As our first week back in the beautiful town of Wilmington came to a close just a few days ago, it's only natural for us to start noticing trends in the types of interactions we have with other fellow Seahawks. For me personally, I've noticed there's usually a few types of go-getters and academic achievers that we often come into contact with in these first few days of classes.
The Over-Achiever
Most of us are very familiar with this type of student. He or she will come to class on the first day with their backpack already full of all their necessary textbooks and school supplies, and they probably also already have the professor's homepage bookmarked on their laptop. When class is dismissed after the first session, the over-achiever will stay behind for an extended period of time, trying to get the assignments for the remainder of the term.
The Slacker
While it might seem very feasible to get to class on time for the very first session, let's all be honest here and say sometimes life happens. However, our gracious peer the slacker will not only arrive to class at least ten minutes late on the first day, but he or she also probably walked into the wrong class a few times-as a fifth year senior who should definitely know their way around campus.
The Anxious One
Most of us are not strangers to the various amounts of stress educational endeavors tend to put on our young minds, and the student notorious for stressing the most out of everyone is not unaccustomed to this feeling. Most likely, this is the student that asks twenty questions about the final when there hasn't even been more than a week of class completed.
The Involved Student
Being involved in your university's campus is a wonderful way to spend your time outside the classroom, and I am no stranger to this concept. With that being said, I haven't necessarily ever felt the need to conduct a first class session riddled with announcements made by me about some organization I'm involved with on campus. When it comes down to it, most of the people sitting around you probably don't have the energy for a first week of school as it is and they are paying to hear their professor talk, not information they could find on the university's involvement page.
The Suck-Up
The concept of brown-nosing and those students that wish to spend their time working at gaining their professor's acceptance through ego boosting rather than hard work is something I have been familiar with since kindergarten. Things didn't change much when I went to college. Over time one can see patterns in the way some students decide to conduct themselves around their professors-"Oh, I just loved your lecture in the introductory course about applying what you know in the field!"-or some other comment meant to stroke an instructor's ego and in turn make them like the deliverer of the compliment even more. But come on, people, this is college after all. The very basis of our institution of higher education is built upon the hard work of incredibly self-motivated, hard working and talented individuals. Therefore, it would merely be crippling to try and hinder these such values through the act of brown-nosing professors.
