College Days

This is my second year of college at my school's university and I'm already loving it! Well, the memories from it at least. Maybe I should start from the beginning... My name is Carly Goodwin and the college I transferred to is called Angelwood University. I've been homeschooled up until 9th grade, mainly because public school didn't work out for me, especially in kindergarten. I was getting bullied, the food was nasty and the school served food my sister was allergic to. So my mom decided to pull us out of public school and homeschool us until high school. I guess the reason I'm telling you all of this is because I need somewhere I can vent and not be judged for it. Isn't that what diaries are for, anyway? I started college a year ago and it was already a rough start with my first English professor. You see, in registering for my classes, I forgot one minor detail and the most important rule of college: NEVER SIGN UP FOR AN HONORS CLASS IN YOUR FIRST SEMESTER. It's much harder than the regular English class. I hate to admit it, but I thought this class was going to be easy. Well, not as easy as kindergarten was, but easy enough. I was so wrong! On the first day of entering my English class, I saw a few people that I would like to make friends with. So, I sat near one of them in my class and started introducing myself to him. I learned his name was Jack and to be honest, he looked pretty attractive. What? You thought I made friends with him just because he was cute? Pshhhhh, no… Whatever gave you that idea? Okay, I have to admit he was pretty cute but that wasn't the reason I decided I wanted to be his friend. I guess maybe I saw a bit of myself in him. Sweet and adorkable. Anyway, back to the trainwreck that was English class. On the fourth day of my second week of school, something happened that I didn't expect. I think we were reading The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe or something like that. I thought the story was creepy. Here's this guy who dresses like a court jester at a town carnival who has done this other guy named Montresor a terrible wrong and is trying to have him freaking killed. Meanwhile, Fortunato—the guy who Montresor is planning his revenge on—is totally oblivious to what is happening, even though Montresor gives him many, many hints as to what he's trying to do. I mean, how stupid can this guy be?! The audiobook I listened to made the story even more terrifying. When I, along with the rest of class, finished the book, my professor, Professor Kirby, asked if anyone had any questions about the book and I raised my hand. I learned quite quickly that I shouldn't have done that. He immediately told me he didn't ask for my opinion and that if I had an opinion to get out of class. I wouldn't have minded it if he told me this in private, but you know what he did? He basically chewed me out in front of the whole class. Immediately, I thought of saying, "Well, screw you!" but that probably would have had me kicked out of class and my parents would have grounded me until I was 30. But while he continued to rake me over the coals, I imagined this scenario happening: Throwing a paper ball at him as soon as he said pop quiz, him passing out and the whole class cheering. I smirked at the thought as I tried to concentrate on the class whilst trying not to cry from the embarrassment of the whole thing. When my sister and mom asked me how my day went when we got back home, I couldn't stop tears from coming to my eyes at the painful memory of English class. My mom looked furious when I told her at what happened, so she and my sister prayed for me, and I ended up feeling a lot better. I started dreading going to English class from then on. I felt like I was in a horror movie, only the character that was in it was me. Day after day went by and by the time Tuesday had rolled around, I found myself walking towards the door of my class filled with apprehension. What if the professor embarrasses me again, only this time I'm kicked out of the class?! I'll never be able to show my face in school again! Then again, I could always change my name, fake an identity and move to Canada. As I was having my little panic attack, I finally peeked inside the class and saw that the professor wasn't there. My other classmates were as bewildered as I was. "Isn't there supposed to be class today?" Jake asked, looking towards me with a confused, yet innocent expression on his face. His incredibly handsome face. I thought to myself. I tried to snap myself out of my daze and nodded feebly to him. I then looked at my phone and saw that Professor Kirby sent out an email. I decided to read it to myself and then tell my classmates the message. Good morning everyone. I've come down with a cold so there will be no class today. The syllabus schedule will still go according to plan. See you all on Thursday. "I guess there's no school today then.”Alex responded after a moment of silence. "I guess not. See you later guys.” I waved to them as I headed towards the library with a smile on my face. I know it might sound wrong and all, but I had never been so happy to hear that someone was sick before. My sister personally thought my ancestors cursed him for how he treated me last week. Whatever the reason was, I was so happy that I started singing "Oh Happy Day". There is one thing that I wasn't so happy about. Despite all the studying I put in, I was disappointed to see that I would end up getting B's on the tests. I even got a B in the first essay. My friends and family kept telling me it wasn't that bad, but since I'm a perfectionist, it just wasn't enough for me. Though I am happy to say that things started looking up for me. Once I started going to the tutoring center, asking my friends to check my essay and review my notes, my grades started to improve. The next essay I had to write was an argumentative essay. Basically, it was about convincing someone why my viewpoint was worth considering. After I handed it in, I was surprised to see it was given it back to me with no grade on it. Did I do so poorly on it that my professor decided to give me no grade? I decided that wasn't the case so I decided that after class was over, I would go up to Professor Kirby and ask him why. It turns out that I had two opposing viewpoints even though I needed only one. I put that social media is positive or negative. I had to pick one or the other. I was lucky he gave me another chance and the second time, I ended up getting an A on it. A low A but an A no less. Our last essay was a poem analysis. It was due on the last day of class. I decided to write the essay on The Cask of Amontillado. I still don't know what I got on that essay, but what I do know is that I tried my best. The same goes for my final exam. There is some good news that I want to share with you all! December 5th was the day I got my report card back and you'll never guess I got. I GOT AN A! A FREAKING A! I was so excited and my GPA was good as well! Sure, I had a rough start in the beginning but it ended well! Plus, I learned some life lessons from there and a very important