer jobs and heart-to-hearts with our parents, but honestly, how much skill is involved in asking whether a customer wants onions with that? Don?t get me wrong; I am not trying to demean some of the more impressive r