Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

College Years

Write about your first _______. (You fill in the blank. Ex: first car, first job, first crush, first week at college, etc)

Subject: First week at college

Enrollment: I had to meet with a counselor to make out a schedule. So, I took a test to find out what I was interested in. I was 55. So, I sat in front of a computer and answered questions about different subjects. Turned out I was interested in everything. He said I scored higher in the test than he did, when he took it and no one had ever done that before.

We sat in a large office and he explained how to make out a schedule and suggested some courses. I'm kind of vague about memories of the first week. I left the office with a schedule and then the rest of the week was finding classes and becoming oriented with college life.

One of the interesting things I learned immediately was many students took me for a teacher, when I entered a classroom. One particular class I was enrolled in was to find out how well I would be able to integrate with a room full of other freshmen, age group 17 to 19. The class was a lot of fun. We would break into groups and the teacher would give us a job to complete as a group. At the end of each job was a question, answer, experience gained, type of conference with the whole class. After a couple sessions the kids started calling me mom. I thought that was fun. Along with the kids from church groups I led, I now had 30 new sons and daughters. Definitely easier to gain children this way than childbirth.

Other classes I took the first semester, as a freshman, was writing and research, introduction to computers, basics of math, I think there was another one but, I don't recall it at the moment. Maybe my first health class? I took three. They were all in the basement of the gymnasium.

This was the week to visit the campus police station to register your automobile. My daughter was still in college at the same school, so we had to make a schedule because we were driving the same car.

I toured the library, one of my favorite places. It is really big, with many floors, desks in lonely places with pluggins for personal laptops. Remember no WIFI yet. The top floors were kind of spooky quiet, only one or two students working up there to keep out of the main flow. Everyone with laptops had dialup. I'm amazed, that just thinking of it makes it seem very low tech now. I bought my first desktop computer with college money.

I had to learn a lot of things that had to do with signing up for classes and collecting money for books. Book store access was a part of the first week. Gaining a syllabus for each class, looking up reading assignments, figuring out how classes would progress. Just becoming familiar with how college works. It is a different world.


I miss access to the college. I miss the panels. They use to run panels in one or another auditorium type rooms for free. They were on whatever subject professors wanted to speak about. I use to go to the college concerts. They were always free. My daughter played violin in the orchestra. I learned to drive around town pick up a lunch and park by the college lake to eat and watch the flock of geese that lived on the lake. There were always gulls from Lake Erie there begging for food.

And learning the drive back and forth because I was a commuter for 5 years. Even now, I think it would be fun to be a college professor. Or, a forensic scientist, or an inventor, or a park ranger. or ??????

Keep on Learning!
















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