Richard Cork

 

Mrs S. Aiken

 

English 1101

 

September 1, 2009

 

My first day at college

 

I'd have to say that apprehension might be my very worst enemy. It hasn't allowed me to "warmly greet" new things and big changes in my life. I've been trapped this torture chamber of fears and doubts, often irrational and unfounded, that I've created in my own head for most of my life, so it follows that I'd be tremendously anxious about my first day of college. 

This aforementioned fear based procrastination certainly stalked me into my college life. I actually missed the chance to register for classes twice as I was hurrying to even get accepted on the very last day of the deadline. As a result, I had the pleasure of being able to dread that infamous first day for that much longer. It took quite a bit of persuading from family members to "encourage" me enough to finally get the job done. 

Then, the date came to pass. The amount of butterflies I had in my stomach could’ve caused enough massive tidal waves with their fluttering wings to sink every continent under the ocean. As I hopelessly wandered around unaware of where I was and where I should be going, the tenseness in the back of my neck hurt like I was put in a headlock by a professional wrestler. I hoped that I had left myself enough time to obliviously wander around and get myself lost and find myself again with enough margin to find a classroom and adjust my navigation if I happened to walk in the wrong one.

One thing that I noticed right away was the demeanor of everyone’s expressions as I walked by, was that they were, for the most part, stone-faced. They didn’t seem to care about anything else that was happening around them, only focused on their paths to the next opportunity for higher learning.

 Admittedly, the time of year could’ve been a contributing factor. It was a typical Georgian summer, enough humidity to make you feel as if you’re swimming through the air. That coupled with the obnoxious rays of the overbearing sun beating you down could rob anyone of any liveliness they could muster. Especially, given the fact that they were spending their summer days, usually reserved for fun and whimsy, in the bleak boundaries of the summer semester. You could feel the mood nearly as intensely as the sweltering heat.

The usual sounds you might encounter were equally squandered. Perhaps, you could faintly hear the construction happening if you passed by at the right times. Buildings were painfully silent. Shuffles of lazy feet were the only melodies to be heard. As I trotted up the stairs and into the building that I hoped held the proceedings for the course that I had selected I felt more at ease, as I usually do after I actually partake in the event that I had so previously dreaded.

It was surprisingly uneventful. The massive scale that it had blown up to in my imagination was terribly exaggerated. As the calming sensation of relief from the reality of the situation washed over me, I had to sigh at my usually silliness  of over blowing a situation to an unreal fantasy of fear and stress. Though I wasn’t completely saved, I sill had about two hours left in this one class. All I could do was sigh again.