Freshman orientation is and was an occasion of seismic, or earth-shaking importance in my life. It is an occasion that marked a series of 'firsts.' It was the first day of my life as an undergraduate. No more a high school student, awash in a sea of ordinary students. I was in a school that I had chosen, and had chosen me. So much of my academic life in high school had been devoted to honing the perfect resume for college. Now I was in college. The word 'first' had strong positive connotations and associations in my mind, related to this event.

             But the first day of college was also my last day as a high school student. I did not think of it this way, but this different perspective shows how language can shape emotions about events in a very crucial way. A student can look at the first day spent in a college environment as the first day he or she can meet new friends, choose new classes, and begin to break away from the family routine. Viewed in this way, orientation sounds exciting. However, to look at freshman orientation as a series of lasts would seem sad. After all, it is the last day the student will be a child with few responsibilities and the last day he or she can rely upon old high school friends. .

             In English, the word "first" has strong positive connotations, while the word "last" does not. I am fortunate that I thought about the orientation process as a freshman in terms of firsts. I note that, in my culture, I am not alone in my associations of the word "first" with something good. Google the word "first," and one will find a plethora of banks and service products with the word first in their name. Even the United States government calls its main Internet portal First.gov. Not so with the more melancholy word last. The first Internet site named "last' is "Last Minute," a bargain travel website, implying cheapness not quality. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines the adjective first as "preceding all others in time, order, or importance.