Dear Community College,

I'm not sure what I think of you yet. In two days, I've seen a lot of very, very strange things. 


One of the first things I encountered on my first day of classes, while sitting at a group of tables near the cafe in the HEC building, was an older man with a kind of creepy vibe about him who talked to me for a good half an hour - without my knowledge - because he didn't notice that I had my headphones in. One of the other girls there told me this after he left. After that, a group of teenage boys told me I looked like "Kurt Cobain reincarnated as a chick but with better hair" and then we spent twenty mintues talking about RuneScape. They made my day. 


Other than that, my math teacher is obsessed with parenthesis, and in my 50 minute long class period on my first day, 15 minutes went to the syllabus, 20 went to parenthesis and the remainder resulted in nearly four pages of notes. 


Day two started with 20 minutes on parenthesis and the rest resulting in even more notes. Unfortunately, once I left math, I still had an hour between that and my first writing class. 


An hour in which...


Another older dude didn't notice my headphones, a girl told me I was pretentious because I want to study french and not Spanish (though she double checked what "pretentious" meant before using, just to be sure) and then I realized that I recognized a LOT of people but couldn't quite figure out where from.


And that was before writing, during which the girl who sat next to me and was meant to be my partner for a project was so quiet we didn't get the project done, the guy behind me was very nice and is a Criminology major, and then I actually got IN to the class. 


After writing, it continued. As I waited outside, a guy and his friend (both in their forties) walked up to the building, and as they did, one questioned the other...


"Do you think the teacher would be mad if I ditched class to go to get a burger?"


Yeah.


I feel like I'm back in high school. 


So as I said, I'm not quite sure what I think of you yet, Community College. I have one more class today, then we try this whole circus again come morning. 


XO
FREAK

College Survival is really a class?

I was not particularly thrilled when I walked into the community college for the basic orientation and was handed my potential course list. 


Art131 Intro to Drawing?


HD50 New Student Orientation?


Mth60 Fundamentals of Algebra?


RD115 Speedreading for College?


WR30 FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPOSITION?!


Come on!


I'm tutoring in a senior English class! I scored a 600 and 665 on my SATs in Writing and Reading! COME ON! I'm getting a transfer degree and three of those don't even TRANSFER! I'm going to be a creative writing major and you want me to take an Art class? 


UGH.


I was not a happy camper. 


Mainly about the WR30. 


Okay, more than mainly. Being put in WR30 had me reconsidering my choice to go to community college.


Just...


No.


So I went and sat through orientation, then went and sat and waited to talk to an adviser, and when I sat down across from the man who was to help me, I set my SAT scores on the desk and said "can we talk about putting me in classes that won't bore me to death?"


Darren, the young adviser/my personal hero, more than complied. 


He asked what I was studying, and I said that I was going to go for a creative writing degree and he tossed out the following classes:


Mth60 (didn't go away, even my SAT scores kind of sucked at Math)


WR241 Imaginative Writing (HELL YES I got into a 200 level class on just my SAT scores!)


WR121 English Composition 1 (which I have to take because of the Wr241 class)


HD100 College Survival (oh yes, I'm in a free one credit transferable class about how to survive College.)


AND THEN...


AND THEN!


I got an email from the college that I'd been bumped up to Mth95 Intermediate Algebra because of my SAT scores!


AND THEN!


And then I got an email from Darren telling me which Mth95 has the shortest wait list (since I'm wait listed everywhere else, as are all of the brand new students).


I got badass classes and a badass advisor and am now a college student.


Hell. Yes.


Anyways, that's that. I'm going to watch Rachel Maddow and have dinner and go to bed early because I haven't been sleeping and am feeling kind of sick. 


XO


FREAK

Depressing:

Everyone around me is going off to College. Well, not everyone. But it feels like a hell of a lot of people. 

And I'm not. 

It feels weird. Really fucking weird.

I see these facebook posts with photos from dorm rooms, and I realize I'm living at home with my mother. 

I see these facebook posts with photos of elaborate buildings on some expensive campus, and I realize that I'm not even registered for the local community college yet. 

I see these facebook posts with photos of people I knew for years going on to become big kids while I sit in my living room watching Fight Club and eating hot pockets because I'm to broke to buy anything else. 

Depressing realization of the week? 

Yeah. Got THAT covered. 

XO

Freak