This morning I strolled down Bishop Boulevard on my way to my first college class. After years of anticipation, I was finally there. I had reached the coveted position of a freshman in college.

I am not sure what I thought the first day of being an official university student would feel like; however, I am sure that I never predicted it would have felt like this.

Instead of being a majestic milestone of my educational process, it seemed more like any other day of school.

I had to get up early and re-adjust myself to the realm of mathematical statistics, grammatical rules and scientific principals.

It was at best, lackluster.

After discussing my feelings with several friends, I came to the conclusion that many others in my class felt the same way. That left me wondering why.

It did not take long to realize that we simply anticipated the wrong thing. Instead of looking forward to all of the events throughout the year such as the rotunda passage, learning to survive on our own and the challenges of the academic world at SMU, which will probably significantly alter the makeup of our academic being for the better, we were focused on this one day in time. My friends and I simply forgot to look at the bigger picture.

We neglected to remember that college is not about one day in a life. It is as my advisor would put it, a portfolio of experiences and social, emotional, mental and physical advancements.

Knowing this fact, I was able to observe that the phenomenon of “in the moment orientation” strikes throughout life, not just the first day of college.

Thinking back to when I was in grade school and taking art lessons, I remember anticipating painting a new picture. Before I started I would take the time to tediously plan out how it would look, thinking that the work of art would be great from the first stroke of the brush if I did this.

Then reality would set in.

When I actually started painting it looked awful. This could be because I am a terrible artist, but I would prefer to think that it was simply because the work was only in its beginning stages. When I finally got to the end of the artistic process it would hit me that the picture I had started to detest, because of its horrid appearance, had become halfway decent.

Once I learned to wait until I had finished painting the artwork to judge its worth, I became happier with the pieces I was producing in my art lessons. Now I see that my friends and I must apply this same general principle of patience to our freshman year.

Sure, the first day may not have been what we expected, but I am sure the year as a whole will be a blast because the first day was just that. It is the beginning of a great experience.

Ben Briscoe is the Associate Design Editor of The Daily Campus. He is a first-year journalism and international studies major. Ben may be reached at [email protected].