That Nervous First Day

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Barb Schwartz Kate Geiselman ENG.1101.505 09/06/2013 That Nervous First Day The year was 2000 and I was entering college for the first time. I had been out of high school for twenty-five years and had spent the last twenty-four as a stay-at-home mom of five. All of my life I had wanted to be a nurse, beginning when I was sixteen and working part-time at our local hospital. I worked as a registrar in the emergency room and would watch the nurses as they worked and I said to myself “that is what I want to do”. Now was my chance and I didn’t think I had ever been so nervous. I prepared for it all. Applications and financial aid, interviews, orientations and registrations, ACT tests and placement tests. I had been through all of this the previous year but for my oldest daughter, not for myself. Then it was off to buy books and supplies and I was ready for that first day. The first time sitting in a classroom since 1975. My time in a classroom for all of those between years were parent-teacher conferences and bringing cupcakes to a class party. That night before I couldn’t sleep, was up bright and early, backpack filled and ready to go. And then it was time to go for that nervous first day. My first class, on that first day, just happened to be an English class. I also had biology and algebra that semester but English was the one I dreaded most. I had four years of English in high school all those years ago and I could still remember what they were like. I remembered my high school English teacher. She had been teaching at that same school for many, many years. Mrs. Queen, with blue hair, a high pitched voice that resembled Julia Child so much you expected to get cooking instructions and her polyester suits. But the thing I remembered most was writing papers. I hated writing papers, not short papers, but six to eight page papers.
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