Over the summer, in-person classes were great!

The professors were much more relaxed. My peers were older and more mature. The material was quick and easy to understand and configure into my schedule. And even on the hottest days, the building was so cold that I wore a hoodie and often picked up hot chocolate from the college cafe to keep myself warm. 

But, then… this semester started. Monday was great! My two online classes started without issue. I’m taking Digital Photography and Colorado History online, and both of my professors are awesome so far. Their syllabi are well put-together and make lots of sense. The projects are straightforward and just daunting enough to challenge me without crippling me. Overall, I felt great about this semester, and drove to my only in-person class almost starry-eyed; ready to dive head-first into this semester. 

But the second I arrived on campus, I remembered what a real, 16 week semester at community college is like. 

It was 100 degrees outside, and easily 85 degrees in the building on the first floor. On the fourth floor, where my class was located, it was probably over 90. I began to worry about spending the next two-and-a-half hours up there, twice a week, for as long as the weather was so hot. Should I even try to do that? Or was it futile to try to learn in such an uncomfortable (and frankly, damn near dangerous) environment? 

Well… my prayers were answered in a weird way. At 12:50 PM, as I was getting settled in the classroom close to a floor fan, the exiting professor asked, “What class is next?”

“Psychology 101.” I answered. 

“Oh, I thought Psychology 101 started at 2:30.” The professor responded, furrowing her brow. 

“Does it?” a student to my right asked with wide eyes. 

“I mean…” I stuttered as I fumbled for my phone to look up the schedule. 

Sure enough, my class started at 2:30 PM, not 1:00 PM, and was only an hour and fifteen minutes long. Evidently, I wasn’t the only Psychology student to get it wrong, either. Three other people, including the woman who piped up next to me, looked around the room just as baffled as me. 

“Well then…” the professor cleared her throat, “It’s a good thing I asked what everyone was doing here.”

“Yeah, thanks.” a student from across the room nodded, flustered. 

“Thank God I can go home for a bit…” I muttered to myself as I quickly left the room and headed to my still nice-and-cool Xterra. 

I was too warm to feel embarrassed. If anything, I found it funny and strange that four of us sincerely thought the class started at 1:00 PM. I used my walk to the Xterra to laugh at myself a bit, then sped towards home to cool off and prepare for when class actually started.