The Morning of My First Day of College

Cassandra Hayes
Mrs. S. Aiken
English 1101
September 2, 2009






The Morning of My First Day of College


At five o’clock a.m. my eyes popped open like someone had clapped their hands dead in my face, almost like I was under hypnosis. I didn’t need the alarm clock like I thought I would. I lay in my bed and stared at the digital clock beside me watching the numbers change in anticipation for six o’clock to arrive. I lay in my bed figuring out how to advise the days upcoming events.
Over the past three years I have waited for this day to come. Here it was the day I started to build that bridge into my future. I thought about how I had taken the previous years for granted.
I am a widow at the age of twenty-seven. My husband died three years ago. I decide to stay at home and care for our two youngest children, Leara and Savanna. This past year Leara has turned four and Savanna has turned five. I cried at the thought that they were no longer my babies. Now they were on their way into the world that I had sheltered them from. They were starting their journeys to becoming productive members of society. Training to be Uncle Sam’s little taxpaying slaves! Their freedom of the castle and its amenities had been traded for a desk and books aligning four walls. No longer would they be the princesses of the castle and be treated like royalty. Instead they traded their crowns for purple book bags and their gowns and glass slippers for uniforms and tennis shoes.
The King had fallen and was gone. The Queen had let his legacy live on through his children. Our little fantasy world had come to an end. Now we are all slaves to the clock. It tells us when to wake up and when to sleep. It pressures us into changing the careless lives we once knew into boot camps of training not only the girls to be responsible, but for me as well.
So as the alarm clock sounded out its trumpet. I knew it was time to gather the soldiers in training to prepare for the day of battle.
I pulled away from the school my children attended on the way to mine. I cried at the thought of how our lives were changing. As with any change, “No pain, no gain.” I knew it had to be done. I knew this from the beginning and I’m grateful for the time I had watching them grow from babies into little children.
As I headed into that world I had forgotten about. I was afraid. I guess it’s human nature to fear the unknown. I hope that I taught my children how to adapt, to open their minds to new things and to eagerly explore their new world.
This is a big change for all of us, but we have already experienced a lot of other life changing events and survived. I think that we will all be okay.
I pulled into the parking lot found a decent parking spot. I wondered how I was going to find my first class. Then I thought, if my four and five year old can survive their first day of school, so can I. Then, I took a deep breath and stepped out of the car.