My First College Class Experience Essay

The transition from high school to college in itself is a frightening experience in some way for everyone whether it be moving away from home or the vastness of a college campus others learn from these new experiences. Many very important lessons are learned outside the classroom in college but there is also so much to be learned about who you are in the classroom as well. When someone first sees Composition I on their schedule the first day of college they might think that this class is going to be tedious, boring, and nothing but writing essays, after a few class periods though they will begin to realize that this class is much more than that. Composition one from my perspective was like dipping your toes into water to test and see if you are ready to go in or not, the water may be too warm or cold at first but that is no reason to shy away from it, if they jump right in they will find that the positives far outweigh the negatives. My first semester of college was spent at The University of the Incarnate Word it was my first real taste of what college was going to be like and I very much enjoyed it but the class that was most surpirsing in how much that was learned to me was composition I. In the course catalog this class’s description was, â€Å" Part of the UIW Core Curriculum, this is a writing-intensive course focusing on numerous rhetorical modes to develop main ideas. This course introduces students to creative, academic and business writing and communication, emphasizing grammar and syntax, with a view to increasing expository skills and critical thinking ability†. Now to be terribly honest this description made this class seem extremely dull just based on the description but even so I was there on the first day ready to learn. The class was small and more relaxed than I thought it would be it turned out that this class was going to be the exact opposite of the description I had read. The assignments that were given in writing always forced the class to think not just about their own world but the bigger picture of how what they did affected the people around them and the world, for example they wrote about the short story by Ray Bradbury There Will Come Soft Rains and how they thought the world was becoming more and more like the story it gave a much greater sense of awareness of how change was needed in the community and to become more involved with each other and appreciate one another and not be so consumed  by technology. They were also given a project on conservation or countries that didn’t have clean sources of water and how they were affected by them It was an eye opening experience seeing how much others suffered and couldn’t have access to clean water in different places around the world. Such as in an article I read in The New York Times where it was said,† Three -fifths of all water supplies are â€Å"relatively bad† or wo rse. Roughly half of rural residents lack access to drinking water that meets international standards.† It gave a much greater sense of compassion for those who don’t have access to something so basic as clean drinking water. In the words of the Dalai Lama, â€Å"Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.† This quote is the perfect representation of what I learned in that class. Compassion is probably the greatest quality you can bring to college with you and in outside of college as well because without compassion we’re not even human anymore. The greatest lessons you will learn in your life will be in your college years, you find who you are and who you want to become after you graduate. When you first get to college you’re just getting your feet wet and testing the water but once you start immersing yourself in your classes that’s when you really take the plunge into the pool. There are certain classes you will take that will help you to have that drive to be better and change the fear or hesitation yo u first had when you started college and those classes will better who you are as a person and make the whole college experience worth it.