Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 59489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
"I know. And I'm going to get there. The thing is, I don't know if it's just him that's making me feel this way," I said.
"What do you mean?" Brianne asked. "Do you have another guy on the side I don't know about?"
"No," I said, happy for the slight laugh she inspired. "I just mean I feel off around here. It's not just about Camden. Something just doesn't feel right."
"Yet," my best friend said. "It doesn't feel right yet. It will. You're not used to being away from home. You got used to teaching at the community college and the people there. You knew the campus and the buildings, and you liked your place here. It's going to feel strange getting into the groove there, but you will. You'll find all the little things about that campus and city that will become a part of your daily life, and you're going to love it. And when I come to visit, you'll show them all to me."
"You better come to visit," I said.
"I've already started mapping out the road trip."
The conversation had me feeling emotional, and I appreciated her being there for me. I already missed her, but it was comforting to know she believed in me and was already planning on coming to visit soon. We chatted for a little longer about everything going on in her life. I still thought of it as "back home" and figured I probably always would, no matter how long I stayed here. Even though I’d just arrived, I was homesick. I needed to fight that feeling, to push past it so I could start enjoying this new opportunity.
Immersing myself in the area became my mission for the next few days. Like Brianne suggested, I wanted to find all the places that would make up my new lifestyle there. I needed a coffee shop and a grocery store, a new favorite breakfast stop, and a convenience store I could visit in the middle of the night if needed. Most of all, I needed a sense of normalcy.
The morning of my first day of classes came, and I found myself rushing around getting ready. Even though I'd picked out clothes the day before and laid out everything I needed before I went to bed, I still ended up changing outfits a few times before running out the door. Living on the edge of campus meant I was far closer to my lecture hall than I had been at the community college, so I still felt like I had enough time to get to class and be ready by the time the students came in.
That is, until I got halfway across campus and realized I didn't know where I was. I'd spent so much time exploring the neighborhoods and city surrounding the campus I forgot to really get used to the campus itself. Now I was turned around and couldn't figure out where I was supposed to go.
After a while of running around hoping I would stumble on something familiar, I flagged down somebody who looked like another professor and asked for directions. He gave me the kind of withering look I'd been catching from students and staff all morning, but at least managed to muster up the decency to stop and point me in the right direction.
"And you said you're a professor here?" he asked. "You should probably know your way around."
He walked away before I could answer. All I could do was send a glare in the direction of his back and rush to the building where I was supposed to be. I was a few minutes late when I got into the classroom, and I noticed a couple of students were already packing up to leave. They rolled their eyes and sighed when I arrived, dropping back into their seats like they were inconvenienced by class.
Several seats in the room were empty, and when I commented on it, a student quickly and sharply told me those students had already left because I wasn't there when they got there. I pointed out that policy of the university dictated students remain in class for fifteen minutes before leaving if a teacher was late, but that was met with nothing but a scoff.
"Our time is important. We're not going to waste it waiting for someone. The professors here know that. They put the work up online and people who missed can turn it in there," a girl said from the front row. "Some of us like a classic college experience, but with technology, it's not really necessary."
"Classic college experience?" I asked.
A couple of them snickered.
"Sitting in a classroom," the girl explained. "Attending in-person lectures and doing tests and things like this. Others don't want to take the time to do it and just handle their stuff online."