Beginning an experience that looks nothing like the universities your friends attend or maybe what you have seen in movies growing up can feel isolating. The reality is quite the contrary; like most experiences in your life, your college experience, no matter what it looks like, is up to you.
Houston City College is a place you can try out everyone you’ve ever considered being. Want to learn a sport? Sign up. Musical theater interests you? Take a drama class for fun. You want to dye your hair purple? Why not? This is a time to be whoever you want to be and who you are.
While it’s normal to feel nervous, rest assured in knowing you are not alone. Our nerves don’t divide us but rather unify us as being human. My first day on Central Campus I got stuck in traffic and showed up twenty minutes late, not knowing where I should be. Between the nerves and stress of making a bad first impression, I began to cry to a security guard who calmly looked up my class for me. Turns out I wasn’t able to find my class because I was at the wrong campus—a week early. So, for the next week, mortified, I was determined to get it right.
On my first day of class, while wandering a hallway I ran into a girl who was going to the same class as me. As the extroverted person I am, I unwarrantedly confessed my mistakes of the week prior to her. Turns out she did the exact same thing, in that moment I realized even though everyone is from different walks of life were in this together.
You’re able to learn just as much from your classmates as the algebra class you’re taking, so take advantage and talk to them. You have no idea if your future best friend has been sitting next to you for the last three weeks until you offer that pencil or ask them a question about class, so do it.
Some things are only scary because you haven’t done them before. So do this for you.
Show up on time, work hard, learn something to teach someone else later, and know you are here setting a foundation of who you want to be when you leave. You will not be who you were walking in here at your graduation, regardless the time will pass so make it count, put yourself out there. Join clubs, study in the library with classmates, go to the offered events that interest you and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
You are here to learn much more than your required reading in English. You are here to learn what inspires you, what you’re passionate about, what you’re good at, what you’re bad at, and how you can bring those skills into the world to make it a better place. So don’t be afraid to shine, fail, standout, or struggle because that is what makes you great. So, have a good year and be you
