My Last First Day (Probably)

There it is.........the building where my Utah State University class will be held.  Going to this class will trigger my "last first day".  I counted up, and I have had 35 previous first days of school.  This will be my 36th.  And guess what?  Since this is probably my last time to have a first day of school, I've decided to really, really enjoy all the pleasures and the pains of the experience. 

The first thing is that the Professor sounded really upbeat and happy that I wanted to audit his class.  You have to get his/her permission to audit before you can start fencing with the bureaucrats in the university.  Surprised doesn't begin to capture my feelings.  I truly expected him to say, "I don't think so."  First hurdle jumped.

Next, I discovered that the Oklahoma University bureacrats I had encountered in 1968 had somehow frozen themselves in time, thawed out, and then beamed themselves to Utah.  While the Summer Citizen's literature specifically says that we are welcome to take USU REAL classes, the University bureacrats are not so sure..........  Trying to get the formal permission to audit involved  climbing 19 flights of stairs (literally) and being the go between for the Registrar and the Admissions people. 

 "Well, they said I filled out the form."
 "You're just supposed to open Extender." 
"Does that make any sense to you? "
"Summer Citizenship implies residency, right?"
"Who's Peter and why/when is he going to decide." 

These are just snippet highlights of the 'go between' conversation which lasted over an hour with me walking up and down the 19 flights of stairs.  The upshot is I got registered, but we're not sure for how long.   However, I'm 'in', and I bought the book which looks terrific.  I don't even think I'm going to sell it back.

Thirdly, I absolutely AGONIZED over what to wear the first day.  Drake advised me not to wear my Easter Egg outfit  (but I will at a later time period; I like it).  Sarah suggested that wearing my Texas Rollergirls T-shirt might be a little too over the top.  Lauren said, "But you are a Texas Rollergirls kind of person."  Then I was totally bummed because I didn't bring the Rollergirls T with me.  Asking my mother-in-law to mail it to me seemed a little neurotic.  The uniform of college now is the 'free' T-shirt and skinny jeans - well, I could do the free T-shirt; but my fat ass in skinny jeans ain't happening.  I finally settled on looking like myself - T-shirt I paid for, my blue nebula necklace, with thrift store regular legged jeans, but, hey they are Talbot's - and I only had to pay $1.95 for them.  (If you want to re-read the Texas Rollergirls Post, go back to:  http://jalyss.blogspot.com/2010/05/killa-killa-killa-fast-fast-fast.html 

I really want to be accepted by the 20 year olds.  I want them to like me, and most importantly, talk to me.  I can not possibly make you understand how tired I am of old people.  Sun City has lots of smooth spots, BUT one of the unpleasant truisms I've uncovered is that lots of the OP living there have two things in common:  They are pessimistic, and they are rigid in their thinking. It's understandable.  Many of them have experienced or are experiencing the things of life you don't put on your top ten list:  Deaths, loneliness, failing health, failing minds, frustration, difficulty processing change, feeling left out and left behind.  

Twenty somethings tend to think the world is this big, bright candy box they can hardly wait to open.  They are still trying on personas as easily as they change their clothes.  They are 'now', not yesterday, not 25 years ago, and they don't think they are going to hell in a handbasket.  

Sorry, sorry, digressed.   The reason there's a picture of the building is that I wanted to find it before the first day.  Remember the dream before the first day of (1) junior high (2) high school (3) college:  You're lost, you can't find the room, and when you finally do, everybody is already there seated and they all LOOK at you when you walk in.  Oh, and you're naked.  Well, no siree bob, that wasn't going to happen to me by jingo.

So......I found the building.  I know what I'm going to wear.  Now, I'm just worried, worried, worried that the class will be so sophisticated and so hard  and so electronic that I'll be a complete dodo.   And that managed to keep me awake for hours and hours before the first day.

Naturally, the first day was a piece of cake, and all the 20 somethings were much more scared, subdued, or maybe just asleep (class starts at 8am) than I was.  The Prof is SO young, but seems to have a lot to say in sort of a stream of consciousness way, and I've already made some class friends.  And, now I'm working on knitting this group together as a unit - class will be so much better if I can do it.  They don't even know it's happening.  AHA - you can take the teacher out of the classroom, but you can't keep her skill set from showing up even if she's the student.  And finally, the class I'm taking?  CREATIVE WRITING: NON FICTION.  It's actually essay writing which I discovered today (the 2nd day) is what you have all been reading for the past four years.  Hey, who knew?