My very first day of class as a freshman was pretty worthless.

I went to my calculus class that morning (which I ended up dropping three weeks later when I realized I was failing and there was no need for me to take calculus), and talked with the people sitting around me. About 15 minutes later, we realized that the professor hadn’t shown up yet. When a gutsy girl – I’m guessing she was a sophomore – went to ask someone in the bowels of Tech about where our professor was, we found out the section we had all registered for was canceled. We were shuffled off to another room. The professor was pretty confused when 20 equally clueless freshmen walked in halfway through his lecture.

My next class was Spanish. We filled out a “how much Spanish do you know form” and I was promptly called up to the professor’s desk and told that I was in the wrong level of Spanish. And so I left, and went home for the day

It was not an auspicious start.

I hope all the freshmen out there attended more than 20 minutes of actual class yesterday. But if your day was like mine, and things were a little disorganized, don’t worry – it gets better, or at least you get used to it.

The first day of class is always a surprise, which makes it fun. You could end up sitting there for five minutes while TAs pass out syllabi and tell you that your professor is stuck in a foreign country waiting to fly back, or you could end up with a full-on lecture. Do you need to bring books with you, or is it okay if you don’t have them because they’re being shipped across the country from some highly-rated Amazon.com retailer? Do you even need to take a notebook, or will you just waste a page by only scribbling down a professor’s e-mail address? You won’t know until you walk in the doors of Harris 107, five minutes late while the professor is describing his policy on tardiness.

So just go with the flow. Enjoy the recitation of the syllabus. If you wake up for a 9 a.m. class that lasts just a few minutes, don’t complain. It’s likely the only time your class will be canceled all quarter. If your class lasts the full three hours and more, think about how lucky you were that you didn’t waste the alarmingly large amount of money you paid for that class period. There are bright sides to everything, and the first day of class just adds a little variety to life.