first day of school!

College is a funny thing, huh? There's freedom, and fun, and intellectual stimulation...and this morning when I had my last first day of undergraduate classes, there was no one making sure I got there on time (and, of course, I almost didn't-- luckily the traffic gods were with me as I raced to class on my bicycle).

Lessons learned on this last-first:
1. Whenever you think, Ehh, I probably won't need that, grab it anyway. Trust me. This morning (at 5:45am!) I was moving pretty slow getting ready to head to practice. I remembered to grab my bicycle lights today (I have forgotten the past couple of days, which is slightly illegal and potentially dangerous), but upon arrival to my locked-up bicycle couldn't manage to locate the front light buried in my bag. As it was 5:58 and practice starts at 6, my hurried self thought, Well, I mostly just need the back light anyway. I'll be able to see the cars in front of me on the opposite side of the road...So I attached that little blinking red light and set off.
Wrong. Decision.
     About a minute into the ride, a car starts heading towards me, in reverse(!), on my side of the road! they totally didn't see me pedaling as fast as my sleepy lil body could go, so i had to hop the curb and dash out of the way. Yikes.
     THEN, once back on track, there were these two women running [toward me] in my lane (which is fine-- I always recommend running against traffic). They might not have seen me, but I wasn't worried since I could easily maneuver around them. That presumption, unfortunately, was made without considering the possibility of a giant monster of a dog running out from a house on the left to assail the runners. The barking, shrieking, and screeching brakes that ensued woke up all of Central Florida, without a doubt. Needless to say, my heart rate was sufficiently raised by the time I arrived to practice. On time.
     Use your bicycle lights, folks.

2. Auditing a class is awesome. Today during my first Immunology class, the professor took a few minutes to outline the grading policy. 2% off for every absence; a research paper and presentation worth 20% of the total grade; 6 pop quizzes based on the reading...and I don't have to worry about a single one of those. Just learning for the sake of learning. I love it.

3. Sleep is necessary. The past few nights of ~5-6hrs are starting to make their presence known. So this is a good realization, yes, but unfortunately I don't see myself really keeping to my plan of ≥7.5hrs this semester. Shucks.

4. Family is good. No explanation necessary.