The First Night Of Class

When going into my second semester of senior year knowing I had enrolled to take Freshman Composition, I was nervous. However, despite all the negative feedback I had received, I challenged myself to do my best and try my hardest to never give up or slack off. That was unsurprisingly a challenge for me, but with a little motivation of getting the class out of the way this year instead of having to take it next year got me through the semester.

In the myth “Pygmalion” by Bernard Evslin, Pygmalion is a passionate sculptor who has an unconditional love for the goddess of love, sex, and beauty, Aphrodite. Throughout Evslin’s myth, he uses literary devices to demonstrate Pygmalion’s unwavering devotion to perfection and beauty.

It was Tuesday, September 8th and it was the first day of college class. It was a long Labor Day weekend and on the first day I had writing on my schedule. My writing skills are not that great but I was looking forward to improve my skills. Writing was the last class of my day and I was running late. I had to rush to north quad all the way from south quad, it seemed far away because I didn’t know my way around campus. As I got there, I sat down and our teacher discusses the basics of what writing 100 would cover. I also checked out the syllabus and the first official writing assignment was due the following week. I was nervous, but I saw that it was an interview so it couldn’t be that bad. I called my mom and told her I was going to interview her for my writing class. She was excited that I asked her but not thrilled about doing some schoolwork. I emailed her 6 questions to answer and she responded the next day with the following:

This framework might be relevant to the current study as students in their second year of college have many decisions to make. It is a time when these students are achieving competence and developing autonomy (Lemons & Richmond, 1987). Difficulties arise such as in choice of core curriculum courses or in maintaining interpersonal relationships which can precipitate crises of confidence (Boivin, Fountain, & Baylis, 2000). No longer having the support of “the fabricated society” (Margolis, 1976) of the first year experience, the second-year student must now more frequently rely on their own knowledge and intuition to make decisions. Second year students who have not yet decided on a major, and who have not confronted their situation, will find the process of choosing courses to be increasingly difficult (Gordon, 2010). Many of these students choose not to make decisions, and spend considerably less time doing academic activities (Gardner, 2000; Gohn, Swartz, & Donnelly, 2001; Graunke & Woosley, 2005). Gardner (2000) found that they tend to spend 25% of their time in self-gratifying activities. Time not being on their side, the undeclared second-year student faces challenges if they are not yet able nor willing to make a choice of major (Gordon, 2010). Using the theory of decision fatigue, the process of decision-making will take a toll on these students and soon they will give up (Baumeister & Tierney, 2011).

A bright but cold morning January in 2014, I woke up early, I jumped and smiled because it was my first day of school. First I went to take a shower; I thought, “What I would do in school today, who will be my teachers". Then I walked to the bus stop people looked at me like I'm not from this planet. I sat on a tree trunk waiting for the bus. The bus arrived after 15 minutes, I aboard the bus. The driver was a woman she was wearing a black shirt and brown pants. She told me “ Do you have the paper that shows that you have permission to go to school in a school bus” I stared at her and said “ No English”. A very good girl who was blonde hair translated into Spanish what the woman was telling me, "thank you" I said to her. Finally, I gave

The first day of high school I set a bunch of goals. The most ridiculous one was to go through high school without having to get an actual job. I had helped the mayor of Gary, Indiana place signs near abandoned buildings before, and I enjoyed it. The pay was forty to fifty dollars a day, but it was only temporary. The summer before my senior year I began helping out with putting signs down, encouraging people to vote for this particular person running. My craving for money had only one solution, to get an actual job. Shocking, I know, to find a high school student who was not forced at all into getting a job, but chose too. Like most self-conscious teenage boys I did not want to get rejected, in this case not hired, so I went to the one place I knew I would get hired, my grandfather’s farm. That weekend I started my first job. It was not the most glamorous job, but I eventually fell in love with it.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines transformation as “a complete or major change in someone 's or something 's appearance, form, etc.”. From the time of birth to adulthood humans have many different experiences which help to shape their lives and I believe that some of the experiences I had in the first year of college caused major changes in my thoughts, actions and over all demeanour in my life.

