Today was my first day back at school. Technically one of my classes started yesterday but with the insane amount of snow that Raton got, I didn't make it.
To be honest, I've always hated first days at school. I get incredibly anxious and shy and I worry about getting to the right classroom at the right time and I always fret about what will happen if the teacher makes us divide into groups and I don't know anyone or what if the teacher sent out some sort of group-memo and I didn't get it and what if everyone else is brilliant at the subject being taught and I am clueless?!.. and so on and so on. Consequently, I tend to spend my first days at school with my ridiculously simple schedule in front of my nose and my anxieties about being the odd one out tend to come true as the result of sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Over the years, my school anxiety has gotten a little better but I still experience it and today was no different. On the plus side, the first day of school is generally the only school day of the year when I wake up and do not have the desire nor the ability to go back to sleep. My first class was at 9:30 and I knew that I should plan for plenty of time to drive there due to the snow/road conditions and give myself time to get dressed and ready so I set my alarm for 8:00, thinking that I could follow my usual pattern of having my first alarm a little earlier than necessary so I could hit the snooze button. Didn't work today! When my alarm went off at 8:00 my eyes flew open and after lying there paralyzed for a few minutes I gave up and got ready. My dad had left our dogs inside the house so they could be in the heat for a little longer and right before I left I put them out in the garage. I got a good luck kiss from Otis and that made me feel a little better.
My first class, History of Western Civ, was located in the Berg Building which I am pretty familiar with but in a room I had never been in. When I first walked in, the first thing that came to my mind was, "Wow! This is what I always used to think college classrooms looked like!" In my years at TSJC I have sat at wooden tables and lab counters and desks with computers on top but never in a room like this one- the theatre-kind of setting with lines of chairs on raising levels that all look down on the main floor where the teacher stays. Because of TV and movies I had grown up imagining this to be how college was so it was sort of a small accomplishment.
For whatever reason, the class had somehow segregated itself to mostly guys on one side, girls on the other. While walking up to my seat (I carefully considered my seating choices and ended up with a seat about halfway up and over to the side- not quite next to anyone but not far enough away that it would seem weird) I glanced at the other students and observed that most of the guys looked really young. It later developed that most of the gentlemen were actually high school students.
The teacher was an older man with a white beard wearing a Hawaiian shirt. He was straightforward and funny and I liked him at once. While going through the syllabus, he read what he thought needed to be said and scrolled through the rest, muttering, "Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.." Later, one of my fears came true when he had us divide into teams but I was lucky to be seated next to several other young women who didn't seem to know anyone either.
He had us pick names for our groups and then write the name and members on a pad of paper being passed around. When it got back to him, he glanced over the names and was perplexed at one. It was something like ANUKP. He tried to pronounce it and a large group of high school boys started giggling. One squeaked, "You're a dude with a beard! You should be smart enough to pronounce it!" More giggling. "Say it like An-uh-kuh-p!" The teacher flatly repeated "An-uh-kuh-p" and the boys guffawed some more. Finally one of them told us all what it was an acronym of- something dumb ending with Unicorns Kill People. The teacher raised an eyebrow. "You guys don't go on many dates, do you?" The boys turned red and the rest of us laughed.
I was a little worried about my second class, Intro to Environmental Science, mainly because it's located in the Davis building, and every class I've had in that building has been.. challenging to say the least. But the teacher was very nice and I think it'll be a good class.
Finally, I had Digital Photography, which consists of the teacher, me and one other. I'm not at all worried about that class because I love photography and I'm sure I'll do pretty well.
I'd go on to talk more about my day but it's getting late and my day was pretty boring and already I feel like I've gone on and on!
Sometime soon I'll post another blog about... The Amazing Kreskin! See, you're already hooked!
Haha!
Sarah
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