So Long Sweet Summer

My mom said that when she put Kelly on the bus for her first day of kindergarten, they both cried. As soon as Kelly was on the bus, the busdriver snapped the doors shut and my mom got in her car to follow the bus all the way to Forest Ridge Elementary School, a whole five minutes down the road.

I don't remember much about my first day of kindergarten, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't that traumatic. Once she got off the bus and met Mrs. Robinson, Kelly had a lovely experience in kindergarten, so I don't think I was as nervous as she had been. I've always liked being the second child.

But no matter where you are in the lineup of kids in your family, I think everyone experiences a little bit of nervousness before their first day of school, and I don't think that it ever really goes away.

Today I had my sixteenth first day of school. Here's how it felt to be me this morning:

I love BYU, love being on campus, and (so far) love my classes, but I was still a little less than thrilled when my alarm went off at 7:29 this morning. (Caitlin was probably even less thrilled than me, since she woke up to it and I didn't hear it until 7:52. Sorryy...) I've just loved summer so much and I don't think I was quite ready for it to end. Ohhhh well!

Here were the main things that were making me nervous about my first day:

1. Getting lost. I've always been kind of directionally challenged. I realize this is my third year at BYU and I should know where all the buildings are. Does that mean I do? Not necessarily. Luckily, I was able to get to all of my classes on time today.

2. Sleeping in. I slept through church three times this summer. This is especially embarrassing when you consider that my ward met from 10:00-1:00 and I slept through all three meetings every time. So I was a little nervous that I would sleep in and be late to my first class of the semester. Thankfully, that didn't happen!

3. Ummm yeah that's it.

I had three classes today: Mission prep at 9, Basic Concepts of Math at 10, and Rhythm and Dance at 2. Apparently I am not used to being in school at all because by the time ten minutes of my first class had gone by, I felt a little more like this:

I was ready for my day to be over. Looking over syllabus after syllabus is just so draining.

This is going to be my most challenging semester yet. I am signed up for 14 credits and will be working two jobs, giving ten hours a week each to the Writing Center and Coldstone. I am also going to be the M.O.H. at Kelly and Dahl's wedding in November so I'm kind of going to be planning a wedding while pursuing my education and working two jobs. I'm also going to be forced to have a social life because I'm living with Caitlin and she will probably hate me and move out if I never take time to play. Can you say stressful??

The good news is that I am an elementary ed major. This is good news because it's kind of like repeating elementary school at super-speed, only you're older and recess is a little different and each lesson has a side lesson that teaches you how to teach the lesson later. Also, almost all of the teachers in the department have been elementary school teachers, and old habits die hard. They are all very bubbly and welcoming and patient. We get treats and candy in our classes probably more than any other major.

Today, in my math class, we talked about the difference between addition and subtraction. My homework was a worksheet with about ten math problems.

In my rhythm and dance class, we learned an easy dance to Row, Row, Row Your Boat. We also marched around holding hands in a circle, then split off and made a snake. We just marched to the beat of "Save the Last Dance" by Michael Buble. It was wonderful!

There is entirely too many people who decided to come back to BYU campus. I want to send half of them home. I miss summertime!