I was gasping for breath after climbing the endless stairs of Chapman University’s Keck Center for Science and Engineering. After a year of staying inside, I definitely am not used to any kind of physical exertion. I attempted to steady my breathing as I pushed open a balcony door on the third floor. Still fighting for air, the view took my breath away again.

Staring down at Wilson Field under a bright blue sky as the men’s lacrosse team rounded up for practice below, I finally felt like a college student for the first time.

However, it took a while to reach that point of pure bliss.

After seven months as a freshman at Chapman, I finally attended my first class in person March 30. I hadn’t been inside a classroom since high school, and although I had an idea of what it would be like, I was definitely taken by surprise.

As I stepped off the Chapman shuttle at Schmid Gate, I was greeted by more people than I had ever seen on Chapman’s campus. Hugely intimidated, I made my way to Doti Hall for my Introduction to Research Methods class — the only course of mine out of six that transitioned to hybrid learning.

As I walked from Schmidt Gate to Memorial Lawn — where Doti Hall is neighbored — pain raced down my left arm, where I had received the first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine the day prior. Not only was I filled with anxiety for my first-ever college class, but I was also experiencing soreness and body aches from the shot.

As I finally walked into the building, too many things went wrong. I walked into the wrong classroom on the wrong floor — an embarrassing, typical freshman mistake. When I made it to the right room and class finally started, it took my professor 20 minutes to begin, due to technology issues like setting up the Zoom call to project on the board and getting his microphone to work. 

My professor kept losing his breath while lecturing because of his sturdy mask, and he had to stop multiple times mid-sentence just to breathe and drink some water. The second-hand embarrassment was definitely real. 

It’s hard to describe the feeling I had in the classroom. There were only five other students present while the other 26 were faces on a Zoom screen presented on the class monitor, so it didn’t feel exactly normal. But I had been waiting for this moment after months of online classes. 

On one hand, it was just an average 75-minute class. But on the other, it was the moment that felt like my college experience was finally starting. Part of me was jumping with excitement. But the other rational part of me was confused about why something as mundane as a class felt like such a landmark to me. 

After class ended, I wanted to explore more of the campus I was seeing with new eyes — I had never actually visited campus before declaring my intent to enroll at Chapman. That’s when I decided to climb to the third floor of the Keck Center to check out another part of campus I had never experienced before — the third floor and outdoor balconies.

By the time I reached the top, all I really wanted to do was eat a giant meal and go to sleep. Leaving my apartment for the majority of the day is not something I’m used to. Being outside all day fully drained me. My whole body was aching. I was probably dehydrated. But my college experience finally feels like it’s officially beginning.

After five hours of this newfound campus lifestyle, I went home and immediately collapsed into bed. I don’t know if it was from the vaccine, barely eating or drinking anything all day, walking around campus too much or a combination of all those things. I felt like I had been hit by a car.

My in-person experience at Chapman definitely didn’t go as planned. But, you have to start somewhere, right?