So, remember back in the day when the day before the first day of school used to feel like Christmas? I remember getting excited about opening the packages of crisp new school clothes and taking fresh, shiny shoes out the box that had been off limits all summer (although for nine years of my life this outfit consisted of a brown and yellow plaid uniform with matching thick brown tights and brown shoes, it was still exciting).
Well, yesterday I definitely didn't pop any tags, and wasn't so sure where I could even buy a trace of excitement about school. It was more like a stomach churning, feet dragging, holding on to every last micro-second of vacation I could possibly find sensation that characterized my pre-first-day mood. I guess I was a little nervous, anxious about starting up again. I remembered that God-awful last few weeks of the first semester, and how every day felt like eons away from the end, and I soooooo wasn't excited about going there again. Nonetheless, at about 1:30 pm, after a half-hour siesta, I picked myself up, pulled some absolutely un-new jeans and a long sleeve shirt out of the closet, put them on top of layers of clothes to help me brace the frigid temperatures, and I was on my way.
The whole journey to the train station I worked on preparing myself. I talked to God and asked for guidance, clarity, and any kind of HELP She wanted to hook a sister up with. For some reason, that trip to school that I'd been taking for the past five months all of a sudden seemed kind of foreign; I had to re-orient myself. "If I'm getting off at U-Street that's the front of the train. If I'm getting off at Shaw-Howard University I need to get to the back. Got it. U Street it is"; I talked myself through it and made it to my destination.
I set out a little early because my first class would be in a building I'd never been in before; good thing I did because I definitely got lost trying to find the classroom. At about 2:55 pm I made it to the door of the class. I step inside to find someone else was already there. I greeted the student and prepared to take a seat, of which there were plenty to choose. I think I got both of my gloves off before the classroom door opened again. In walked another person who looked like a student. He greeted the other student, made small talk with him, and then proceeded to inform the class (all two of us) that he was sent by the Professor to tell us that we wouldn't be having class. Yup, cancelled....until January 24th! I could not believe it. All of that work to get here, just to go right back home! God got jokes! I could have complained, but I calmed myself and acknowledged that there could have been an emergency responsible for this experience; I also quit my mental rant once I realized that I definitely did not travel the two hours that the other student traveled to get to class and had to repeat to get home.
Needless to say, it turned out to be a pretty awesome first day; kind of like Christmas anyway! Now if only we can conjure up some of this wintery, wonderland snow for Wednesday...Happy Kwanzaa to me!
First Day...to be continued!
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