First I want to admit that it has taken me two days to figure out how to do another post on this blog! But figured it out, I did. Yea me!
Anyway, last night was my first night of my new college journey. And it was an adventure. For the last few nights before going to class, I had the weirdest dreams. I would be wandering around the halls of some nameless school trying to find the right room and never finding anyone to help me. Or, I would be driving around, talking to someone on my cell phone and telling them that I wasn't going to make it to class and I really should call someone and let the school know. In one, I just couldn't make myself get out of bed at all. Yes, anxiety was trying hard to hold me down.
It wasn't a whole lot better all day Tuesday. I had a hard time concentrating at work and was overcome with such an urge to hunt down some chocolate and eat it all! As I was driving to Marion I it felt as if something was squeezing my chest. The pressure was so annoying, I really thought I needed more chocolate. (Chocolate cures all that ails you. That's a fact!) It wasn't just that I was starting college making me nervous, but also knowing that the first class would be Oral Communications. The thought of giving a speech was paralyzing. The last time I got up in front of a class to give a speech was in 7th grade. And that ended with me passing out. I fell straight back and hit my head on the chalk board. I remember now, that when I finally came to and realized what had happened, my first thought was that I would never have to do a speech again! It didn't work. My teacher just had me do my next speech sitting at her desk. And, apparently I am about to do another. Oh my.
As the fates would have it, I made it to school safe and sound. Found the class room. Played the good student card and sat in the front row. My daughter was there from the college and just asked me to please not faint! She greeted me as Sylvia See - to keep things professional. That was so strange to hear! The first 2 1/2 hours had various speakers telling us about the program, tutoring opportunities, how to find our class assignments online, the library and so on. A lot of information was jammed into that short time. And today, if you asked me what info was presented the only part I remember is when the Dean of the ASAP program explained to us why it was considered an accelerated program. It boils down to this: A "traditional" class runs for 16 weeks with 48 hours of classroom instruction. Our class will run 5 weeks with 20 hours of instruction. We will be expected to have 12 to 20 hours of homework a week. Talk about my brain exploding at that point! Then to top it off we all had to have our picture taken! My daughter failed to mention that little fact.
The last hour and a half was the first portion of Oral Communications. Love the teacher. She put me, and I assume the whole class, right at ease. She was so down to earth and approachable. I was surprised to realize that the anxiety had slipped away at some point. Either that or I was comatose from suddenly realizing how much homework I was going to have! Our teacher jumped right in with our syllabus. We have five weeks of class and will be giving three speeches in that time. The first will be given on January 20th. It's a speech on how to do something. Well, I know how to type and . . . well, not sure what else! Should be a short speech!
After giving us that exciting information, we had to find someone we didn't know and interview them. Easy for me, because I didn't know anyone. Once the interviews were done, each pair had to get up in front and introduce the person we interviewed. I am so proud to let you all know that I did not pass out!
We got out just a hair before 10:00 and as I was driving home, I really felt good about everything. Still a bit overwhelmed, but I think I'll be okay. I did feel like I needed to reward myself, though, so I went through McDonald's and had a Caramel Frappe. I think I "deserved a break" yesterday.
Today I read the first chapter in our book (we have to read through chapter 10 by next week), and took my first quiz. I got 9 out of 9 correct! So far, I'm at 100%.
Yep. I'm really doing this. Woot! Woot!
No comments:
Post a Comment