After reading Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, I have found many aspects of these stories that relate to my experiences in college. The story begins where Alice was sitting with her sister and was getting “very tired of having nothing to do” (11). She felt comfortable in the presence of her sister, but was looking for more excitement. This is exactly how I felt before coming to college. I was comfortable in my hometown, Plano, TX, where I was surrounded by my friends and family and knew my way around the safe environment. Towards the end of high school, however, I got very anxious to go to college to begin a new journey of my life and was looking for new excitement in my life just like Alice.
Alice then proceeds to follow a rabbit and goes down a long, dark rabbit hole. She feels scared and doesn’t know how far the fall is or what to expect at the bottom of the hole. I felt dazed and confused much like Alice when I first arrived at the campus of the University of Texas. The campus felt so big and there were so many people. I didn’t know how I was going to find my way around the massive campus, and I didn’t know many people coming to UT. In Dodgson’s Oxford, Dougill states, “in the early stages of her time in Wonderland Alice is distraught and disoriented: she feels lonely, longs for her cat” (781). I feel many college students, including myself, feel this way at the beginning of college. I felt lonely in such a large campus, and at times I miss my friends and family back home.
When Alice keeps changing sizes, she feels very frustrated. I feel the same way at different times throughout my college experience so far. It is such a different lifestyle that we must adjust to. In 
Alice in Wonderland, Alice finally turns to a caterpillar for advice because she feels like she doesn’t know who she is anymore. The caterpillar gave Alice advice on how to change her side by eating the mushroom he was sitting on. The caterpillar told Alice, “One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter” (53). After struggling in one of my classes, I learned how important it is to ask others for help. While we are on our own and have much freedom, there are so many people around us on campus who are there to help us. They will not reach out to us, but it is our responsibility to reach out to someone when we need help. I was struggling in my economics class, and I went to my professor several times during her office hours. She went over my test with me and gave me suggestions on how to improve my study habits to perform better on the next test. I felt much better going into the next test, and I felt like a learned an important lesson that will help me in the future, not only in college but for the rest of my life. There will be people willing to help, you just have to reach out and find who will help and ask them.
Alice in Wonderland, Alice finally turns to a caterpillar for advice because she feels like she doesn’t know who she is anymore. The caterpillar gave Alice advice on how to change her side by eating the mushroom he was sitting on. The caterpillar told Alice, “One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter” (53). After struggling in one of my classes, I learned how important it is to ask others for help. While we are on our own and have much freedom, there are so many people around us on campus who are there to help us. They will not reach out to us, but it is our responsibility to reach out to someone when we need help. I was struggling in my economics class, and I went to my professor several times during her office hours. She went over my test with me and gave me suggestions on how to improve my study habits to perform better on the next test. I felt much better going into the next test, and I felt like a learned an important lesson that will help me in the future, not only in college but for the rest of my life. There will be people willing to help, you just have to reach out and find who will help and ask them. Another relation I made from Alice in Wonderland to my college experiences is the concept of finding your identity. As explained in Dodgson’s Oxford, “Alice shows an obsession with identity-‘Who in the world am I?’ the young girl wonders” (780). As we have mentioned many times in this class, college is a time to find your own identity of who you want to be and what you want to accomplish in your life. Through searching for role models and learning from o
thers around us, we are searching out the characteristics we want to embrace. College is a time for us to prepare for our future in the real world and we must make the most of each opportunity granted to us in our time at college.
thers around us, we are searching out the characteristics we want to embrace. College is a time for us to prepare for our future in the real world and we must make the most of each opportunity granted to us in our time at college. One thing that I could relate to in “Through the Looking Glass” also stood out to me as a relation to my college life. Alice encounters many different people with very different attitudes and characteristics. For instance, along her journey, she finds Humpty Dumpty who “was sitting, with his legs crossed like a Turk” and “didn’t take the least notice of her” (207). Alice also runs into Tweedledum and Tweedledee as they “were standing under a tree, each with an arm round the other’s neck” (180). These and the many other people Alice meets reminds me of the many people I have met in college. I have gotten the opportunity to meet various people with 
different backgrounds and different views. I think it is a very good experience to be able to learn many things from the many people around me from professors to students.
different backgrounds and different views. I think it is a very good experience to be able to learn many things from the many people around me from professors to students. Just by looking at the name of the story, “Alice in Wonderland,” I can see how this story relates to my college experience. Alice is forced to go through a long journey with many obstacles and “wonders” because she does not know what is ahead of her. My college experience has already been filled with many ups and downs, but I am doing my best to learn from each experience. I do not know for sure what lies ahead in my future, but I hope to have a good idea of my future when my college years are over.
*first picture: Alice in Wonderland
*second picture: Alcie goes down the rabbit hole
*third picture: Alice gets advice from the caterpillar
*fourth picture: Alice meets Humpty Dumpty
*fifth picture: Alice meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee
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