Well, hopefully some of you were able to tune into Mtv’s “College Life” last night. As I said last week, I will be issuing some of my thoughts on the show each Tuesday for as long as this is on air. I find the show authentic, revealing, and affirming as to what I’ve seen working daily with college-age people over the last decade. So, in this series of posts I will be giving my thoughts on what I see as typical college-age issues.

Last night I was once again struck by the mix of maturity and immaturity in college-age people. In fact, as you watch the show, I’d encourage you to watch with that lens: what is mature, and what is immature. You will quickly see signs of both mature adult-like thinking mixed with immature adolescent thinking and action. This dichotomy is important to be in tune with if you’re working in college-age ministry! With that here are some glimpses into college-age life from the show:

Glimpses from Andrea’s life: with Andrea you see a certain amount of innocence when it comes to her relationship pursuits, but you also see how she manipulates as well. The most important thing to realize with her is a search for identity in a relationships. I would say this is an all too common, yet often unconscious, identity crisis during the college-age years. We also see this in Josh’s life as well.

Glimpses from Alex’s life: we see the typical pressure’s college-age people feel of everyone’s expectations being put on them. In fact at the end of last night’s episode we learned that Alex withdrew from the show due to pressures. We also see some very normal tendencies into college-age life: the ability to know in their head what they need to be doing and yet living by the minute and in actions fleeing from responsibility. The new found freedoms in college life mixed with immature thinking leads to this dichotomy.

Glimpses from Kevin’s life: the ultimate “collegiate” (click here for an article I’ve written on this). Kevin is surely enjoying his freedom and diving into the freedoms that college life provides. He’s failing classes, “can’t do anything about it,” so therefore just let’s loose. My experience has shown me that this letting go and enjoyment of freedom isn’t just tied to academics. I’ve seen this mentality embraced because of the pressure college-age people feel to “do something with their lives.” Most don’t know what they want to do, think they’re not going to figure it out now, so why not just enjoy the moment!?

Glimpses from Jordan’s life: oh, man, where do I start? One way of viewing this is as the ultimate picture of the churched kid who is not prepared to face the world outside of the shelter of his parents or church. Another way to view it is this kid has pleased everyone his whole life and is now revealing who he really is. I’m not saying this is true for Jordan, but these types of kids graduate from high school with a “Christian patchwork identity” derived by their parents, not an authentic faith of their own. The exploration that is taking place now is simply a means of finding out who he is, apart from the shelter of family. I’m very interested in how his life progresses throughout the show. I have my hunch, but I’m waiting to see…