My First Day at College

My First Day at College

I am sure that most people would remember their first day of most events in their life as each first day is filled with a certain amount of anxiety, expectations, hopes, fears and excitement. I was asked to write about my first day at college and I had to delve into the deep recesses of my failing memory and try and piece together a competent, sane, interesting essay. Going back 18 years was not very easy and it just reminded me of how old I’ve grown, but it’s nice to sometimes sit back and reminisce the good old days.

I do remember it was an extremely hot day, I was running late as I had just come back from my NIIT classes. I rummaged through my cupboard and picked the first thing I saw. I had mixed feelings about not wearing a uniform, as I found it to be very practical and it eliminated the conundrum of choosing what to wear each day. I wore a brown T-Shirt with a swordfish embroidered on it and black jeans. Walking into college, was exciting and terrifying at the same time. I was no longer a child, I would be recognized as an adult and my decisions and actions over the course of the next 5 years would basically determine my success, achievements and popularity.

After spending 10 years in an all-boys school, I was terrified and excited to finally be in the same room as the fairer sex. Most women in my class were twice my size as my pituitary glands were still dormant; I was 5.2 and a size negative 2.

The first lecture started off with a bang, as one macho smart aleck tried to impress the girls by whistling during roll call. Unfortunately the professor was not amused and she made it very clear on the first day that she was in charge, In front of 120 students she slapped him! that slap echoed the hall of the the college.

Pin drop silence; everyone was on their best behavior for the next 45 minutes. Every professor that came to our class post the first lecture was studied carefully for the first 10minutes and was ‘SWOT’ analyzed.

I spent the first day observing who I should approach and who I should avoid. I was able to bucket people into 3 categories, the Attention Seekers, Regulars and the Invisibles. The attention seekers were loud, extremely confident and looked for any opportunity to make an impression, unfortunately some gained attention for the wrong reasons, like the ‘whistler’.  The regulars were people that adjusted perfectly; it felt like they had rehearsed their first day countless times. I was one of the invisibles, I didn’t want to draw attention to myself and I did whatever I could to just blend in.

Being the son of a high school teacher made me even more cautious. I didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention. I don’t remember who I met or who I spoke to on the first day, but the friendships I forged in the first few days at college have been some of the best ones.

My College Career Counselor

It was a hot summer day and I had nothing to do; my life was grinding to a halt. I had to do something.

I could not waste my life thinking about nothing or doing nothing about my thinking, sounds confusing, I'm sure it does, that was the state of my mind, in a mess, or organized chaos.

I do not remember what prompted me to make the effort to find out if we had a career counselor, but I did.

I vaguely remember this lady in her late thirties, smiling at me as I entered her office.
I told her I need some guidance. She smiled at me; she was missing some teeth and many dentist appointments.

Her eagerness made me believe that I was the only person she spoke to all week.

I sat down and she asked me a couple of questions, my name, age, where I lived, what did I do (this really confused me) what did I do?

I had an ID card, I was in college, what did I do?

A student, in college, talking to you, I said (it rhymed)

I knew I was in for a strange, very strange conversation.

I told her I lived with my parents and 2 sisters, her next question baffled me and left me worried and wondering if I was in the right place.

“Is your father alive?” ….hmmm maybe this was supposed to be a trick question. But she was serious.

“The last time I checked, he was” was my prompt reply.

she did not seem very pleased with my reply, Ok she said what does your mother do.

I told her "Just in case you want to know she is also alive, and she is a teacher"

Then for some strange reason she asked me if my parents were separated, I told her that they had not informed me that they were and if they were, they were doing a very good job hiding it.

This pissed her off even more, but she tried to keep her cool.

Then she asked me if I wanted to follow in my parents footsteps, I told her if I did they would wonder why I was following them around, I laughed...

She was dead serious.

I guess she gave up asking personal questions and moved on to career oriented questions, the basic, what do you like to do or what are you interested in.

I told her I was confused and I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with my life and that was one of the main reasons I had come to her, for direction, I later found out it was misdirection.

So pandered to her request, and told her I wanted to be “A Detective”

“Ah that’s interesting” she said with a bewildered look. So what type of detective would you like to be, I knew that she had no clue what to tell me or where to guide me, so I decided to play along.

I told her I wanted to be an “FBI Agent” I was dead serious, and she looked LOST.
WHY do you want to be an FBI agent? Why not a CBI Detective?
Because I can’t speak Hindi was my quick reply.

I managed to keep a straight face throughout the question/answer session.

I went on to explain why I couldn’t speak Hindi and how it would greatly affect my ability to extract information from the criminals.

She didn’t seem very experienced as she was now looking as lost as I was when I entered. I’m sure I made her wonder if she was in the right profession.

She asked me the standard what do you like and dislike questions, after another round of questions and answers; we seemed to have hit the same roadblock we hit in the 1st 5mins.

It was one battered roadblock.

1 hour into the discussion, I decided to ask her why she did what she did. She told me that she liked helping people find themselves.

I told her I was as lost as I was 1 hour ago and we had not made any progress. She seemed to nod in agreement.

We discussed the possibilities of joining the army, navy, air force, a psychologist and an artist.

I could see that she was getting frustrated as we had made no progress.

She told me that she was not sure how she could help me and she told me to come and see her 5 years later.

I never did go back…

I came home and narrated this incident to my family, they found it really amusing.

It’s been 15years since that eventful day I still do not know what I want to do with my life.