Review: To Go from Quiet Rural areas to Sunny LA for College & A New Adventure!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 27, 2012
3 Freshman: A Novel shows life from a fresh perspective of a new college student.  You get the feeling that if you never understood the mind of a young adult male, you can get some insight when reading this book by Stephen Bensinger.  You wonder what fears, worries, aspirations, daily routines, relationships, conflicts, and resolutions people dealt with from the 60s time period... on? This book looks at this and more.  It even conveys how college students and professors dealt with the wars and society during the late 60s and 70s.  Wonder if life was always so full of suffering and chaos a few decades ago as it is now? Was it nearly as fast paced and technologically advanced? No... you see how many different types of backgrounds came together and had a way of coping with life and making the best that they could with what they had.  You get the insight of life then and what many different groups of people dealt with during those times.Sometimes we know a little bit about rich or poor people, about farming and acting, about investing and making money.  We may even think we know a lot about entry level jobs.  However from a male who barely made enough to live off of, you can see how moving to the city and being around Los Angeles made him face his fears and deal with the many trials of life.  He found family in his dorm mates and saw life in a very black and white way... until entering Trummel University.What would you do if you wanted to go to college but could barely afford pencil and paper? There are so many different careers mentioned in this book.  To see how many young adults become successful career oriented family loving citizens of America and very productive at that makes life seem bearable.  They didn't have the most pleasant or saintly backgrounds either.  They really can invigorate someone who didn't have much faith in themselves and can see so many bad habits in themselves, that they feel they will never be what they should aspire to be in life.  This book also can remind those who have achieved many successes in life to make life simpler and remember the little things.There are many incidents that make you glad you don't have to deal with rising hormones and peer pressure anymore.  However there is a side in this book that many books never convey.  There are those who had lives that were somewhat unhonorable in some ways, that still pull themselves from the depths of immaturity and rise to the occasions of life.  That overcome their challenges and fears.  It isn't always graceful but it definitely makes life interesting and full of activity.This book is almost like a diary of events of many people's lives from one young Latino American guy who didn't think he could make it in life because he never had enough smarts, money, life experiences, poise, quick thinking, or resources in any other way.  He had the simple things and he didn't always know how to make them work.  However he learns a lot.His roommates make this story even more hilarious because you see so many different takes on life and can see how sometimes we are stuck because of our own thinking.  To let us in on such an intimate time of one's life is such a delight.  The book gets better as it goes on and you really get a sense that life isn't about a happy ending, it's about dealing with what you got and making the most of it.  No fairy tale here, but definitely a reality check about what we really want, and how to get it.