![AMY HOANG / AGGIE](https://theaggie.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/landry_op_Hoang.jpg)
The story of an eager freshman who didn’t exactly have an ideal start to his time at UC Davis.
First-year students are often prone to embarrassment when starting at UC Davis. Between learning (or at least trying to learn) how to bike on campus correctly and trying to find their way around our large campus (with many buildings named after mysterious men), starting college can be a difficult time.
Michael Podd, an incoming first-year chemistry major and medieval studies minor, hoped that he could get through his first day of college without any major problems. Nice try, Michael.
“What happened was that I took an evening nap and woke up at 8 o’clock. I thought that it was 8 o’clock the next morning, but it was actually just 8 o’clock the same evening. Don’t ask me how I didn’t realize that it was still dark outside,” Podd said. “Thinking I was going to be late for my first college class, I rushed to the Sciences Lecture Hall via the hoverboard that my mom bought me to get around campus. So when I arrived, I thought that I was just the first one to get there. I sat down in the front row of course and got ready for class. I waited for a long time, thinking that everyone was just running late. Turns out I was just an entire 12 hours early for class and by the time it actually started, I had fallen asleep and missed the whole thing. There’s always tomorrow,” Podd told The Aggie, not realizing that today was Friday.
Podd was joined by several dozen other first-years who were naturally attracted to the scent of a fellow first-year — explaining why these new students often travel in large, roving packs across campus.
Written by: Brian Landry — bjlandry@ucdavis.edu