My First Day of School: A Natural Disaster, an Indication of What is to Come, or Wisdom from the Divine?

• I left my house 45 minutes before I was scheduled to be in the Welcome Center for my first day working in the office. It takes me 25 minutes to get to Clark College in instances of minor traffic. I got to the college at 8:40. It was not one of those instances. I looked for a parking spot for 20 minutes. I said the f-word a few times because no one could hear me. I said my favorite driving word, shit, like there was no tomorrow. I held back tears every time they surfaced because, as an employee in the Welcome Center my job is to solve other student's problems, not to have any of my own. I couldn't find God anywhere in the parking lot. I know he doesn't want anything to do with driving, parking, traffic, or annoying pedestrians because they are straight from hell. I was five minutes late to work.
• I liked work. I don't like the idea of sitting at a desk in a cubicle, which I will be doing more of later, but for today I was the first person that students saw when they walked into the college. I like that. I like that I can smile and that by helping people, I can make them feel like they belong somewhere. A lot of people who come to Clark College feel uncomfortable in an academic environment. Many are not typical college students. They are adult learners; either they are single mothers (also called "displaced homemakers" because they are unexpectedly having to provide for a family), in a worker retraining program after being laid-off, enrolled in Adult Basic Education courses, learning English as a second language, or are trying to earn their GED after dropping out of high school, sometimes a decade earlier. A community college is an accessible place for people to encounter opportunites that they would not be given elsewhere. The mission of the school is to provide education, using whatever means that can, in whatever capacity people require it. Different is the point. Clark College is one of the most accepting, diverse places I have ever been. I have not been exposed to this kind of environment enough in my life.
• My World Literature class is going to be my favorite. I know this because I know this: I love writing. I love exploring why people write. The class is the first part of a three-part survey, so we are starting from the beginning of time and the existance of written records. We are starting by asking these questions:

1. What were people concerned about in early civilizations? How did these concerns make themselves apparent in writing?
2. Why/how did people begin to acquire knowledge? What was considered knowledge in early societies?
3. How do you create an authentic self?
4. What is a good person? How do you function in the midst of a group of people to both benefit yourself and others?
5. What is the afterlife?

We still ask these questions today.

If we are still asking these same questions, than we haven't found the answers yet.

• "The human species was given dominion over the earth and took the opportunity to exterminate other species and warm the atmosphere and generally ruin things in its own image, but it paid this price for its privieleges: that the finite and specific animal body of this species contained a brain capable of conceiving the infinite and wishing to be infinite itself." -Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections
• There is one more thing about this day that made it golden. I called my friend Mitchell after I was done with classes. He is one of my best friends and I wanted to hear about his first day of school. We were making plans to visit his brother and sister-in-law after school on Wednesday and the topic of my art class surfaced. I told him that I didn't have the class today but that I have it until 3:00 on Wednesday. Hold the phone... literally. I suddenly realized that this is not possible. I missed one of my classes on the first day. I am not that kind of person. These kinds of things just do not happen to me. But today, I was that kind of person. I am starting to think that I am capable of anything. I called the instructor and made a plea to her over a voicemail. I sent her an e-mail. I was desperate to redeem myself. Maybe just explain myself.

The end.