First Day of Classes

This is the cupcake and note that my lovely RA, Nicole, left outside all our doors this morning. On the slip of paper is the Student's Prayer by St. Thomas Aquinas. It reads:

Creator of all things, true source of Light and Wisdom,
lofty source of all Being, graciously let a ray of your
brilliance penetrate into the darkness of my understanding
and take from me the double darkness into which I have
been born, sin and ignorance.

Give me a sharp sense of understanding,
a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things,
correctly and fundamentally.

Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations,
and the ability to express myself with
thoroughness and charm.

Point out the beginning, direct the progress,
help in the completion.

Through Christ, our Lord,
Amen.

This helped to calm some of my nerves on the way to my first class. Most of them went pretty good. My first class was International Relations at 8am and they moved the room on me so I was slightly late (although not the last person there). However, the professor had a great sense of humor, which you need for that kind of class at that time of the morning, and he seemed to want to get to know the students. The class is only a 100 level but he said that it really should be a 300 level. That really wasn't what I wanted to hear first thing in the morning. My second class was Creative Writing and it was after chapel. I made the silly mistake of sitting in the middle of chapel so I was one of the last ones out and late AGAIN. For a girl who went a whole year without being late once it was slightly frustrating. I had the professor for that class my first semester so it wasn't so bad. The focus of the class was different than I expected. I thought we would be assigned to do creative writing and have it brutally critiqued (which we will do some of that) but it is more focused on studying creative writing and what makes it good. After that I tried to get some lunch but the line was looooong and I had to get to Ethics right away. I'll have to plan better next time. I also knew my professor from Ethics and it is structured identically to her's that I took last semester so I feel a little more confident about it. My last class was right after Ethics and it was Environmental Science. The professor is Jewish but he only looks Jewish from the neck up. He has the beard and cap and says Hebrew prayers but he is dressed in jeans, a t-shirt, sandals with socks, and speaks with a southern drawl. The class is going to be intense-he expects more than any class I have been in yet and this is just supposed to be a gen ed. Anyway, it was a pretty good start to the year over all and I need to stop procrastinating and do some homework before our mandatory hall meeting tonight. It's good that I have all day Tuesday and Thursday off but it makes it easier to put my work off until then!