There and Back Again

Yeah, so I didn't tell you that I was going off to Birmingham for orientation; so sue me.

Well, it was pretty great. I have to say, no business, school, or other institution has ever given me so many of their plug products at one event. Affectionately titled "Goin' Green," the three "programming and advising" sessions all meshed together very nicely to strip away any trace of the adjective "prospective" that we the freshies may have had. Initially, I was worried that I would be forced into a Freshman Learning Community (FLC), in which I would be matched with 25 other underclassmen for 4 of the same classes. I really considered this to be too much like the high school experience in which entire classes, rather than individual students, gain an identity in the teachers' eyes.

"Oh, Dr. Nanteck, you definitely don't want the class that's in the Business FLC with English 101. I hear that they're terribly talkative in all of their classes."

I can see the benefits of having access to a myriad of study partners who are taking the very same class under the very same teacher, but I think that part of the college experience is learning new study skills or implementing those that you've tried and validated. Finding your own study partners from different classes is a part of that which also allows you to network and meet with more new faces. More diversity, not less networking. Anyhow, the registering software wasn't easily navigable when I had actually given in and decided that I would take on the FLC, and so I was able to make up my schedule exactly as I wanted and as follows.

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I will be taking Music Appreciation from 9 to 9:50 a.m.; Sociology from 11 to 11:5o a.m.; and Business 101 from 12 until 1 in the afternoon. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I will have Principles of Microeconomics from 9:30 until 10:45 a.m.; Survey of Calculus from 11 until 12:15; and Aikido from 7 until 8:15 p.m.

If anyone from UAB happens to read this, I would like to thank the entire orientation staff for making "Goin' Green" an experience that only reaffirmed my postsecondary choice.

To the U-U-U-U-A, to the A-A-A-A-B... Eh, you had to be there.
J. Sutton