A short comedic story about my second day of college.
Spoiler alert: not what you’d expect for a second day of college.

Is it Too Late to Transfer?

If I had a dollar for all the different mishaps that have happened to me during my time at Syracuse, starting with my freshman year all the way up until my senior year, (which, is still on-going), I would probably have at least $10. Which may not seem like a lot, but that's a nice chicken Chipotle bowl for me (without guac, obviously).

If I think back to my first week of school and the events that took place on my second day of classes, you would think Syracuse had some kind of vendetta against me.

Let's set the scene.

Picture me, an 18-year-old freshman, on her way to class for the first time on her second day of school. Not knowing really anyone or anything and just trying to make it to her 5pm class for the first time. The weather - atrocious. It’s the fall semester so you would think "it can't be that bad" since it's not the winter. And you would be very wrong. Was it raining? No. It was pouring. And on top of the heavy rain, it was extremely windy. So, picture the same 18-year-old me, now having to walk all the way to her 5pm class from her dorm (and I lived on top of a mountain so that didn't make it any better), fighting for her life with her umbrella because of the added-on rain and wind. If you were a by-stander, you would probably be laughing at me. Hell, I would be laughing at me as a bystander too. But unfortunately, all I felt was complete and utter embarrassment while trying to get to this class early.

As I make it to the building I noticed a line of police cars outside of the building. But I don't think much of it because…why would I? And, spoiler alert, I probably should have. Now I did eventually make it to the class and was even being a good student by talking to my professor afterwards since that's what I was told we needed to do as freshman. Now maybe if I had decided not to do that, the end of my second day of classes could have played out a bit differently.

I was walking back in the direction I came in since I don't know the lay of the land yet, and I noticed a crowd of people standing outside a door. My initial thought was, "damn they must have a class to go to. Must suck to be them" 

I was wrong.

The further I walked through the building, a police officer came up to me and asked to wait with the crowd of people. Of course, I wasn't going to question a random police officer in the building as a freshman. I wanted to make it to my third day of classes without a criminal record after all. So, I waited with this interesting bunch of strangers that I had never seen before.

Living the college dream.

As we're waiting, we're starting to guess and speculate amongst each other, trying to figure out what could have possibly happened to make us wait in this little corner of the building.

That's when everything seemed to be coming together.

One person mentioned seeing police tape in a classroom. Like the ones you would typically see in a crime scene. Now that had brought me back to that row of police cars I had seen before, which I had then mentioned to the group. Someone else mentioned seeing an ambulance. Suddenly everyone had something related to share that they had seen that was unusual. You would think we were police detectives trying to solve a murder that took place with all of our different speculations.

Amongst our bickering, we hear voices. And the next thing we knew, a crowd of police as well as some EMTs were walking down the hallway we were not permitted to enter carrying a bag that looked to be full.

Me and my oblivious 18-year-old self, didn't think much of it.

Then, I heard what I didn't expect to here.

"You guys know that was a body bag, right?"

A body bag, of all things. Now, seeing a body bag in any scenario can't really be a good thing. Seeing a full body bag, well, there's only so many things that it could be. And for some reason up until that point, I couldn't seem to think of what it could be.

Now, we're all freaking out, naturally. Speculating of course. And making jokes because we're all Gen Z and that's what we seem to like to do in these kinds of situations: find humor in potentially the worst situations.

Then someone, which to be completely honest was probably me, had said something along the lines of, "well if we see an email about someone passing away tomorrow then we’ll know" which, was probably not the best thing to say in that moment. But, what else can a bunch of 18–21-year-olds do with so little information and imaginations that run way too wild.

So, we had left it at that and dispersed like the awkward young adults we were.

Now would you believe me if I said that the next morning, we had gotten an email about a faculty member passing away? I mean I wouldn't believe me either but that is exactly what happened.

Now imagine me, an 18-year-old, now living through her third day of classes at college after experiencing whatever the day before was, and now receiving an email which seems to be connected to said events that she had just experienced.

When the math adds up, there's only so many possibilities that can be true at once. And all I could seem to think in that moment was, this school really seemed to be out to get me, and it had barely been three days. And then I wondered: is it too late to transfer?

It’s safe to say as a senior in the same school that, right now, it probably is a bit too late to transfer.