How to Survive Your First Semester of College

Wow! I seriously can't believe that my first semester of college is over with and done. I survived it! Whew... so glad that's over and now I thought: "What the heck? Let’s share some of my experience". So here I go.
School was always a breeze for me and I never felt any stress. That totally changed when I went to college! I started off registering for 5 classes (I needed to take more than average to get done on time for the nursing program). And like most I was thinking: "I took 7 in high school. 5 will be easy!" NOT! I was in for a rude awakening. The first thing that took me off guard was registration. No one had told me I needed to pick my classes before I went. I thought I’d meet an advisor and they would walk me through it. But nope. I had to sit at the computer and sign up quickly for the classes I wanted. NAY was great when it came to helping me, but still I was unsure at which teachers to take or even what I wanted my schedule to look like.
Right before school started my dad bought a house. So mix moving, him leaving town for 2 weeks AND starting school and you get a stressed out mess! I savored the few weeks I had of summer and before I knew it, school was starting and I was nervous. My first class started at 8 a.m. and anyone who knows me knows that directions are not my for te. Luckily, my sister showed me the way to my class and I made it on time. World Religions would start my day and I was introduced to Professor Mark Perry. I was confused at first as to why he was on a large screen and there were cameras on me. To my amazement the guy I thought was my teacher was only the tech assistant. I really enjoyed that as my first class, but then I was off to Psychology. I met, as he liked to be called, Proff Veilbig. The whole semester I laughed so hard in his class. He was one of my favorite teachers. After his class, I met up with Andrea at the cafeteria and we both talked about our day. I had one class to go and I thought for sure English 101 would be my favorite one of the semester. Wrong again!
Troy Burns was my teacher and he was a hard one to figure out. I walked on egg shells through half the semester after I received a D on my first essay because my outline was not completed. In high school, I never uttered the word "Outline"! This class caused me severe anxiety and I hate coming to it every time. But after a while, I realized that he was the type of teacher to give you a grade at the end based on what he thought you deserved. So I just did my best and prayed for a B.
At the beginning of the semester I had Chem and Math on Tuesday's and Thursday's. My Chem professor scared the crap out of me. I quickly learned that I had no prior knowledge of the subject and had no help (I had asked several times) from my professor. So after much anxiety and contemplation I dropped the class (Because of this an opportunity to be on a worship team opened and I took it). Math was another class that I loved and had no worries the whole semester. My teacher was amazing; Ms. Dhwan and she offered a lot of help and encouragement.
So to wrap it up, I was ecstatic as the final weeks approached for the end of the semester. I was literally counting them down and studying my booty off so I could pass. I had my finals schedule:
Monday- World Religions
Tuesday- Math
Wednesday- Psychology and English
I knew within an hour how my WR final went. Even though I was freaking out about it I received a 100% grade on Eastern Religions (better than what I did on my Western one!) Math was another easy one: 20 questions and a sheet of notes that I did not have to use on the test. Received an A on that as well. Psy was a different story. I was told by Prof that if I liked my grade I wouldn’t have to take the final. I had a B and I was pretty happy about that. But I decided that I needed to take the exam to encourage my sister who needed to take it to get a higher grade. So I took it and felt pretty good about it. Last, I had English and as usual my professor gave us a surprise. By now I was used to it. He wasn’t there at the beginning of class and left this as his instruction: “Answer questions 1 and 2 from the handout”. Wow! What a surprise from him. Thank God I had the handout and pre-answered the questions. So everyone was asking if we should write it in essay form and Burns wasn’t there to answer it. I wrote it in essay and sure enough that’s what he wanted. I worked hard all semester in his class and had the most anxiety, but again I realized that he was going to give me the grade he thought I deserved. And he did.
At the end of the semester I had a great feeling about what was to come. I was happy to end it and be moving on to the next one. I ended the semester with a 3.75 GPA and was ready to be done. This experience was amazing, difficult, but so worth it. I am happy to write this up and tell others about how different it can be to go from being at the top to having no idea who any one is. Next semester looks promising with classes I am excited about and teachers I will be thrilled to have. Praise God I made it!