Do you remember those nervous feelings you got the first time you walked into high school? Remember all the excitement? Now take those feelings and mix them with over fifteen thousand other people who all feel the same way. That's what I walked into on that fateful Thursday. Thousands of other people all without a clue circulating the campus.
College was definitely not what I had expected. Now of course leading up to my first day as an official college student, I had orientations, freshmen events, campus tours, speeches, and about six hundred other things to do before my actual first day. But none of that really prepared me for the first time I walked on to campus as a student.
Something they don't tell you is that your first day of college is not at all what college will actually be like. They used the first day as a launching pad to "introduce you to campus life". I went in thinking I was going to get walked through all my classes and meet my professors.
Instead, I'm met with what reminded me of a sort of educational field day. They used one of our classes to sort of guide us through what college would be like. I spent the majority of my day listening to lectures about time management and how to use a planner.
The first shocker is the sheer amount of people all in one place. Coming from a relatively small high school, I was absolutely overwhelmed by all of the people. And most of them are as equally lost as I am. There are friendly looking people, shy people, talkative people, funny looking people. And they all seem to be looking right at me. I'm left struggling between my desire to connect and make friends or simply surviving my first day.
Another thing I severely underestimated was the size of the campus. IT'S HUGE!!! I feel like I walked more that day than I had in my entire life. And my thousand year old converse were not going to make the cut. It didn't matter that I had toured the campus literally five times, I was still lost. Just finding my classes took forever.
I was running around looking for obscure landmarks and questionable paths to try and find my classes. When I asked for directions one girl told me, "Its just past the old tree". The whole thing made me wish I was a bird with an arial view.
Ironically, I was really surprised by how nice and helpful everyone was. Growing up I watched movie after movie, show after show, and I was fed this stereotype that when I got to college, I was on my own. But it wasn't like that at all. Everyone was very reassuring and super helpful.
They really made me feel like I was welcome. If I ever had a question or was unsure about something, someone was always willing to help. And everyone had advice. They had helpful little pamphlets with tips and study habits.
Overall, I would say my first day of college was a success. It was a little intimidating, but I definitely feel prepared to start this next phase of my life. College is not like the movies. It's better.
