Back to school or teenage angst at 25

[MeneerDijk]

Today it finally happened, my first day at my new education. As some of you may know i'm 25 now...and that's pretty old if you consider the average age in class will be 17...Reminds me of that movie where the rich old guy goes back to school.... it's called back to school (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090685/).....genius! Except i'm not rich...and i probably won't win the schools springboard competetion, and learn a valuable lesson about life in the meantime.

Anyway, i was pretty cool about this, in the past weeks i felt confident my return to school would go smooth. And that i would have a superfunhappy time. And that i would get along with my, considerably younger classmates.

But for some reason when i woke up this morning i started getting real nervous... known in medical circles as: the heebie jeebies. All kinds of thoughts started running through my head... what if they think i'm a boring weirdo (wich is what i really am but i manage to hide it) What if the class had people trying to assert themselves to gain popularity at my expense...because i'm an easy target!

With this in mind i peddled my bike to school, just a five minute bicycle ride... once there i had to find classroom 0.16 in the C wing... i didnt even know the building had a freaking C wing. To find the classroom i tried my tried and tested 'wandering around aimlessly hoping to bump into the right door' technique. While i was wandering the huge hallways of the school, another young looking student crossed my path a couple of times...having the same wandering stare as i had...so i took my chances and asked if he knew where the classroom was...he didn't know either because he was looking for the same one. Another enquiry directed at someone else learned me the correct way. Score +1 i found the right classroom on time...wich avoids the dreaded walk of shame to your seat, when you interrupt a teacher, with everyone staring at you.

Once i sat down i noticed i started to make an assesment of any person i saw. Would they be kind people or shallow bungholes? The teacher started explaining the roster for the day and handed out a lot of stuff...standard routine. After that we had a tour of the bulding and quite a long break...wich gave me a chance to talk to some of the other students, i sat down with some in the school bar (yes an actual bar with beer after 4 p.m.) ... They turned out to be so intimidated that i couldn't start any normal converstation...here's an example:

Me: So......
him/her:........
Me: You had to travel long to get here?
him/her: no/yes.............
me: So...........
him/her: .................
me: What school did you do before this?
him/her: (school name).......................
me: So......................

I figured out pretty soon this wasn't really going anywhere, so i went outside, figuring there would be at least some smokers in the class, and having been a smoker myself i know they're a pretty social bunch. When i walked through the revolving door i noticed there were actually some other students following me...like little ducklings. I found some smoking classmates outside, and although conversation at first was carefull i found out there we're some more people that had similar experiences as me. They also didn't know what to do and tried out several schools and jobs before finally ending up at this school. This made some interesting conersation... I started to feel somewhat more comfortable knowing that this wouldn't be the lonelyest four years of my life after all.

After the break we had to report back at a class, i trailed behind a little because of a bathroom break, and i arrived at the classroom the latest. All the other students we're waiting for the teacher to arrive and we're all staring at me silently. Ths gave me a real creepy feeling... i had two options: Try to ignore it, or try to make the best of it... i tried the latter, wich is also risky: make a joke! When i came close to the group i said out loud: WOW aren't i in the spotlight...wich got a few chuckles... then i proceeded to do a little tapdance. Wich received some genuine laughs. From that moment on the ice was broken, i picked up some of the first names pretty fast wich was good, because the classmates took the effort to learn mine. The day ended at a pub where the whole class enjoyed a drink...and i enjoyed being accepted as a classmate.


I have a little treat to accompany this story, a picture of me in my 'working clothes'a lab coat and safety goggles, and i can tell you, it's damn hard to look hot with safety gogle model: 1972...but i tried my best :D
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/meneerdijk/jas3klein.jpg

[Nights_into_dreams]

What, didn't ride your scooter?

Pretty nice story tho, glad you were accepted into the group^^

[Jiant Flying Panda]

Hey I got a question: Don't you love it when you just get into IRC and it's like way early in the morning but still someone forces you to read a somewhat long story for this time of day? :p.

Just kidding man. Thet was a great story Meneer, I actually expected worse :rolleyes:. But yeah, I enjoyed it a lot.

Bars at schools? WTF?

PS: OOooOOo. Who is that secksi man in the lab coat? Can I have his number? :)

[Loc]

haha nice one Meneer, would have loved to see the tapdance :D
What happened to the little ducklings? You got a fanclub already? ;p

[Jiant Flying Panda]

Notice how the only people who replied so far are the people who was forced into reading this.... :rolleyes:

Just kidding meneer. I'm sure more people will come in :p :D.

