I woke up from that first night and was glad that I had one day behind me, as some say it can only get better and I hoped that that applied here. I was going to step into a college classroom for the first time, and honestly I was nervous. How would the teachers treat me, and of course how would the other students treat me. I woke up bright and earlier for my 8 am class and headed out of the dorms main entrance towards the school, it seemed many were doing the exact same thing. But I noticed that many seemed already like zombies and walked very slow with their heads down.  I attributed these actions as grogginess but could very well be a lot of other things.

As the reasonably long walk was ending I approached the building in which I would be spending the next four years of my life in. It seemed like a giant gate into oblivion of knowledge, whichever you happened to chose based on your actions. But nonetheless, I walked to class sat down and looked around. Once again I noticed more than half the class seemed zombified, or at least quite under the weather. The teacher walked in and class started just how I had imagined it, we went over expectations and schedule, and how the teacher wanted to be treated. There was no mention about our satisfaction though and I assumed this was intentional.  Over the next few days this happened many times, new sheets, new expectations, and new teachers. But not many new friends, I found a group to work with that seemed very focused, and I was quickly growing my relationship with my roommate. Overall my first week as a freshie wasn’t all the bad, but it wasn’t that great either.

I had bins galore, and not much space to arrange them. The room was not quite as small as I thought it would be, but not by much. I had enough closet space and a decent desk. After unpacking for a few hours, I finally could enjoy my first night in a dorm. My roommate was a friend from HS so we already had some connection. I surfed the web, watched our decent cable lineup, and drifted off to sleep.

However, after pushing that experience aside the orientation was decent. I learned many things including college food is a lot lower grade than high schools, and that I would be one of the few sober college students. I observed even during the orientation drug use, drinking in mild amounts and of course lots of stupidity. I continued to look over all these facts and even started to get excited about my college experience.

Was college going to be my worst nightmare or the food? Who knows?

The last days of High School happened the doors closed, and I was about to embark on a new journey “college.” Would this journey go off without a hitch? How many hiccups would there be? I guess I would just have to find out. I sure did, orientation soon followed and I was about to experience my first days in a college atmosphere. I had never switched schools and had come from a small town. So meeting new people was completely new. I thought to myself these people do not know me, I am a clean slate, and I can be whomever I wanted. However, I could not lie I am who I am. I kept to myself being more of a passive observer, engaging only when asked and mostly for stupid icebreaker games. What would these accomplish? I am sure all they did was make us move around and embarrass ourselves, but maybe that was the point. After all seeing other people in embarrassment does tell you a lot about a person. Some blushed, some laughed, and some did not show any signs at all. I wondered what they were thinking. Did they feel the same way as me, where any of them wondering what was about to happen.

After looking back on these few days in the middle of my summer spent in college, I was convinced that I was going to be one of the few, the minority, the “sober ones”.