Contest || My first day on campus || A tale of anxiety, frustration, exhaustion and satisfaction by @alexanderpeace

Greetings everyone. Am glad to participate in this amazing contact to relish the memory of my first day on campus. Thank you @campusconnectng for this opportunity.

INTRODUCTION

Campus life is what everyone looks forward to and my case wasn't an exception, even though it didn't turn out how I expected. I graduated the best in my secondary school and at least I was hopeful I was going to make it early to campus but life has it's twists and turns. Mine didn't turn our well initially. I had to spend three years at home before getting admission. My mates where already in school and I was already getting anxious and tired of writing Jamb.

I finally wrote Jamb again and had given up hope because my aptitude test result was not up to the cut of mark for the course I applied for. So I was at home feeling rejected and dejected when my phone rang on a beautiful Tuesday evening. It was my secondary school classmate who was already an undergraduate in the university I applied for admission that called. He sounded so excited and I wondered why. He broke a good news to me which I didn't know how to handle. He told me that he saw my name of the admission list of the school. I couldn't believe my ears.

The matter was complicated a little bit because I was given a primary admission meaning my name was on the first list of the school but I didn't know because I was given a different course of study instead of what I applied for. I was excited and confused at the same time. I was already late so I needed to hurry back to school because they were already four months into the semester. My admission was given October the previous year and here I was in February of the next year just learning about the admission. So in that state of excitement and anxiety, I backed up my bag and head for campus.

MY FIRST DAY IN SCHOOL

I'd say I had sleepless night the day before thinking of how to negotiate my way through school, thinking of what I've missed and how to catch up, thinking of who to talk to and imagining what campus life was going to look like.
The day broke and I had my bath and headed for school. On getting to school, I didn't know where to start from and who to talk to. My issue was complicated because I was glassophobic.

Glassophobia is the fear of talking to people. I was a stammerer, so I didn't like talking to people because of the fear of stammering. It's usually embarrassing especially when I want to ask questions. I open my mouth and no words would come out. I would struggle so much to speak. So when I got to school, I needed to ask questions but I couldn't because I was afraid to stammering. So I decided to walk around the school hoping to find my way around. After much walking around with no help, I was tired and frustrated.

So I had to sit at a corner to rehearse how to ask someone for direction to my lecture hall. After much rehearsal, I summoned the boldness to talk to someone. I started off stammering and the look on the persons face and she watched me stammer was quiet embarrassing. I just didn't care. I was relieved when the word finally came out. she took me to my lecture hall and I thanked her.

The hall had plenty of students and there was a lecturer talking in front and some students at the back were making noise, I didn't hear anything. I just stood there lost with my note book in my hands wondering what in the world I came here to do. Immediately the lecturer left, everyone stood up and began to run downstairs. I didn't know why they were running and I didn't ask. I simply ran along with them. We ran for a while and entered into another hall and settled down. A lecturer walked in and the lecture began. After it ended, we stood up and began to run again. It was a day of running around from one lecture hall to the other. I was wondering if I came to school to study or run marathon. It was later I knew that I just had to run in order to get a space to sit down for the lecture, else you would have to stand at the back all through the lecture and you won't get anything because the noise makers wont stop making noise.

After the plenty running and lecture, I was exhausted, thank God I was on flat shoes else I would have pulled off my shoes and carried them on the hand for me to be able to run. After the lecture, I summoned courage to talk to someone after much stammering about what next to do. She took me to the course rep who put me through on all the plenty things I had to meet up with. It wasn't funny at all. At the end of the day, I was worn out but glad that at least I knew a way forward after my first day on campus.

CONCLUSION

It was indeed a tale of anxiety, frustration, exhaustion but I conquered. Thank you for going through my blog. Hope your first day wasn't as intense as mine. Your comments are welcomed.