[MeneerDijk]

Yes, i've got mah crew to do mah dirty bizniz fo'schizzle, nine in the clip and one in the barrel, WESSIDE yo

[Snake eyeS]

Lucky you, started my second year at school..And my class is full of people who just wont say a goddamn word, i tried to initiate conversation atleast 4 times, with similar results as yours. it was the most silent moment of my life, even our mentor for the year was a bit suprised to be speaking to a wall. my former class was chatting and crying all over the place the first time we all met. Maybe its a good thing ill be teaching 12 year olds for 3 days a week(basisschool stagiare), so i only have to see the ice queens 2 days. I do hope that the 2 guys in my class wont be spoiling my school by following me around and be laughing at everything i do or say :( its pretty damn stupid that because im the oldest im also the one who guys pick as a role model.

Im now in a class where nobody knows how to speak. and the shitty part is, we all know eachother just from passing eachother last year, and because im quite the clown when i was with my former class, they looked at me for getting the party started.. nothing is as weird as sitting in a classroom of 17-18 year olds.. all staring at me waiting for a funny remark or whatever.. when introducing ourself i said i lived a couple streets that way(pointed at the wall) they were so eager to laugh at my jokes, they actually tought that was one :/

I miss my old class, even though they were a bunch of 17 year old lunatics with NO control over their emotions.

keep me posted of your adventures and ill do it aswell :)

[Life25Karma]

Good story :)

I actually woke up looking forward to school, then again that's because I'm not going to work :D

Only bad part is..I'm not out of here till 7pm tonight, that and I'm hungry...
Someone send me a pizza?

[D-pad]

Nice story Meneer. Way better than my first day of HS.

[co_delphi]

When I was 23 I decided to go to college as well and found much the same experience. It wasn't until I eavesdropped on the local anime club and introduced myself that I actually found my niche, but once you break the ice it is pretty easy sailing from then on in.

My only advice is to refrain from attempting romantic relations with any of your younger classmates. Yeah it is college and it is tempting to believe they are intelligent, but I learned the hard way....... they are still relationship stupid.

[akitaka]

Hmm. I started taking college classes in junior year of HS; it didn't feel too different from HS, only there was less yelling, and less angry teachers. It's cool to know that you broke the ice so quickly, however. And you lab-coat pictures are print-worthy; I'd like to frame em :)

[13usta]

Interesting experience....ill be starting a new engineering course next week :'(
At the age of 20, ill most likely be the youngest there, but its a course directed mainly at mature students, like 25 onwards.
I guess ill enjoy it because its the same college i used to go to, and i know some of the teachers.

[mugen]

looking damn sexy meneer

mind if I ask what college you are attending being a fellow dutch and all.

[koku]

a college that has a bar at 4pm........not to put paranoid thoughts in your head but I hope that school has a high prestiege on a resume.

"oh...you went the bar school....ah...ok well we'll give you a call. Thanks for coming down."


I can just see it.

[co_delphi]

a college that has a bar at 4pm........not to put paranoid thoughts in your head but I hope that school has a high prestiege on a resume.

"oh...you went the bar school....ah...ok well we'll give you a call. Thanks for coming down."


I can just see it.

for some reason the temptation to make a corny joke involving "Bar exam" is very tempting.

[history1me]

Hmm. I started taking college classes in junior year of HS; it didn't feel too different from HS, only there was less yelling, and less angry teachers. It's cool to know that you broke the ice so quickly, however. And you lab-coat pictures are print-worthy; I'd like to frame em :)

I was a teacher for two years at a community college. I don't know about teaching in high school, but my classes (for the most part) went smooth. :cool:

However, I started teaching at 24 and the students always thought I was a class clown impersonating the professor. :mad: They laughed for the first minute, then they thought I was crazy. By the seventh minute (after I had pulled out my lecture notes, dropped big words, etc) they began to open up their books.

Congratulation MeneerDijk, going back to school can be rough, but it's a great time. Good story, you started the school year just right. :cool:

[MeneerDijk]

a college that has a bar at 4pm........not to put paranoid thoughts in your head but I hope that school has a high prestiege on a resume.

"oh...you went the bar school....ah...ok well we'll give you a call. Thanks for coming down."


I can just see it.

As far as i know this school doesn't have a reputation as a party school. And i heard lab people are in quite high demand at the moment, company's are sending requests for interns to the school :confused:

[erbiumfiber]

What kind of lab work will you do? Biology? Chemistry? DNA of criminal, uh, bodily fluids left behind at crime scenes? I spent a lot of time in the lab during engineering school and summer jobs. I'm still afraid of hydrofluoric acid...

[MeneerDijk]

I'm not sure yet, after one year i get to choose if i want to work in a chemical or medical lab. I don't know wich i will choose yet.