First days suck

With school starting, it got me thinking of my first days of school.  I’ve had a lot of first days, about 20 years worth with grade school, high school, college, and now grad school.  Many of my first days were uneventful but three in particular I will remember forever.  Just because you’re super lucky (and obviously super smart since you read my blog!), I’m going to share these three days with you.

First day of Kindergarten

I was excited and scared about starting my first day in Kindergarten.  As a side note, why is Kindergarten such a hard word to spell?  Little kids can’t even spell their grade level correctly.  I can’t even spell the grade level correctly.  Luckily spell-check and I are BFFs so it’s all good :)  Our teacher had sent a puzzle piece to every student as a sign of how we each were special, together we created a class, and some other cheesy but very creative stuff.  I arrived at school with my puzzle piece in hand, excited to put it in the correct spot.  My teacher led me to the puzzle, I found where my piece belonged, and turned around to show my mom how smart I was.  I looked for her….and looked…and looked….and realized she had left me.  What a terrible trick! I cried like a big baby.  Now years later I realize that the puzzle piece concept was a big ruse to distract the children so their parents could leave.  While it was brilliant, it didn’t help much with my abandonment issues! (check out an earlier post of other  abandonment issues)

First day of High School

It was my first day of high school.  I was awesome of course because even though I was a freshmen, I was a freshmen in HIGH SCHOOL.  Now, it’s important for you to understand that I am what many call “directionally challenged”.  I get lost ALL the time.  When we moved last year I had to use my GPS to find our house for two weeks.   I should add that we had only moved about ten miles further from where we had previously lived.  I think I get this from my dad - he’s even worse than I am if you can imagine that!  Mr. C says that I just don’t pay attention.   I think I would have to agree with this although there are times that I really try and just have no clue where I am.  Either way, I have issues with directions.  Lucky for me, my high school was small.  My graduating class only had 56 students which I’m told is crazy tiny.  Apparently the school wasn’t quite small enough for me though and I kept getting lost.  My best friend had to tell me which way the cafeteria was for over a week.  It must have been pretty obvious that I was a freshmen because I had my schedule out (pretty sure it was in a plastic protector actually) accompanied by the look of utter confusion.  I asked for directions all day long and finally thought I had things figured out by the end of the day.  I headed off to my last class, English.  The teacher passed out the syllabus and I was surprised to notice that the other students in my class were sophomores.  I knew I was smart but dang, at that moment I realized that I must have been brilliant to be a freshmen with so many sophomores!  As the class went on, I checked my schedule and realized that apparently I was supposed to be in history at that moment.  I had misread my schedule and it was actually the second to last period of the day, not the last.  At that moment I realized that maybe I wasn’t as brilliant as I had thought a few minutes earlier!  I didn’t want to say anything and look stupid so I just sat through the class.  Afterwards, I told the teacher I had been in the wrong class.  She laughed and told me it was fine.  My friends joined me in class and I told them the story.  I figured that would be the end.  I was wrong.  When she handed out the syllabi, she announced that I should already know everything in there because I had incorrectly read my scheduled and attended for the prior class as well.  I’m sure she thought it was funny and not a big deal but I was mortified.  Everyone looked at me, I turned red, and waited for the earth to cave in and take me along.  Of course that didn’t happen and I survived.  I never went to the wrong class again though!

First day of college classes at the Tempe campus

I began my college career at ASU West, a nice little campus with about 8,000 students.  After my first year I switched my major to interior design which required that I attend classes at the Tempe campus which had closer to about 60,000 students.    The town I grew up in had a population of around 20,000 people so it was to be expected that my directionally challengedness (yes I did just create a word) would be an issue on the bigger campus.  I had a great plan for the first day.  Since I didn’t know where to park and hadn’t bought my permit yet, I decided that I would simply park in visitor parking for the first day.  I had a map and knew exactly how to reach visitor parking so I figured that my plan was flawless.  I arrived at the parking lot and discovered that my plan was so great that apparently every other student had decided to do the same thing.  The lot was packed.  I drove around the block only to find “no parking” signs everywhere.  I called Mr. C and started freaking out as only I can do.  I didn’t know what to do and I didn’t want to miss the first day.  I had driven 45 minutes to attend my class and I needed a solution.  I started crying (sounds like Kindergarten all over again huh!).  Mr. C was at the West campus and of course had no way to help me.  I’m not sure what I thought he would do but I have a lot of faith in him sometimes.  Unfortunately for him, many of those times are situations that really have no solution, such as this one.  Eventually I gave up and drove back to my dorm.  I was very worried that my professor would have noticed I was gone.  I considered emailing him but ended up opting to talk to him after class the next time instead.  When I FINALLY made it to class, I saw a huge lecture hall full of 400 students………..I assumed he hadn’t missed me!

After the parking debacle, I realized that I needed to get my permit ASAP.  I parked in lot 59 on my second day, the largest and furthest lot away from the campus.  I had heard there were buses to drive students from the lot to the campus.  I waited with all the other students, again assuming that there would be one bus.  The first bus pulled up and hardly anyone got on.  I assumed that wasn't a good sign so I waited with the other students.  Everyone seemed to flock to bus #2 so I figured I'd give that a try.  I knew it was better than walking because that would be a surefire way to get lost, plus it was 110 outside and I'm not a fan of the heat (yes, I also question why I picked AZ when I HATE the heat!).  I'm not sure why I didn't research the bus thing a little more but I had no clue what I was doing.  The bus made several stops and no students got off.  Finally, a big group of students got off so I figured I should too.  I guess I was all about jumping on the bandwagon that day!  I get off the bus, walk for about a minute and realize that I'm the luckiest person ever because I'm standing right in front of the building I had been looking for.  It's too bad getting back on the bus wasn't as easy.  Do you remember how I said that Mr. C thinks I don't really pay attention sometimes?  I had been in such a hurry to get off the bus and find my class that I had no idea where to get back on the bus.  I asked one of the girls from my class and she stated that she didn't know where the bus stopped but she had parked at the meters and would be happy to give me a ride to my car.  Yes, I know taking rides from strangers is never a good idea but she was so nice, and I was way bigger than her so I figured I would be ok!  She drove me to lot 59 and I realized that the amount of cars had quadrupled.  Apparently there were 4 different sections of lot 59 (to help people locate their cars easier) and I hadn't a clue which one I was in.  We went up and down what seemed to be every aisle.  This girl was amazing because she didn't complain, just drove.  Now that I think of it, I don't remember seeing her in my class again so she probably dropped it just so she'd never have to give me a ride!  I starting have visions of waiting on campus until midnight when I could come back to an almost empty lot and find my car.  Then, a miracle occurred!  We found my car!!!!  I had never been so happy to see my car!

After writing this, I realized that apparently transitions are not good!  That’s when everything goes downhill for me!  

So, here are the lessons that the first days of school taught me:

1. Don't be fooled by games or fun stuff on day 1 - it's probably has something to do with being abandoned.

2. Don't put your schedule in a plastic protector sleeve.  Not only is it not efficient, but you'll just look like a moron in the process of getting lost.

3. Being in the right place at the RIGHT time is way underrated.

4. Don't assume things will work out!  We all know what happens when people assume!

5. Check on bus info, parking, and building locations BEFORE you get to where you are going.

6. Pay attention to where you parked your car!

7. Online classes are the key to avoiding all of the above issues.  Since I began taking classes online, I haven't been abandoned, gone into the wrong class, or missed the first day.  I’m thinking that I’m off to a good start!

Good luck to all the other readers taking classes!