Orient-able.

This is really long and really rambly. I am sort of incoherently tired at the moment.

I didn’t sleep very well last night. (This surprises exactly no one.) Over and over, I kept waking up to check the clock (despite having a battery-back-up on my alarm) and to try to get comfortable and to stare at Coffee as he slept peacefully.

At 7:12, we got up. My dear husband made coffee for us and we sat on the sofa chatting.

Okay, fine, that’s a lie. Really, I freaked out about the upcoming day and he repeatedly reassured me. Over.. and over.. and over..

At 8:00 the kids got up. At 8:15-ish, I got in my car and turned up the A/C (to help mitigate the “nervous sweating”) and turned the music up even louder so I’d be forced to sing along.

I made it to the college easily and found an awesome parking spot (because I already had my parking pass, because I’m a keener like that!) right next to the rec centre where orientation was starting. This was the first of many things I was glad I had done ahead of time – the lineups for things like textbook purchasing and OSAP pick-up were insane. Multiple-corridors of insanity!

I quickly texted Coffee (at work) that I had arrived and had neither barfed nor pooped myself, so all was okay, and then I had to take a few deep breaths and actually get out of the car. I followed two girls into the rec centre – they looked like they knew where they were going (and apparently they did).

The gym area of the rec centre, where the orientation started, is huge – particularly compared to my most-recent gym experience at the kids’ elementary school. Go figure. I had forgotten all about gyms with enormous hardwood floors and bleachers and high ceilings. Just inside the door was a listing of programs that were orientating today (orientation runs ’til September 3rd with about 10 programs per day) and a number that told each program which table to visit for registration.

I was table “4″.

I’d estimate that there were about 100 people in the gym already – even though I was about 20 minutes early – and they were spread far enough apart that I literally saw a blur in place of bodies for some of them. I found table “4″, printed my name on a tag and slung it around my neck. Registration: done. They handed me a ‘gift bag’ with some papers and pens and a fancy new stainless-steel water bottle (yay!) and told me to stick around.

Slowly but surely people began trickling in until the gym was full of people looking pretty much the same way I was feeling. Very few people seemed to know each other – a lot of people were doing the awkward introduction thing and chatting lightly while darting their eyes around the room like a prey animal. Including me.

I could not tell you the name of anyone I spoke to this morning. Seriously.

There was a quick introduction and welcome from the various student councils and staff and the dean and.. other important people. Each program was then called, individually, to come to the front of the gym to follow their leader to a classroom for the ‘real’ orientation.

We made our way in a long line across campus to a classroom that I couldn’t find again if you paid me $20. In one door, down some stairs, through one hallway and then another, around some more corners.. The layout of the college looks pretty straight-forward on paper.

There were about 45 of us in the classroom, as well as most of our teachers and some assorted ‘guest speakers’ – including some second year students in our program. Each one talked to us for a bit.

Our agenda covered everything from the first week’s class schedule (lighter than normal and more orientation-to-the-program based) and which textbooks we need to have (all of them) and then.. we played a “get to know you” game. GAH!

Actually, it wasn’t bad.

No, really!

We just had to talk to the person next to us and find out their name, where they’re coming from (high school, work, volunteering, etc) and the one thing they think everyone in the class should know about them. My partner’s name was Amie. Then we stood up and gave that information to the class, one at a time. Easy-peasy.

As it turns out, my class is an interesting mix of people – from mature students to fresh-from-high-school people. A lot of women with young kids. Many people who want to work with kids. Single moms. Way more women than men (totally expected that). Seems like a good group of people, so far – my “I hate you” radar didn’t start pinging.

The scariest part, for me, was hearing once again how ‘rigorous’ the program will be for us. Our in-class schedule is reasonably light (ha! I have Thursday afternoons and all day Friday off!) but there’s a lot of group work that has to be done outside of classroom hours, and a lot of reading and essay writing and assignments.

We were told to expect about 30 to 40 hours of work outside of scheduled classes.

The 2nd year students confirmed that it’s every bit as overwhelming as they say – and that there’s so much work involved in the various classes each week that you really spend a lot of your weekend time doing it, too.

The program I’m in is considered the highest ranking Social Services program in the province. I can say that, without bragging, because I had nothing to do with making it so awesome. :) It’s comparable, we’re told, to a BA in social work from the perspective of local agencies. This is good to know – if only because it’ll keep me motivated. I’m confident that I can transfer some of the credits over to earning that aforementioned BA if I decide to go that route in the future.

Coffee reminds me, repeatedly, that I’ve got experience in handling “a lot of work” – from my actual employment over the years to having attended university to managing a family’s needs. This is true. I also read very quickly (and absorb that info) and have a typing speed in the 98wpm range. Both of those are going to help.

All of the teachers and support staff have emphasized that it’s an open-door policy at the college (and in the specific program, definitely) as far as resolving issues. They state that it’s a hard program to get through in two years and that they want to do everything possible to make sure every single student passes and does well.

Again, they brought up the 700+ people who applied and how they pared us down to 45 students – through making sure they only accepted people who should be able to do the work and succeed.

Still, I’m nervous. I’m going to take it day-by-day and breathe deeply. You can expect lots of angst around here.

After scaring the crap out of everyone, they then set us free to attend the BBQ and get our “start-up” items done. I skipped the BBQ (long line up for a free hotdog and pop) and headed over to get my student ID picture taken. I figured it would be a challenge that might not happen because I’m currently registered at the college as “Violet” but don’t have government-issued ID as “Violet” yet – something they require for the college student card.

The guy in the photo office was completely perplexed. He looked at my two enrollment forms (one with my original name and one with “Violet”) and confirmed that they had the same student number. He waved me over to the woman running the ID machine and said, “Here, you can figure this one out!”

She could not possibly have cared less about my government-issued ID and simply told me to “sit and smile!”. Snap – picture done. Card popped out of the machine a second later – VIOLET in big black letters.

(And the picture? It’s bad. Ohgod, it’s bad.)

From there I went to the library to get my PIN – allowing me to access the 15,000 books that the library has online for students to use over the internet (DUDE! THAT’S AWESOME!), to reserve normal books, and to do other library-related tasks. No line-up there at all.

And then.. I hopped in my car.

Orientation OVER.

I went to Office Depot to buy some binders. Picked up some grocery store-sushi for lunch (tasty!). Came home to make sure everyone was still alive (they were!) and now I’m absolutely, positively exhaustedly tired.

Did you read this far? Weirdo. :)