Whether you’re a freshman walking around campus for the first time or a returning student already familiar with the ins and outs of college life, it’s undeniable — there’s something in the air. Maybe it’s the new grass on the Horseshoe or the crisp pages in new textbooks, but there’s something about August and the first days of the semester that smells like a fresh start.
Perhaps this is going to be the year you don’t give up on your planner mid-October and fall back on frantic texts and emails to yourself as reminders. Or maybe this is the year you’re going to cut yourself a break and let your hair down.
No matter what kind of student you are, now is your chance to start over. Only you, dear reader, can decide how your semester will go, and your first day of classes will set the tone.
It’s the first day of classes.
All of your professors have put their syllabi on Blackboard. Campus is abuzz with people. Some wave to friends across the street, while others look confused and fiddle with their lanyards. You’re walking to your first class in LeConte when you see an exciting game of frisbee underway on the Horseshoe. Do you continue on your way to LeConte or ask the frisbee players if you can join the game?
Continue on your way to LeConte.
The game might still be going on in 50 minutes. If not, you’re sure it’s not the last time you’ll see people playing.
The professor spends a few minutes telling the class what the rest of the semester should look like. She has the syllabus projected on a screen and goes through it section by section. After assigning some reading, she dismisses the class after only twenty minutes. Do you stick around for a few minutes and introduce yourself to the professor or leave and use your unexpected free time to grab a drink from Colloquium?
Ask the frisbee players if you can join the game.
You’ll just print out the syllabus the next time you’re in the library. That’s probably all the professor went over.
You pass around the frisbee for a bit, learn the names of the players, what they’re studying and where they’re living this year. Everybody is nice and friendly, like most Gamecocks are, as you’ve discovered. It’s about lunchtime now and people say they’ve got to get going. Do you quickly ask for their phone numbers for fear of never seeing them again or tell them you’ll catch them later and head to Russell House for lunch?
Stick around and introduce yourself.
You spend a few minutes chatting with the professor about the syllabus and decide to go before students from her next class start to appear. She answers all your questions, and you tell her you’re looking forward to class on Tuesday.
Since you have some extra time, you make your way to Gambrell for your next class and sit on one of the wooden benches, reading from your e-textbook on your phone. After reading a few pages, your mind begins to wander and you glance up from the page to see a colorful flyer across the room on the bulletin board across the room. You walk over to it. The paper advertises a club devoted to the subject you're most interested in, with tear-off tabs at the bottom that say when and where the first meeting is. You've got a pretty hefty course load this semester and already feel a little stressed. Do you tear off a tab and think about going to the first meeting or decide you have too much on your plate and walk away?
Leave to grab a drink from Colloquium.
Time for a caffeine pick-me-up. You order your usual coffee drink and wait for it to be prepared. You scroll through Twitter for a minute and see from a USC account that there's going to be an "I survived the first day of class" cookout later. A barista calls your name and when you grab your drink, you spill it all over yourself and the floor. People are staring. Do you drop everything and buy the next bus ticket out of Columbia or grab some napkins, clean up the mess and get on with your life?
Ask for their phone numbers.
A few of them say they've really got to go, pointing in the direction they're heading. Two people stick around and the three of you do the phone swap thing, blank contacts open. Maybe you'll text them both asking to get lunch together sometime. Maybe one of them will text you and ask if you want to go to the men's soccer game versus Furman on Sunday. Maybe you won't hear from either of them ever again. Maybe they'll both be in your English 282 class two semesters from now. At least you put yourself out there, right?
Head to Russell House for lunch.
You opt for Taco Bell because the Chick-fil-A line was too long. You don't see anyone you recognize upstairs, so you head downstairs and outside to the Russell House patio where you spot a few people you know and a few you don't. Once you join them, the people you do know introduce you to the people you don't and soon you're talking about Drake's new single.
Tear off a tab.
You pocket the information and find your next class, excited about the prospect of meeting people who have the same interest as you. Whether you actually go to the meeting or not, you feel hopeful that somewhere on campus, there are people who care about the same things you do.
Walk away.
Your studies come first. Maybe two weeks from now when you've got a better idea of what you can handle, you go back to the flyer and take a tab. Or maybe a different flyer from a different club entirely will catch your fancy. There are so many clubs out there, and you have time to consider them all.
Buy a bus ticket.
Sike. It's college — you don't have the budget for spontaneous trips like that.
Clean up the mess.
It's just a spill. It happens every day. Today just happened to be your turn. Everyone staring eventually gets over it and goes back to their own business.
Point is, the first day of classes aren't going to determine your entire future, much less the rest of your semester. It's easy to think that the first impression you make to every professor, classmate or random person in Colloquium is going to shape how you're viewed for the rest of the semester, but that's just not the case. Do your best, but don't overthink it. Relax. Breathe. But it's probably a better idea to go to class than to play frisbee on the Horseshoe.
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