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The First Day
My first day of class, spring semester of 2000. I walked in with a bad attitude. Here I am, working forty hours a week; the last thing I wanted to do after a hectic day at work was listen to some professor talk about English for almost four hours. What could he/she possibly have to say for that long? So, I get out of work on that day and make the half-hour drive to Kalamazoo. I get to class and take my seat. Stares come from everywhere. My feelings go a little like this:
| Here we go again! Another fun-filled class. At least this one is only six weeks. You can make it that long. | |
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Walked in late on the first day. Nice first impression there Kristin! Oh crap! He's taking attendance and he's already to the R's. Now I'll have to raise my hand when he's done! |
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"Talicska." "Here!" "Whisler." "Here!" "Yoder." "Here!" "Is there anyone here whose name I didn't call?" my professor says as he stares around the room. |
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| Spotlights on you beautiful! I raise my hand. | |
| "What's your name?" | |
| "Kristin Garwick," I reply, as I point to my name on his sheet. | |
| "Okay," he says. | |
| He hates me, I think. I look at him and smile. | |
| "I'd like to play the name game now. I'll start. I'm Allen and you are..." | |
| You've got to be
kidding. Just lecture and get it over with!
"Kristin," I reply. |
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| "Okay. Allen, Kristin. Now, you say Allen and the person next to you." | |
| I can't believe
he's making me do this!
"Allen, me, Vicki...." Finally, all attention is on someone else! Thank God I'm not sitting at the end of this circle! |
Needless to say, I wasn't looking forward to this class. I knew I had a bad attitude from the beginning, and part of the bad attitude started because of my fear of the workload in the class. I had heard it was pretty heavy, and this session of classes were only six weeks. I didn't know if I could do it. After viewing the syllabus, I thought about dropping the class on the first night.
Dr. Carey-Webb began to explain the Web Site Autobiography on the syllabus. He said that we were to be his guinea pigs for using technology in this class. We were all overwhelmed.
Click here to see my "vision" of the Autobiography!
Once I saw how frightened everyone was, I decided not to drop the class. I realized that we were all in the same boat. We were in this thing together, a sort of "sink or swim" class if you will. That's how it all began. Join me now as I take you on a journey of my development as a reader and writer, starting just before Kindergarten, 1980.