My First Day of School

It was the first day of class; I arrived five minutes before the lecture was scheduled to start.  When I got to the lecture hall, the first thing I noticed was that the room was very dark.  The only source of light was coming from a fixture that shown onto a dusty chalkboard.  I found a seat near the front and began to unpack my things.  The room was very muggy and smelled of damp wood.  The seats were obnoxiously close to one another.  Shortly, the door at the front of the lecture hall opened.  Out walked the professor.  He set his briefcase on the front desk and opened it with a loud click.  He withdrew a single piece of chalk and proceeded to write on the board.  Around me, the shadows of my peers began to scribble furiously.  I looked to the board and what I saw made my heart sink.

“The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, Part I”  

            The professor turned to the class with a giant grin on his face and said, “Welcome to calculus, where math is no longer numbers.”

            The class let out a collective sigh. 

            The professor then briskly walked over to one side of the room and fiddled with the lighting; when the lights turned on, spirits rose as people began to accept their fate.   

            Because of that lecture, my entire perspective of math had changed and, therefore, the way I looked at the world had changed with it.

Word Count: 246