Tales of a College Student

Orientation Day: Community College

October 5th 2015,

Today is the day. Little over two months ago, beauty school didn't turn out the way it was supposed to. I realized I did not love doing hair and makeup like I did love English. This of course, will make more sense later. Then I decided to go to my local community college and try to figure out my entire life. Today is the day that it is my orientation for community college. At 1:00pm I was supposed to try to find my building in this tiny community college and find my room. It felt like the first day of high school all over again.

Once I found my room in this tiny building with the typical "high school" setting I arrived. I looked outside the door so my father could know I was okay until the orientation was over. On the website, it informed me that it would be several hours until the orientation was over. Sitting on all the desks were a packets full of information regarding the college. There was also green drawstring back packs where the papers could go into. A couple moments later students started gathering around. They were all talking to one another and finding a seat among the green drawstring back packs.

A few moments later a women walked in and started up a presentation on the board. The typical white board and projector set up was displayed. She was signing into the computer and placing the not so long presentation. 

"Hello everybody, how are we doing today?" The small amount of effort everybody had was put into the "good" response that came from them. 

"Great. I know on the sign up sheet it said we'd be here 4 hours, but it'll only take about 30-45 minutes then we will get you guys out of here!"

This was great news to me honestly. I was uncomfortable enough because all the other students seemed to know each other. In my high school, it was rare for the students to discuss college let alone community college. It just isn't something that is discussed at least in my case. For the next thirty minutes she talks about all this useful information. She flips from slide to slide on the presentation as I try to take as many notes as possible.

"Here is the way that most of you will turn in work for your professors. It is pretty simple and easy to log in to." She goes on and on about important information about the college. Many of the student looked more bored then a guy in a bra store. Nonetheless, the most useful information was how to type a email to a professor.

"When you guys need to type an email to your professor there are certain things you must do. For instance, you will need to put your name in the title/subject bar and what your email subject is going to be about. Also remember that you want to avoid using all caps, watch out for grammar and spelling, and most importantly try and remember that the professors have lives. Please give them a good time frame to email you back before sending another email."

Before I knew it she dismissed us from the orientation. The classroom lecture orientation was not something I was expecting at college. I was expecting this long drawn out thing, but I guess it is different in community college. I called my father back so he could pick me up. I wished myself luck on this very long journey because I would need it.