"Today  is August 10th, 2065 and it is my first day of Year 6 and I am only 9 years old." I sighed as I finished speaking for the online journal and I watched the spoken words turn to typed words on the holographic screen. I closed my eyes and put my head in the palm of my pale hand as I closed up the journal, unable to think of anything else to write at the moment. After a few more seconds of just sitting at the desk, I decided I could just finish writing later, so, I decided to get ready for my final year at the Skill School.

Zach is in his moms van driving to his new school. He had just moved to Menomonee Falls from his old home in New York. This would be his very first day of high school, he was nervous and was wishing he could be in new york going to school with his friends. The car then came to an abrupt stopped. He grabbed his backpack from the back seat. His mom than said “Have a great day at school. I love you.” Zach then replied with “Thanks, Love you too.” He hopped out of the car and walked into the huge school. Then he pulled a crumpled note out of his pocket and look at it. It was his locker number and combination. After 5 minutes of looking for his locker he found his beat up paint chipped locker. Zach grabbed the lock and put in the combination. The locker swung open with force. He quickly put his bag in it and than slammed it shut. Zach then looked at the clock and saw the time, he only had 2 minutes to get to his class. He ran to his class as fast as he could. He entered the class and saw an old balding man with blue polo and brown pants. Zach sat down it the first seat available, it was next to a boy that looked to be his age. The boy was wearing a stained yellow shirt and purple shorts. He had on a pair of glasses on and acne all over. The boy then turned to Zach and said “Hey you look new, I am Alex. What’s your name?” Zach responded by saying “I am Zach, and yeah I am new. I just moved from New York.” Alex said, “Oh that's cool” but then was cut off by the teacher. The teacher

For many of us our anticipation of what the first day of college should be is less or more of what is expected considering that some of us have never been to college or are returning to college. The feelings that we have not only are similar to most but, are very surreal to a lot and can be overwhelming. Being that I am 42 years old, going back to school to finally accomplish something with meaning had me excited yet, questioning whether this was for me. To be on campus with the majority of the students half my age unfortunately made me feel vulnerable and old. I knew going back, there would be many changes especially with today’s technology and new updated curriculums. The feeling that you want to be ready for whatever comes your way was by far augmented and overtaking. Nevertheless, if goals and ambitions is what gives you the drive to better yourself no matter what age, the outcome will supersede any ill feeling you had in the beginning. A glimpse of my first day merely covers the surface of what I felt and experienced going back to school after twenty some years.

In the words of Harry Wong, “The first day of class is the most important day of the school year”. Since this day is so important I will have had to prepare a few things before the day actually starts. I will have assigned seats in my classroom before the day starts, and I will have written my bell work activity for the class before they arrive. Finally, I will have all the materials I need for that day within reach, so I am prepared for transitions.

First year as a middle schooler, I was always so excited of the thought of finally getting out of elementary. It was still kind of tough because my school which was a k-8 had closed down because of some law suits. I was suppose to stay with all of the friends I had all the way up to high school but we all went to different schools once ours closed down.

Over the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to learn more about myself, and my leadership strengths and weaknesses. Prior to the first day of class, I was not sure what to expect, or what I would personally gain out of the Intermediate Leadership Experience. With that being said, this was an eye opening experience. I completed several module entries that have given me the opportunity to develop a plan to improve over the next 3 to 5 years. The modules covered, included Self-Development through Feedback, Leadership and Followership, Leadership Influence on Subordinate Behavior, The Adaptable Leader, and Effective Negotiations. While each module brought to light a ton of information, I was able to find a concept from each module

Anyone of us who has ever attended at school, we will surely never forget the first day at school. For me, I still remembered my first day at school because that is a memorable day in my life. Also, that was a special day because it was the first day that I discover a new environment around me. There are many things I had never known in this new environment, so I felt very nervous because I did not know anything. Furthermore, in my heart, I feel eager to explore the surroundings and excited to get familiar with new friends. In addition, I can learn a lot of new things at school which helped me expand my knowledge.

Hearing so many good things and bad things about college I didn’t know what to expect and look forward to. That change my junior year knowing different college come every year I didn’t really pay it any mind what college I wanted to go to until ODU, Virginia State University and Virginia Teach came. It was Virginia State first year of visiting out school and I knew I wanted to go there I start getting e excited for college that were talking about their experience at college and what to look for when we graduated if we decided to go to college. Eager to start a new chapter college sound like it could be a little nerve wrecking but I thought I could handle it.