one at that: NEVER EVER DO YOUR ESSAY ASSIGNMENT AT THE LAST MINUTE OR YOU WILL END UP PAYING DEARLY. Dearly as in your parents feel like giving you a slap so hard you'll wake up in a different country. Or, your professor will give you an F because it was so poorly written. Lol! The second class I took was Communication 1201. It looked like a pretty good class: nice professor, making new friends, etc. At least until I learned I had to perform oral presentations in front of the class. The thing is, I'm one of those people who has an internal panic attack when I'm called for a presentation. I start stuttering, my hands get sweaty, the works. It was bad enough I completely bombed my first quiz and now I have to do an oral presentation in three weeks?! *Sigh* I realized that I wasn't good at public speaking when I got the grade back from my oral presentation...an 84. I always stutter when I'm in front of a class and to have my classmate's comment on it? Not exactly the self-esteem booster. Sure, they did it on paper but it was still nerve-wracking! The next presentation I had to do was on cyberbullying. That one, I had a lot of fun with. Plus, I had some idea of how people who are or were cyberbullied feel, since I was bullied in middle school myself. But just because it happens on a computer doesn't mean it's less hurtful than bullying in real life. I think I got a B on that one as well! Next, we had to do a PowerPoint presentation on the career we would want to do once we finish college. I decided that I would pick the topic of being an elementary teacher since I love little kids and you know what? I ended up getting a B on that one too. Though I was doing better on the quizzes than my first one. Sure, I got a D in one of them and two A's on the second and fourth one, but hey! At least I wasn't failing! Then there was the panel discussion on deforestation and I had to work with three of my classmates for that. That presentation was worth a lot of our grade. We had to put in our outline, who was going to answer which question and so on. We actually met at Starbucks one time to discuss it and ended up doing very well. My friends ended up getting good grades on it. As for me, I was so nervous about my grades, I was afraid I would end up failing it by not saying enough or saying too much and not giving the others a chance to speak. I ended up with an 84/100 on my presentation, 58/60 for the panel discussion, 19/20 for the questions and 5/5 points for something else I can't remember. Finally, the day of the final exam came and I was so nervous! I was practically reciting all the definitions for the vocabulary section in my head and ended up getting a B for that too. When I got my report card, I saw that I got an overall B in that class and was a bit disappointed, but not surprised. The only thing that mattered was that I tried my best. I still see my communications professor, Professor Harken around the campus sometimes and it's a bit awkward for me, mostly because I get anxious when I talk to people, even though I'm a social butterfly. I'm hoping I don't see her in public. If that happened, I could possibly faint. Oh, and I had to take this class that's required for freshmen on Saturdays. I didn't like waking up early on a Saturday morning, but I needed to take that class so, whatever. I had to take these quizzes that were pretty easy and take a test to see what kind of learner I was. Turns out, I'm a visual learner, meaning that I learn from pictures or graphs. Hmmm, maybe that's why I sometimes get excited when I read dork diaries and see all the artwork the author has drawn. I even made a new friend in that class. His name's Ethan and he probably ended up getting an A in that public speaking class. Lucky duck! I saved the best (and worst) classes for last. I'm talking about my favorite class of all, Art Appreciation! It was a lot of fun! It was actually where I met my first friends in college, Sammy and Kathy. They were really nice to me on my first day of art class. The professor, Professor Penelope Sterling, was one of the best professors I ever had. She taught us about Greek art, famous artists, and so much more. The best part of it all was that she gave my other classmates and me extra credit when we went to an art gallery on campus. That was so much fun. We were also required to write an essay on it. That part wasn't too hard since I had to write one and a half pages of what I considered my favorite artwork to be and why. Of course, there is one aspect of that class that I hated with all my heart. The fact that Alex was there. He was this annoying troublemaker from English class that had spilled over to this class. So, let me rewind back to one of the days of my art class. Professor Sterling asked us a question and I knew the answer to it, but for some weird reason, the words just wouldn't come out of my mouth. I think it was the whole class was staring at me and it was so...so nerve-wracking. I asked her what the question again and Alex told me what she meant—in a smart aleck tone of voice, I might add. Maybe it was just me, but from that day on, I decided to never speak to Alex for as long as I live. Oh, and I haven't told you the best part of the art class yet. My professor said that if we had all A's, minus one or two bad grades on a quiz, we were exempt from taking the final and I was one of those people! I was so happy and even Alex was one of them. My conscience decided to annoy me by telling to congratulate Alex for what happened. NO WAY! I retorted back. And why not? My conscience asked in disbelief. He's been a pain in my side for the rest of my first year. Give me one reason why I congratulate that-that- Because it's a nice thing to do? Yeah, well, I don't care if it's a nice thing to do. I've been being nice for the past 18 years and look where it's gotten me: people pushing me around . Well, no, but it will make you feel a lot better if you do and secondly, people push you around because you're too nice and let them. Ugh, fine! If only you'll stop annoying me about it. "Hey Alex, congratulations. . ." I begrudgingly muttered. "Uh, thanks. . ." Alex replied, a confused expression on his face. Now was that so hard? Shut up! I muttered to myself. And now comes the worst class of them all, College Algebra. *Screaming voices echo in panic* Yeah, I know. I loved math up until this first year of college. Maybe it's because I just didn't get it or maybe the professor taught the lesson faster than the roadrunner ran in the Looney Tunes show. Anyway, I ended up getting A's on the homework and D's and F's on the tests! I don't know how that was even possible! What I do know is that when my report card came, college algebra was the only class I got a D in. Now I'll have to retake that dreaded class again because my college requires me to have a C or better in all of my classes. Well, at least I know what to expect for next time. All in all, this college experience has gone really well. Farewell, my fellow readers, I've got to go get ready for the next semester. I'm so excited and yes, you can call me a bookworm all you like…