Having finally worked my way to being an official college student, I feel like sleeping. A lot. I guess that's probably normal, though.
Despite being ridiculously tired on my fourteen credit scheduel, I must say that I feel generally great about my so-far college experience. Back at the highschool you never would have seen groups drawing in chalk all over the sidewalks to get their point across. People probably would have been punished for that, now that I think about it. The only people that could do that worked in day care - but that's not the point! The point is that it's wonderful to finally be in a new and entirely refreshing environment where guys do, on occaision have long dreadlocks or wear turbans. It's good to finally be in a place where diversity isn't feigned, it's actually there.
Not to mention the teachers...Oh, the teachers. My Spanish professor is directly out of a book, I swear. She runs around, excited, speaking Spanglish when explaining how her class works and speaking Spanish the rest of the time, her hair a big, brown, frizzy mess, her big, red-rimmed glasses perched on her little button nose, magnifying her eyes. She is a charming, kind, and incredibly busy woman, always hurrying to and fro. My writing 121 professor is a first generation US citizen, having moved here from China to get a second degree. He speaks fast and if you can't keep up, then you're left behind. As he gets more and more excited about any given subject that may come up in the process of teaching his accent gets thicker and thicker and his energy is just absolutely contagious. Of course, there's the math teacher. She wasn't able to be there for the first class and today, the second class, she burst in a couple of minutes late, looking very much like a lost student. "Is this math 95?" The class turned to her, murmuring something along the lines of: "You're in the right place." "Is the teacher Black?" She asked. "Because that's me." Her hair hangs long, brunette, and impeccably straight in contrast to her faded blue jeans and worn, colorful tennis shoes. She bounces from one side of the white board to the other, cursing the dry-erase pens and repeating over and over that she would highly recomend chalk boards to white boards, refering to the more complicated linear equations as "exotic."
It was just a wonderful day, really. And to think that I started the day by killing my car on the way to the bus stop...with the bus behind me.
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Where do you go to school? It sounds like an awesome atmisphere... Then again, I'm in high school still so everywhere could be like that and I wouldn't know.
It's a community college in Oregon. So far, college certaintly is better than high school. I remember in high school they were always saying "You have more freedom now that you're a..." you know, junior, senior, whatever. Once you're in college it certaintly feels that was all just to placate you. Well...that's how I feel anyway. And it was only the second day, so I guess I'll have to see how it goes.
Peace
Tahni
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"Tell me - if no one ever hears what you say, then why don't you shout it?" -- Floater
Wow, I see I'm not the only one having fun in college. Haha. My father said life starts when you go to college. Now, I really believe him. I mean, everything around you makes you want to become independent. But it's tiring at the same time. It can also be very lonely if you don't meet the right people...
I love college... but I also enjoyed higher school. I had some really great English teachers. One of them was this little Irish man, with a strong accent, who was a hard-core Democrat (he was President of the Teacher's Union). He'd always walk in five minutes late with a cup of coffee and 2 books, looking completely relaxed. We read Fathers and Sons and a few other books I'd probably never have picked up on my own. That may have been one of the most interesting classes I've taken (besides Modernism... now that was different).
I absolutely detest my college, so I am transferring in the spring, but so far I have nothing good to say about it which makes me sad because everyone says these are the best years of your life. I am glad that you like your school so much though, it sounds great.
All I've heard about college has been great. I'm in the midst of searching and applying right now, so it seems sort of far off even though realilistically it's not.