Monday, January 24, 2011

The Beginning of the Next Four Years

One week.  My college experience will start in seven days.  This is both nerve-wracking and terribly exciting.  It will all begin with my Late Summer Honors class and I will temporarily move into dorms before checking into the apartment-style on-campus housing I will be in for the semester.

There are a few things that will take getting used to.  First of all, the word semester.  It is not as if this is a new word, I have used it for years.  But, never in quite the college context.  Here it refers to a time period that classes will take place; it no longer marks the halfway point for the school year or for the duration of a particular class.  Second, the purchasing of textbooks.  I bought one of my textbooks while in high school, for an Advanced Placement class, but it was unheard of to shell out $215 at one time!  Third, a flexible schedule.  Rather than show up to a single school building in the morning and move through the halls and classes for several hours I will be moving between many buildings on a large campus, at many different points during the day.  I will be working while people are in class; I will be in class while people are working.  This is a drastically different situation from anything else I have experienced.  Finally, living away from home.  My school and my house are on opposite sides of the Continental Divide.  For someone who is the dictionary definition of a home body, this will certainly take getting used to.  Thank goodness this is a technological age where I have an e-mail address and a cell phone to remain in constant contact with my distant family.

As this summer draws to a close I make the final preparations for a new stage in life.  My room is almost completely packed, I have scanned through the textbooks I will be using, my class schedule has been passed around to see if I will know anyone in my classes (the odds are slim on that), and I have started this blog to hopefully keep in contact with people who want to know how "that whole college thing" is going.

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