entry into the academic

First college class ever.  Colleges success skills 100 – the 100 class is for people who haven’t been in school for at least 5 years, there is another for people just out of high school.  Looking around, I looked like maybe one of three people who would be able to buy beer, but after doing the “tell everyone something about yourself” portion of the class, I realized I’m just on the higher end of the age spectrum for that class.  I think that most of them were in their early twenties.  Nearly everybody had started and stopped (being in college) a few times and were back to make another go of it.  There was a tiny woman wearing corduroy shorts with a neat side-part that I assumed was about 19 but apparently she graduated a year before I would’ve, I think that I might be bad at estimating ages.  That, or I’m just assuming that most people starting college are young and inexperienced.  This wasn’t the case.  Most everyone seemed mature, well-adjusted and comfortable.  Many of the girls had several children and mentioned how busy they are all day every day.  There was one guy in his mid-60s who said he had 8 kids and 26 grandkids.  There was a lot of half-joking about college being the only way for these people to escape their domestic obligations.    Everyone seemed relaxed and nice.  I felt ill at ease and a little pukey.  The teacher didn’t have us go around the room and do our introductions in any particular order, preferring to let us decide when to jump in and offer up an explanation of ourselves.  This created several situations where nobody would talk for about ten seconds while people gathered courage and then 4 people would try to talk at the same time.  After the third or fourth person finished, I tried to speak, nervously thinking I’d just get it out of the way, and after I muttered “my name is”, two other people who couldn’t hear me started talking at the same time and then stopped when they heard everyone else talking.  Then we all started again at the same time.  I stopped and became very hot and uncomfortable while a guy on the other side of the room gave his spiel.  I could tell that my face was bright red and when he got done the two other girls who had started when I did turned and looked at me so I went through a little explanation of my age and the last time I’d been in a classroom environment – about 17 years ago (to save time I left out the job as a prison tutor).  I think looked like a tomato for about 10 more minutes and then was able to breathe properly and stop thinking about fighting the guys who seemed to really enjoy the opportunity to speak effortlessly about themselves and their intentions.  Then class was over and Dad brought me a big burger to eat on the way home.  All in all, a successful entry into the academic world.