The College Experience: Part 1
A Glimpse of the First Academic Semester
The Marathon begins…
Being accepted and admitted into college was one of the happiest moments for me and obviously for every school leaver with aspirations of attaining some sort of “higher education.” It’s probably one of the best feelings in the world for most. And considering the high value that society has placed on the attainment and pursuit of the higher education, one is said to be on the right path to success once they enter college or university. That is plainly seen in the small but weighty line, “Education is the key to success” which is Subjectively true!
13th January, 2020, My feet stepped into a space I had never been before. The college classroom. Not so different from the high school or secondary classroom though. The only differences are that this is a College classroom and that the man or woman in front of the white board(not black) with a marker(not chalk) is not the teacher but the Lecturer. Unlike teachers who teach(spoon feed), Lecturers lecture (train).
College or Varsity is just another different space in the world. Its a space where you can be whatever you want to be and do whatever you feel like doing. And in most cases, nobody really cares about whatever you decide to do. So long as you feel that you are doing the good and right thing, then its okay. You have the freedom and the audacity to do things just as you wish and please. It’s also a space where some find themselves and make it and others loose themselves slowly. It all depends with the choices and decisions that each one makes for themselves.
My academic marathon had began. Like majority of other first year students, the feeling was exciting and overwhelming. I mean, it’s not an experience I have experienced before in my entire life. It was my first time ever to have this kind of experience and find myself in this kind of space. Meeting new people I didn’t even know I would meet. College was just as l had thought and imagined it to be. The sad and shocking thing though is, things didn’t stay the same for quite a longer period of time. The feelings of excitement that I had were only for a short span. After a month and some weeks of being in school, the world had started closing down the doors of its main arenas. School institutions had closed. Businesses, Companies and other human ventures also closed. The only doors that were left wide open were health care facilities. The Covid — 19 pandemic had hit a crescendo! It was a rather quick transition of events. From being in an elated state for being in school to being in a disconsolate state for being sent back home for an indefinite period of time with no hopes of getting back in school any time soon.
My fellow first year students would testify to the fact that being a first year student in 2020 hasn’t been an easy thing but one of the toughest things a first year student had had to face with. Just imagine the struggles of using e-learning technology in a third world country! The last time I checked it wasn’t successful! But what could be done? Nothing apart from the unworkable scheme of e-lessons. Worse enough was the horrifying idea of having to sit for exams at the end of the semester. Like what am I even going to write on my answer scripts just a month and a few weeks in school and the rest five months home with the e-learning that actually didn’t even work out? It was terrible!
I’m not trying to put a blame on anybody, pandemics happen just like the Covid — 19. All I’m trying to say is that being a first year student in 2020 was one of the toughest odds a student like me has had to undergo.
Another thing that I think most of us had to battle with is the mental breakdown and instability. We’ve had to cope with a lot of stress, hardships and anxieties of having to do things for the first time in a pretty much hard way. We barely new anything or how to handle things. We were new to this system of things.
The lockdown had brought with it, its own “butterfly” effects. “For this way of living(life), I couldn’t change…” neither could anyone. Staying home the whole day doing nothing of productivity isn’t my usual thing. I get stressed out. But here I was, spending most of my days and nights on the internet, letting the internet garbage in and out of my head, day in and out. Anxiety was at its topmost!
Despite all the things and struggles that we had to undergo, the good and positive thing is that most of us like the Russian President, Putin’ extra work and effort because in all honesty, the first academic semester was more like the Lusaka mayor’s DIY project. A “Do It Yourself” kinda thing! And we barely made it! But yeah, We made it! We made it to the second half of the academic marathon of the year 2020!
