By Mark Bauer/editor-in-chief

Few things are more embarrassing the first day of school than arriving at class, sitting through the introductory lecture, engaging in clever banter with the professor (to score bonus points)—only to discover mid-way through the class that you aren’t even in the correct classroom.

Oops.

Now, before you start imagining me in this situation, think again. I happen to be a seasoned veteran college student who doesn’t make such mistakes.

I check and re-check my schedule, even going so far as to hold it up to clocks and room numbers to verify that I am indeed in the right class.

If I still have a bit of uncertainty, I verify with the student unlucky enough to sit next to me that it is Mr. so-and-so in room such-and-such for a required credit.

I am, however, the guy who goes to campus early in order to stand in a 20-minute-long bookstore line to buy a folder for the class that starts in eight minutes.

What’s worse than being the guy with no paper on the first day of continued education? (And the answer is easy: the guy who is in the wrong class … still, he at least has paper.)

But I digress. What’s my point? 

My point is that, for the most of us, we will come into this semester with incredibly high hopes.

You’re going to get your papers done a week before they are due, you won’t miss a class unless you’re sick as a dog (have you actually ever seen a sick dog? Me neither.), and you are going to walk away from the spring semester a better, smarter, 4.0-type of person.

Still, I don’t expect anyone to sit at the front of the class; that’s the stuff double-dog-dares are made of.

Even with our grandeur dreams of success, it won’t take much for something to take the wind out of our sails.

Something as simple as being in the wrong class might do it for some while showing up to class with no pants and a booger hanging out of the nose might do it for others.

And for the academic minded—maybe it’s getting a C on that quiz you were certain you had aced.

But don’t let the little things get to you. Save those battles for another day.

In the meantime, remind yourself why you are going to school in the first place. And then, go sit at the front of the class—I double-dog-dare ya.