Do I seem transfermed?

Today I attended Hamline's one-day orientation for transfer students, very unfortunately dubbed TRANSFER-mation (their emphasis, their hyphen, their all-caps-to-help-us-out-with-the-pun; it reeks of an offsite staff retreat brainstorming session, doesn't it?). Loser name aside, it wasn't half bad. Some observations:

1. President Linda Hanson is smart, articulate, and no-nonsense. One gets the impression that she's very interested in moving Hamline in a new, more rigorous, direction. I liked her quite a bit, and was glad to see that Hamline has its own version of Pamela Jolicoeur, Concordia's dynamic new president.
2. Dean of students Alan S. struck me as a bit of a good ol' boy. It didn't help that within thirty seconds of beginning his remarks he had used the phrase "most easiest." I would guess that Dean Alan is having to work a lot harder than he used to, before President Linda showed up. I would also guess that cuts into the dean's golf game.
3. The phrase "get involved" is hereby banished from my lexicon. The admonition (threat?) seemed to be the entire point of orientation day. I know, it's important to get all those commuter students who just transferred from community college and live in Maplewood involved on campus so they don't all drop out next semester, but enough already. I get it; we need to join the swing dance club.
4. Forced to attend two breakout sessions, I chose to learn about commuter services, because it involved not leaving my seat. Mostly what I learned is to arrive early to find the best parking. The other session was much more interesting: opportunities for collaborative research and study abroad, both of which I would love, and neither of which I'll probably get the chance to pursue. It was during this session that I had a miniature pity-party for myself about wasted youth, etc. I shook it off. The study-abroad presenter was my German instructor, so I introduced myself and learned that the schedule online is wrong, and I do indeed have my first class tomorrow, not Thursday as previously thought. This sends my outfits plan into chaos.
5. The introduction to library services, skillfully led by one of the reference librarians, was very interesting and useful. It was also only fifteen minutes long, which was a laughably short time. The online databases available to students are so impressive. Rather than sitting through a session during which international students told their stories of transition and hope, I took myself to the library where a librarian was only too happy to give me a much more in-depth introduction to the library. Since Hamline neglected to ask me to plan the day's events, I rearranged them as I felt necessary.
6. I also took myself on a tour of the campus; I found all my classrooms, the restrooms in all the buildings, and the practice rooms (I ran through my audition pieces, quite well, and was impressed to find decent Yamaha grands in all the practice rooms).
7. Most impressive fellow transfer student: Melissa, 34, mother of three (two in high school, the other a 3rd-grader), went to community college, part-time, for three years to get her general requirements out of the way so that she could quit her job and enjoy her theater major at Hamline for the next two years. We argued about which one of us had the tougher task: Melissa with a family and down to one income so she can go to school full-time and parent full-time, or me trying to juggle school with work. I say she's got a lot of guts. Go, Melissa!

I realized that any impatience I felt at today's frivolity is because I'm ready to go. It's time for the planning and the worrying to stop, and the studying and the learning to begin. See you in German I, Giddens Learning Center 224W, 9:10 tomorrow morning.