Day One is in the books.

As noted in my previous post, I couldn’t sleep, so I made sure to get into the classroom early. I was probably one of the first 10 or so to arrive. I was able to identify a few of my fellow students in the lobby by the look on their face. I’m sure it matched mine. Not exactly scared, but nervous and excitement mixed.

I picked up my packet and mug at the book of the room. I then picked the seat I had selected last time I had visited the campus and I think it’s going to be my seat for the year. We’ll see.

Two things I immediately noticed: for some reason my packet didn’t have my badge with it. Apparently a few didn’t get printed in time. They assure me I’ll have it soon.

The other thing I noticed was that last year’s cohort had left personalized cards at each seat. I read mine and am keeping it. It’s honestly a nice touch.

We started a bit late (as I expected) due to “technical difficulties” trying to coordinate Zoom between the two campus. Once that was resolved it was off to the races. Every professor introduced themselves and then there were various departments, such as security, health services, and more introducing themselves. A lot of useful information, but also a bit overwhelming.

We also did an ice-breaker where we broke into groups of two or three, did a very quick interview of each other and then presented that information to the class. For example, the person next to me came in 3rd place in a world championship in Texas. Nice detail.

Part of the day was spent talking about how courses are graded, exam policy, suggestions on studying, and other useful details to help make us be better students. It was fairly reassuring. The only really scary part was reminding us that for every credit hour of in class time we have, to expect to spend two (or more) hours outside of class. For the Summer Semester, that’s not too bad, we’re taking 18 credit hours. So if you do the math, that’s 18+(2*18), which means 54 hours a week for this semester. That’s doable.

Next semester is 25 credit hours. I’ll let you do the math on that one.

But, given the way they apparently teach the classes and coordinate studies, I think I’ll be all right.

That said, one thing I realized pretty quickly: as nervous as I am about the amount of materials I need to learn, I also love to be back in the classroom! I can’t wait to start my actual classes now!