Yesterday was my first official day of classes that are held on campus. I was a bit nervous for the actual class, but never once thought to be nervous about arriving to class on time and finding my classroom. This was due primarily to my, apparently naïve, assumption that since this first class was being held at the Midway campus and is only one building, that it would be easy to find.
I checked, and double checked, the classroom number before heading out to drive to campus. We left at 5pm because we needed to stop and get me water and a snack, just in case my blood sugar started to go low in class. We finally left the city in which I live at about 5:20pm. This was obviously too late to be leaving on a Wednesday evening. Traffic was crazy! We got off the main highway to try and take back roads assuming that this would be much faster. However, a lot of other people apparently had this idea as well and were trying to commute through downtown St. Paul to get where they were going. I was becoming a little annoyed and looked over at my mom who just smiled and said, “Welcome to the concrete jungle!” I did not find the humor in this at the time, however now I laugh when I think about it. I tried to remember my new positive, calm outlook on life so that I would not get too stressed out. I kept telling myself that getting upset over it wouldn’t help me get to class any faster so I might as well just relax. After turning down several wrong roads, almost getting into an accident with a very pushy city bus driver, and gawking at the military men in uniform at the Veteran’s Memorial in front of the State Capitol, we finally made it to campus.
When we arrived there were cars everywhere and people biking, running, walking, and sprinting towards the main campus entrance. When I arrived inside the building it was an absolute madhouse! There were people running every direction, scrambling to get to their classes and ask for help if they didn’t know where their class was. After talking to a very nice lady in the lobby I learned that my class, which is in room 18, was in fact NOT on the first floor as I had presumed but in the basement down a creepy, dark hallway. After walking halfway down said hallway I only noticed maintenance closets and an “office” that had the name of some creepy company on it—no people were in sight. I turned back to the stairs I originated from to ask the security guard where room 18 was and she informed me that it was in fact down the creepy hallway I had just come from and that it was a ways down. I had to squirrel through the dark tunnels of the basement all the while thinking “Am I walking into my death? Are they going to keep me here forever and run painful experiments on me?” I did eventually find the class, arriving just about in time for the class to start. Luckily my teacher is a very understanding person and even joked about how even she has a hard time navigating the building.
On a side note: Yesterday I received an email from the student editor of Haute Dish, MSU’s Arts and Literature Magazine, and they are going to publish two of my photos! =) I am very excited for this! I hope to have many more submissions accepted and to also get some things published in the newspaper for money! It isn’t much, but it is a great start to the future career I hope to have!
Overall I think I will really grow as a person, a student, and as a writer over the next two years, and even over the next 15 weeks of this class. I am not big on public speaking, reading my writing in front of an audience, listening to their critiques and feedback, and working in a workshop setting. All of these things will be a new, perhaps sometimes uncomfortable, experience for me. I am willing to take whatever this semester, the next two years of my education, and the world throws at me and make the best of it. After all, you only live once and I want to make the most of my time so that I don’t have any regrets. I have spent too much time caring what others think, being too shy to really grow and make amazing friends, and taking things too seriously at times. This semester not only marks the beginning of my journey to earn my Bachelor’s degree, but also the beginning of self-discovery and becoming who I truly want to be in life!
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