The School Year Has Begun

I love this time of year. 

Everyone is so excited, walking around with brand new back packs, notebooks, personalized binders and planners and they all have the same mindset, "This semester will be different." 

It never is. 

Well, it is for about 2 weeks. You use your planner daily, you are on top of all your reading and research, homework and papers. Then, the beginning of that third week hits you hard.

**SMACK**

Your social life takes off, maybe your job gets in the way, and your carefully planned, highly improbable study schedule gets shoved to the bottom of your brand new backpack, only to be seen 12 weeks later while you are getting ready for your finals. 

My favorite part of all of this? The social media frenzy, school is everywhere. Every one is talking about their new classes, how much they have been looking forward to getting to this point in their school careers. I just sit back and scroll down, it's coming, I know it is. I know some people get tired of the post or exasperated at the volume of people actually enjoying school. Just wait, give it 3 weeks and watch the happiness change to resenting sadness. They took too many classes, their professor isn't fair, they hate their morning classes, or, and this is my personal favorite, the system is against them. 

I happen to be a student and trust me when i say, there has never been one student that is prepared for everything they will face in their college careers. Some are more prepared than others but college likes to throw you curve balls. Like an email on the first day of classes at 8:45am from a professor you have never heard of telling you that you have class at 9:30am and it is not an online class like it says on your schedule. Once you rush down to the building, you find out that professor was given the wrong roster and teaches a class you wouldn't have signed up for even if it was required. 

On campus 2 hours early and already irritable from not getting a proper breakfast, you stumble into the dining hall and see that there is barely any food to eat because they are transitioning from breakfast to lunch food. Can it get any worse? 

Oh yes, there is the little fact that your first class is WHERE?? This campus map is useless and it is already 95 degrees outside. You are sweating profusely by the time you find one of those cute tents with snacks that tell you where your class is. You find out you have been standing in front of the very building your class is being held in, you swear under your breath, then find your way to your classroom. Which is always planted in some obscure corner with the room number hidden behind a paper for a class that couldn't be further from your major course of study. 

I will always love the first day of class. It lets me know if I am going to enjoy this time with my professor or if I will loath them entirely throughout the whole semester, requiring me to discipline myself and stick with the class for fear of having to pay back the money the government has already given me for the class, which I have already spent on my new car, which I can't even drive to school because a parking pass will cripple me for a month (all my money went to my car, you see). 

Who else hates group work or the prospect of group work? Hands up homes you're not alone. If there was a way for me to get out of group work but still do the exact same assignment, I would take it every time. Unfortunately, a professor's favorite reasoning for this is, "Group work prepares you for the workforce life after school. Team work or group work is very important in most social and profession settings...blah, blah, blah." 

PLEASE! I want to start a small business, by definition I don't want to work in a team. Though I can see how team work promotes networking, which is essential when building a small business from the ground up. Still, at least let me choose my group, instead of sticking your top performing student with mindless drones who can't complete an assignment to save their lives. I end up doing all of the work anyway and they get the best grade of their whole college careers. 

I do have to say, sitting here watching the wide-eyed freshmen, the tenured others, and the brand new transfers go through their first day with their perfect new folders, pens, and back packs is the most fun that I have had in a while. Hehehehe....they have no clue what they are in for... ;)