New student

So today was my first day of class, walking around on an unfamiliar campus and wandering through unfamiliar buildings. Of course, I'm banging into stuff, lugging too many items and bookbags loaded with more than I need out of fear that I'd be unprepared on my first day.

It's that "first day of school" look. Nervous, unsettled, hectic. I was unsure of what the next three years would hold. I was unsure of how much I would be taking on this semester. I was unsure of how I would succeed at my classes. Amidst all of those grandiose things, I was unsure of where the seminary building was on campus. My first class was at 1:30pm, so I got there at 10:30am, just to max out my chances of accidentally slamming into the right building.

I have always wondered if other, more seasoned students walking around on campus could identify the new kid. It might be a fun game to play with a buddy one day... Spot the Newbie.

I probably would have been a warm-up round for anyone playing Spot the Newbie. It was cold, so I wore a hoodie, and the hood was way over my eyes. I couldn't really see anything until it was almost too late. Remember how you used to dodge those balls in a game of dodgeball? Well, I was dodging inanimate objects... like water fountains, benches, light posts, etc.

I had a backpack carrying too much junk slung on my back. I had a plastic bag of about $100 worth of books I bought at the last minute. I had my laptop bag with my laptop, plus more junk, because after being out of academia for almost 8 years, I wasn't sure if the world had advanced to the point where every student took notes on a laptop as opposed to writing in a notebook. I was too sheepish to ask anyone. So I figured I'd bring both and just wing it based on what the other students were doing. In a class of about 15, I counted two laptops. And I think one of them was on Facebook most of the time. Cool. It's safe to be old school.

After settling into the library in the morning and looking over the syllabi for my classes, and perusing some of the books, I decided to take a newbie self-guided tour of the fitness center, where I hope to spend quality time this year. There weren't many people in the weight room around noon. Most of humanity eats at that time, I guess. I wandered into the men's locker room to see where I may store my stuff. Of course, here I am with plastic bag, backpack, laptop bag, and hoodie... and I take a wrong turn at the end of the locker room and end up in the shower area. There's one dude, stark naked and wet, looking at me like I just don't belong. Well, I didn't belong at that moment. And I didn't bother to try to explain, I just turned and booked it, hoping that my hoodie covered too much of my face for him to recognize me in the future.

Proceeding to class, I have that awkward experience in the middle of the campus where I'm walking through in the early afternoon, at a time when most students are transitioning from one class to the next. So there are plenty of onlookers. I had walked about 100 years to get to the middle of an open grassy area, en route to what I thought was the seminary building. Then I realize that I was going in the completely wrong direction. So... with all of the onlookers around, do I do an about-face, basically announcing to the world that I'm lost, or... do I waste twenty minutes of my time by proceeding forward anyway and wandering through the nearest building to reroute?

Before I tell you my ultimate outcome, I did something that probably made the debate moot... I stopped dead in my tracks, lifted my hood up, and looked around, confused and hoping the sign of the building I'm looking for pops into my field of vision. While everyone else is walking by me, I'm spinning like a really slow top.

And I still proceeded forward and wandered accidentally around the undergraduate cafeteria... with all of those teenagers wondered what the cat dragged into the cafe.

I found my one class today to be very interesting, and although the workload will be insane, I'm looking forward to engaging the material. And I'm sure the newbie-ness of me will wear off before I graduate in three years.