YEAHHHH HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING SEMESTER 2017!!! GET HYPE! To honor the first day I’ve written a little memoir of my days at CCBC. Enjoy!
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My first day at CCBC went exactly the way I planned. I knew exactly where all my classes were, I found friends in each subject. I was calm, cool, collected, and college ready.
…Mannnn. That’s what I wish it was like. In actuality I was the most stereotypical jittery little freshman who was five minutes late to every class and then sat by myself because I didn’t see any of my own friends. I was almost too nervous to go to the cashier in the school snack store.
Really none of this was for lack of trying on my part. I had studied my schedule, I’d attended orientation, met with an advisor, I thought I was ready and set to go. It’s just for some reason when I stepped into building and saw all the other students and faculty walking around and talking, I felt incredibly overwhelmed.
Flash forward through the rest of my first semester, I did actually become calm, cool, and collected as I got used to the environment around me. I found friends, grew comfortable with my classes, and joined organizations on campus. Despite that, even now I still have these instances where I felt exactly like I did when I walked in for my first day at CCBC. (Not to divulge all my embarrassing secrets in one blog post, but one time I walked out of the library without checking out my books. Everything started beeping and it was terrible.)
Why am I ruining my reputation so early in the game? For one, I’m sure I’m not the only one who has felt or will feel this way. Anxious individuals, I stand in solidarity with you. Second, I learned a really valuable lesson that I think everyone starting college should take to heart:
Be prepared to feel totally unprepared.
The key word in that phrase is FEEL. Just because sometimes events will inevitably, eventually, seem too much to deal with doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to avoid it! Know your resources, take advantage of the campus around you, lean on your support group and do what you need to do.
Instead of going into college with the mindset that everything is going to be smooth and perfect, expect and embrace that there will be times where it all seems too much to handle. College is a huge step in life. Amid new friends, clubs, classes, work, and exams, there’s going to be a lot going on. You’re going to grow tremendously as a person in the time you’re here, and most times that handy new height doesn’t appear without some growing pains. Don’t worry, just roll with it.
P.S. Oh and also check out your library books as soon as you pick them up so no one thinks you’re trying to make a run for it with the illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Good luck.
Unlike you, I came to school a day before classes began to see where all my class buildings were and to figure out where I’ll like to stay for the class LOL, however that only happened in my first semester. And this totally says it all – “Be prepared to feel totally unprepared” – because in college, stuff happens.