College Kid

I've been in the college game for, what, three years? Well, the community college game. It's not as glamorous or full of hijinks as Community would lead one to believe. It's lame.
In high school, they told us that we could go to community college for two years, knocking out our gen-eds close to home and saving a ton of money. I know that I've saved thousands upon thousands by doing just that, but honestly, if I'd had the opportunity to go straight to university out of high school, I would have.
It's taken me three years of commuting, taking classes that I didn't want to take (hello, Sociology 101), and waiting around, but I'm finally heading off into a proper collegiate wonderland in August. Definitely expect lots of enthusiasm and stuff about decorating my dorm room (yes, I'll be moving into a dorm; yes, I'm stoked) and things like that.
But that wasn't the point of this.
Right, I've been going to community college for three years, and one of those years has been spent waiting. I'm not working on my major, or toward transfer units (I got all of those done in two years, with the exception of one class I had to take over the summer because my critical thinking class did not count as a critical thinking class), or anything. Last semester, I took drawing and Italian because they seemed fun. This semester, I'm taking a class on evolution, astronomy, and geology because I freaking love science.
I'm not the only one who's had trouble with the whole two-years-and-you're-good issue, either. Two of my friends, one of whom doesn't even attend the same school, are still working toward their transfer units. And, while a lot of my friends are having that problem, they're the most directly relevant because we talk about this stuff, okay?
Just know that if you are a high school kid looking at college, community college is a good choice. A really good choice. Just know that it will almost certainly take more than those two years you were promised. I'm not sure if I just had trouble, but I found out that you can't even apply to a school without all of those units down, and you have to apply a full year ahead. That is what's going to get you.
Just smile, work as hard as you can to get done, and take advantage of cheap for-fun classes while you wait, is all I'm saying. That's my take-away, and it ought to be yours too.