5 | The Semester Starts

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

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Insanity:

Willingly taking a class with a roommate you don't know too well who is intent on flirting with every boy in the general vicinity.

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            You're going to come across two different kinds of people when you're picking out classes for your freshman year of college:

1.     The people who swear that 8 AM classes are the way to go because then you get everything out of the way early on and have the rest of your day to yourself. (1)

2.     The people who swear that 8 AM classes are the devil reincarnated and that they would rather bathe in fire than take them.

The second group of people are the sane ones, and the first group are the ones that you find running marathons for fun. (2)

            I listened to both of these types of people while selecting my classes. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I had 8 AM classes, but not on Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays. Unfortunately, due to Labor Day, my first-ever day of freshman classes began on a Tuesday—and thus, began with me waking up at 6:30 AM.

            I was ready to walk out the door by 7:30 and headed straight to Nutrition—which I was taking as my Biology credit since I hated science with a passion—only to arrive fifteen minutes early.

            I made a mental note of that.

            Class started and ended, and I made my way to a different building for my 9:30 class, walking up to Madison standing outside waiting for me.

            We had the same class every Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30-10:45. American Government and Politics, or, as I would come to fondly refer to it as, "that Poli Sci class that I'm failing."

            "Hey! Did you have any classes before this?" I asked as I walked up, still worried she was gonna hit me or something if I asked anything she didn't like.

            "Yeah, Econ. But I think I'm probably going to drop it when I get back to the apartment today, the professor won't let us bring in laptops and that's the only way I'm taking notes." She rolled her eyes, "How about you?"

            "Yeah, I had Nutrition." I said, "It seems like a decent class. Hopefully nothing too hard."

            Lies. I would end up getting my worst grades for the semester in Nutrition and American Government and Politics. Must have been the time that I got up to take them.

            "That's good." Madison nodded as we walked into the building and found our classroom: a giant lecture hall with over a hundred kids already sitting there, laptops out and clicking away.

            "We could probably find a seat in the back." I suggested. I hated sitting in the front of anything.

            Madison, evidently, did not agree, as she looked at me like I was a Martian. (3)

            "We should definitely sit towards the front." She rolled her eyes, "Anyone who sits in the back probably doesn't care about their education."

            Ouch. (4)

            She led us to a spot in the fifth row out of thirty, three and four seats from the end. I went along with it; I was sure that as the semester went on she would be less inclined to be front and center all the time. (5)

            Madison sat down and opened up her laptop, the guy next to her looking over and the girl next to me ignoring me completely.

            "Hey, what's your name?" The guy asked Madison, leaning over his laptop as she opened up a new Word document to take notes on.

            "Madison." She giggled, looking over coyly. I almost gagged; girls who flirted by acting like toddlers were the absolute worst thing. "What's yours?"

            "Dean." He winked at her, "Where you from?"

            "Nevada." Madison replied, "Right outside of Vegas."

            "Wow, that must have been lit." Dean told her, and she laughed louder than I had ever heard anyone laugh before in my life. "Utah's a step down from that."

            "Well I mean, I'm sure I'll be meeting some pretty cool people here." Madison laughed again, flipping her hair over her shoulder and hitting me in the face.

            I'll spare the rest of that conversation. I didn't pay too much more attention to it, and instead tried to come up with polite ways to never sit next to her in class again.

            I failed.

***

            "How was your first day of class?"

            I was definitely a mama's girl. (6) In high school, I had come home from school every day and told her how my day was, gave her the school gossip, told her about things going on with my friends...everything. My mom knew every detail of my life, so moving 2,000 miles away for college was definitely an adjustment for both of us.

            "It was alright." I nodded, "Madison spent the whole class flirting with some guy who looked like he rolled in from football practice. At least, IQ-wise."

            My mom laughed, the FaceTime call stabilizing.

            "That sounds like fun." She said, "Isn't she your roommate? Is she not home right now?"

            I shook my head.

            "She's at work. Her and Ashley both have jobs. I think Paige does too, actually."

            "Oh, gotcha." Mom nodded.

            "How are you holding up?" I asked, "Dad said you were crying when you left Utah."

            "Oh, I've been a mess." She nodded, laughing a bit at herself. "When your oldest kid goes away to college, you'll be a mess too. But I'm doing fine, and I'm happy that you seem to be having a good first week."

            She narrowed her eyes a bit and winked at me.

            "Any boys in the picture? What about that cute mission kid from back home?"

            "Peter? Yeah, I've been texting him a little bit." I nodded, trying to keep myself from blushing. "I think he might ask me out soon."

            "Well, that would be great! He seemed like a nice guy." (7)

            "Yeah, he seems cool." I nodded, ignoring the subtle memory in the back of my mind of the way he talked like he had just finished riding in a wave. "Speaking of which, he's actually calling me right now. Can I call you back?"

            "Of course! I want all the details."

            I rolled my eyes and said goodbye before accepting Peter's call, holding the phone up to my ear.

            "Hello?"

            "Hey, Morgan! It's Peter."

            "Peter, hi!"

            "Hey, so I was just wondering if you'd like to go out on a real date this weekend, instead of just an NSO party." He wasn't talking like a douchebag this time, so I was a bit more intrigued. "Say dinner on Friday, around seven?"

            "That sounds great." I nodded, feeling a blush warm my cheeks. "I can't wait."

            "Awesome! I'll see you then."

            I hung up and laid down on my bed, hugging the phone to my chest. Maybe college would turn out to be a lot more fun than I had anticipated.

            The front door opened and shut quickly before a high-pitched voice echoed throughout the house.

"Morgan? I'm home!"

Then again, maybe not. (8)

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Theory:

People make fun of others when they see negative traits in them that they worry are also found within themselves.

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(1) Depending on the day, I agree with this theory. When I'm forced to get up at 6 AM for work I hate myself at the time, but by 11 AM I'm grateful that I'm up and productive instead of snoozing the day away. On the days that I don't have to be at class until noon, I'm content to sleep until 11:45.

(2) Not saying it's a bad thing. Also not saying it's a sane thing.

(3) I feel like 'Martian' should not be capitalized, but my computer keeps doing the stupid red underlining whenever I try to make it not capitalized. So please don't judge the fact that I capitalized the word 'Martian,' I apologize for the way it looks.

(4) Ironically, sitting in the back of one of my classes the following semester would turn out to be the best decision I made in my entire life. And also led to one of my roommates calling me a whore. Perspective, though.

(5) This did not happen.

(6) Is that a thing?

(7) If you've never seen the Ryan Higa YouTube video "Nice Guys Finish Last" then please go and watch it, if not for anything else then just for the fact that it's stuck in my head right now.

(8) If you didn't read that in Lumiere's voice from Beauty and the Beast then I'm not sure if we can be friends.