First Day of College

       

senior year, proof of age

      September 8, 1971 was my first day of college! I was so excited. The school I had picked was Canisius College, a Jesuit institute of higher learning located on Main Street in Buffalo, New York. If you follow college basketball at all, you may have heard of it.

        But I did not play basketball. There were other reasons why I chose Canisius.

        It was a small school with a good reputation for educating its students.

        It had a respected science curriculum – and I was going to be a biology major.

        It was local, so I would be able to commute to and from every day rather than having the expense of the dorms and the food plans.

        And, in 1971, the ratio of boys to girls at Canisius was 3 to 1!

        Oh yes, I was very excited to get to my first day of college!

        Home was 20 miles away, and I did not drive, but my grandmother lived on the outskirts of the city, and the buses ran nearby. My grandmother very generously offered to let me live with her while I went to college. She lived upstairs of a duplex owned by her son, my uncle, who lived in the downstairs of the duplex with his wife, my aunt. And my aunt worked for the bus company in the offices downtown – so for the four years that I went to college, my aunt kept me completely supplied with free bus tokens! 

        Everything had fallen into place perfectly for me to attend the college of my choice.

        A few days before my first day of college, my grandmother began to stress about my lack of experience with public transportation. She worried that I might get on the wrong bus and/or not know which stop to get off at. There were two bus lines that ran near her house – the number 12 and the number 13. I was never ever ever to get on the number 12 – it came out too far south on Main Street, too far for me to walk to the college, and too dangerous.

        I was only ever to get on the number 13 bus – it would go down Kensington Avenue and then turn left on Main Street – the second bus stop on Main was Canisius College.

        And oh my gosh, to get back to my grandmother's at the end of the day? Well there were any number of buses that went up Main Street, but only the number 13 would return me to her place. If I were to get on the wrong bus, well I might never get back again! The wrong bus incident of kindergarten was back to haunt me, and another generation was warning me of never seeing home again!

        My grandmother's stress levels grew as the days got closer to September 8^th so much so that she finally decided she was just going to have to ride the bus with me that first day!

        And Folks, that is how my grandmother got to be seated next to me on the number 13 bus – on my first day of college!

        I tried to tell myself how cute the whole scene was – my grandmother riding the bus with me on my first day of college, but nice was overridden by my complete feeling of mortification – jeepers! my grandmother was riding the bus with me on my first day of college!

        As the bus moved, my grandmother chatted away, pointing out different landmarks for me to remember so I would know when to get off the bus when coming home. But I was not listening. I was too busy looking at the other people on the bus, worrying that other college kids were witnessing the spectacle of my grandmother riding the bus with me.

        I did not see other college-type kids on the bus – it turns out there were very few classmates who took public transportation. And you would think I might have relaxed a little after that, except a new wave of mortification swept over me – what if my grandmother got off the bus with me and helped me find my first class on my first day of college? Oh my gosh!

        The bus got to the end of Kensington Avenue and turned left onto Main Street. It made one stop and then began to roll again. My grandmother told me to pull the cord to signal the bus driver that I needed to get off at the next stop.

        I pulled the cord and stood up. I looked over at my grandmother, and to my infinite relief, she was till sitting. She said she was going to ride the bus all the way downtown and do some shopping. She said that she would see me at home that afternoon. And then she smiled and told me to have a good day.

        I got off the bus ashamed of all the terrible emotions I was having about my grandmother. But I also felt something else. Freedom!

        Ah! Okay, the first day of college could begin at that moment – not the minute I woke up that morning, but it could be from when I got off the bus. Yes!

         I crossed the street, and then I was on campus. In front of me was a one hundred year old building called Old Main. My first class on my first day of college was going to be in Old Main – a required, core-curriculum, freshman class called Introduction to Religion. I took another look at my schedule to get the room number. And then I set my first foot into Old Main!

         I got to the classroom and sat down at a desk. I moved my hand over the top of the desk and said to myself, “my first desk in my first class on my first day of college!”

        Other students were coming into the room. They did not all look like freshmen, but what did I know? A tall, attractive looking-like-an-upperclassman young man came in, and he sat down at the desk next to mine! We made eye contact, he smiled at me, and then he said, “Do you think you are going to like this speech class?”

        My mouth opened, and my mouth said, “yeah, that's a good one! I wouldn't be caught dead in a speech class!”

        Once my mouth was done talking, my brain knew what had happened. And the good looking guy next to me who was smiling knew what had happened. He motioned for me to give him my schedule. And I did. And when he returned it to me, he told me which way to turn down the hall to get to my Intro to Religion class!

        As I slunk with haste out of the speech class, lest I be called upon to give a speech, I wallowed in my total humiliation of being embarrassed just minutes earlier by my grandmother not having enough faith in me to think I could ride the bus by myself, and yet the moment I was finally on my own, I could not even get to the correct classroom by myself!

       When I got to the correct room, there were already quite a few other kids present. They all looked like freshmen.

       I sat down at a desk and moved my hand along the top of it, but it was not the same. I told myself that my first day of college could begin at that moment.

        Sure there were already two false starts to the day, but that moment could be my real first start to my first day of college.

        And so it was.

        Four years later, I had managed to learn a few things.

1975 College Graduation Day with Mom and Dad

        I had managed to learn enough for the Jesuits to give me a diploma that said Bachelor of Arts Biology.

        I had managed to learn that even with a ratio of three boys to every girl I myself was not going to find the man of my dreams at Canisius College.

        I managed to learn that as I go down life's road, there were and would continue to be many buses missed, and even a few wrong buses ridden and I would be able to handle them all.

        And thanks to my grandmother's example, I managed to learn that as I go down life's road, the love and support of family and friends are riding right there at my side. And even though my Loved Ones can't always keep me from being ditzy, they are always ready with a smile and the wish for me to have a good day!

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