Lupe Throws Like A Girl

Facing a crowd of new teachers and students at the city college was an entirely new experience. Who were all these people inhabiting the campus just outside of Lupe’s lifelong neighborhood? There were so many unfamiliar faces, accents, and personalities. The annoying, frivolous high school students she once knew must have enrolled at other campuses.

The city college students looked and sounded much more serious. They lugged around heavy books and read actual newspapers, not just party flyers and merchandise pamphlets. They all seemed to have work schedules that meshed with their time on campus attending classes and studying in the library.

The faculty had a different look, too. They seemed to be older than her high school teachers. They dressed much more carelessly; it was a kind of frumpy look. Even though they looked less put together, they somehow acted much more confident. They spoke as if they were sure of their subject matter and dead serious. Lupe knew she had to step up her own study skills. She noticed that these professors were much less tolerant of students who arrived at class without having done their homework.

In her first month attending this new school she even witnessed confrontations in the classroom. They were not always student arguments, but actual debates between students and the teachers, especially those who liked to be called professor, or even doctor!