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First day can’t be perfect

By: Grace Baranowski <[email protected]>

“We’re supposed to be perfect our first day on the job and then show constant improvement.”-
Ed Vargo, Major League Baseball Umpire

The first day of school has always been a little disgruntling for me. New classes, new faces, a change from the summer norms (like having to actually put thought into my clothes, rather than just throwing on gym shorts and a T-shirt). I used to love the first day of school. I loved the promising scent of unopened textbooks. I loved how neatly all my pens and pencils lined up in my bag like little soldiers saluting in attention. My mother would actually take me shopping for my “first day” outfit, most likely some combination of a skirt and a blue top designed to make a good first impression.

But as it is with some expectations, the first day almost always falls flat now. We don’t do anything interesting. Every period, the teacher hands out a syllabus and goes over classroom rules. I think by now we know not to talk while the teacher talks, to turn in homework on time, and to respect the belongings of others. What’s more, the first day cannot compare to that comfortable, lived-in feeling of your favorite classes of the past year. It’s like comparing your favorite, broken-in jeans to an inflexible new pair. They don’t move with you, know you yet. I find myself walking into the building with last year’s memories, somehow expecting that they’ll magically reappear.

No, the first day of school is never my favorite. When my classes fall in a regular pattern, and I can mentally go through my schedule and the names of my teachers, that is when I like school. Between that relaxed, in-the-groove feeling (which normally arrives around Homecoming) and this time of uncomfortable newness, we’re thrust into an interim period of waiting.

So if your first day isn’t the best, I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s all part of a bigger cycle–like the haircut Cory faced on “Boy Meets World.” He used to say that his hair would look the best the day before it was to be cut, and then he’d go to the barber’s and come back with a shorter haircut. That first day with his new style he’d be at his worst-looking, but he’d eventually grow into it, and when it came time for another trim he’d be at his best. It’s the same for classes. The first day is a shock, but we all grow into it. We find the classes we love, maybe even that one class that we don’t think we’ll be able to leave come June, and our classmates become friends. And now, as you’re perusing this column, and the bell rings once, twice, in that hypnotic, dinging tone to signal the start of another period, the cycle starts again.

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