The Perfect First Day

It seems like a "first day" phenomenon has been the talk of the blogosphere for a lot of students, not to mention, a handful of Bosconians, whom i have had the privilege to know this past year. A few moments back, i browsed through a number of blogs of former students, ranting and raving about the highs and lows of their first day in school.

Would I be left behind? of course not.

Today was my first day too. In Grad School, that is. However, it was far from perfect. My classes start at 6 in the evening and end at 9. And since today was the first day, I was all so prepared and psyched up about heading to school and braving the wet streets of Shaw Boulevard, V. Mapa and Katipunan just to get to my class.

It takes approximately an hour to get to school from our house, so imagine the panic i had when at 5:03pm, I was merely stepping out of the shower! I rushed to pick out the perfect clothes for the perfect first day, but at the back of my mind were the words: "You're late! You're late!" Timing was crucial. I had to pack my things right after that, and literally swoosh through the puddles of rainwater carelessly collected throughout our street. I got on a ride, and by 5:50, i was dripping wet, and was standing on the platform of the LRT 2. "Four minutes and 30 seconds," it read. And there i was, at the mercy of the train and the tricycle i was to board right after.

To cut the long story short, I was late. And lo and behold, my teacher was late too! Or so i thought. I headed straight to the empty classroom, only to find out from the janitor that two students had just left, apparently waiting for the teacher to show up. In other words, there was really no "first day" to talk about. Sweaty, drenched and poorer by 84 pesos (that's the fare to and from school), I walked around the corridors of the dim building, with only the faithful word of the janitor that the first day was cancelled.

Lesson learned? I heard this from one of our college professors: "Prima non datur" or "The first is not given" -- the first meeting in class, that is. And Grad school is definitely not an exception!

And that's what makes the First Day always Perfect.