This is my planner from this past week. There's a lot going on.
Anyway, August 31st was my first day of college classes! I'm attending a community college in my city, so it's not as much adjustment as some of my high school classmates are experiencing, but it's definitely a lot different than high school was.
Almost all of the adults I've talked to recently have asked how college is going so far, and my answer about 98% of the time is "it's a lot of work." Like, this is a lot to adjust to after having only two "real" academic classes in my senior year (one of which I chose to take of my own free will).
I feel pretty unprepared for everything, tbh. In high school, it often came up how what we did was "prep for college", which was complete BS. None of what we did prepared me for this. I also tested out of a bunch of classes because of AP tests, so from what I can tell, I'm the only "fresh out of high school" kid in four of my classes. (One of my classes is a first year seminar thing, so all of us are freshman, but either my perception of what 18 year olds should look like is severely skewed or a lot of the kids are older than me.) One of my classmates actually called me "baby Joy" when my age came up, which I actually found amusing.
I'm especially unprepared for the thought of writing college papers. I have one due this week that's supposed to be about five pages, when the most I ever wrote in high school was a page and a half if I really stretched it. It's not really academic per se, as the paper is applying what vocab and concepts we've learned in class so far to ourselves, but this paper is honestly stressing me out.
A good portion of my graduating class is going to the same community college as I am, but I was unfortunate in the fact that I don't share my classes with any of them. It's very lonely. I am lucky in the fact that I get to hang out with my friends some days when our breaks line up, but I just had a class start this week, so that eats up a lot of the time I had to spend with them. It only runs until the end of October, though, so I'll get the time back.
One thing that's actually pretty good is the fact that I'm actually getting some exercise. The campus is a lot bigger than my high school and I've been actively avoiding the elevators so I can take the stairs. This actually started because the building my art class is in is pretty old and the elevator absolutely terrifies me, but I've taken the stairs even in the science building, even though it has a really cool elevator with a glass wall that lets you look out over the lobby. I think it's too early to really notice any changes, but I'm hoping that by the end of the semester I won't feel like I've run half a mile trying to climb four flights of stairs. (I'm weak. I know.) The exercise and workloads so far have really worn me out, so I've actually gotten my sleep schedule back under control in no time. It's kind of amazing.
In terms of my classes themselves, they're not that bad. This semester I'm just taking classes I would need no matter what degree I'm getting. I'm hoping to major in Geography since that's something that's offered at my college. I'm taking Color Theory, Intro to Communication, Physical Geography, Statistics of some sort, and the first year seminar, which adds up to 14 credit hours. x___x
My favorite place on campus so far is on the south side of the art building. It's got some metal picnic tables as well as a ledge you can sit on and it's shaded by these huge trees planted between the building and the parking lot. I get wifi from out there and it's an awesome place to sit and people watch. I've seen some cool people so far! The most prominent one is this guy that looks like Blake Michael with slightly longer hair. (I had actually been referring to him as "Dog With a Blog doppelganger" for the first week and a half until I googled the actor's name.)
My chill spot faces the entrance to the parking lot, so I see a lot of people as they come and go.
I've also had to do actual homework, which is strange after a year of doing essentially nothing once I got home. It's not bad, especially considering most of it has just been reading the text book and finishing up assignments from class.
I actually spent time studying on a Saturday. That's, like, unheard of.
Anyway, I think that's all I have to talk about so far! I'll probably make another update around midterms regarding how I'm adjusting and what's changed. All in all, college hasn't been too bad so far, and I'm really grateful for that.
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