Dakota headed towards the university library, not expecting to have some alone time right after class. It wasn’t like he couldn’t get on fine without his brother, but now he had nothing to do by himself on short notice. He sent a text out to some of his buddies asking if anyone wanted to hang out for a couple of hours before his next class – most of them ignored it, probably sleeping. A couple people responded, but it was mostly chiding him for being awake and active so early in the morning. Dakota cursed his luck at being friends with a bunch of night owls.
He arrived at the library, and stood in line to get a coffee. Drake would’ve complained about the long wait line and tried to convince Dakota to go without, but now that he was by himself he could take his time and try and relax as the day went on. He pondered over the next few hours while standing in line. Dakota was more of a keen student than his brother, so he could look on the online system and take a look at what was planned for the rest of his courses. Since this project for Cultural Studies was so large, he considered even getting a head start by figuring out what he was getting into.
Dakota found himself at the front of the line after a couple of minutes and made pleasant small talk with the barista, ordering a bacon and egg breakfast sandwich and a latte. The college’s shop prices were a bit much, but Dakota justified it as the first day of classes. He left a small tip, and within a minute his drink and breakfast sandwich were presented to him. He unwrapped the sandwich, the delicious scent of bacon entering his nostrils, as he headed over to the library floor to claim a table space where he could use his laptop.
Given that it was the first day of classes and it was early in the morning, Dakota easily found a good spot where he could tuck into a corner and be left alone. He booted up the online learning system and saw most of his courses were already activated. He entered the portal for Abnormal Psychology to see what he was in for and found the syllabus and first set of lecture notes. It looked like he was in for a full and complete lecture today. He scanned the notes but quickly grew tired, figuring that he didn’t need a complete check of them if they were going over the content in a little while anyway.
Bored, he clicked back at the portal for Cultural Studies, seeing what was there. There wasn’t much, but he saw the personalized assignments linked to each student. Dakota was fairly impressed that Professor Martinez had bothered to set up the system so each student ended up having only their own assignments posted. It showed that he was passionate about the subject and wanted to make sure everyone was getting something out of it.
Dakota clicked on his own term project assignment and saw the same group name again, the Muslim Student Association. Because they weren’t particularly relevant to him, Dakota had never heard of the association before and didn’t really know what he was in for. He decided to spend the extra time he had this morning searching the school website to find out what they were about.
Dakota found the site pretty much instantly and was impressed with how well all of the information was laid out. The meeting for the term beginning matched what he was provided on his assignment paper. He went through the tabs, first trying to educate himself to avoid looking stupid tonight. “What is a Muslim?” asked the first informational page, describing the differences between Muslim people, the Islamic faith, the Quran, and Allah.
Further pages went on to describe the society itself: between more serious matters such as lobbying and prayer rituals on campus, to social events. The term had quite a hefty lineup at the beginning of the semester with even a formal ball happening on Tuesday night. Dakota was hoping he didn’t have to go to that one – the blurb about it mentioned that it was planned from last semester. There was no way that he would have known about and had time to prepare at this rate.
He decided to not think too hard about it as he flipped through the pages slowly, trying to waste time before class as he sipped his latte. He came upon the society’s leadership committee, and tried to familiarize himself with the faces and names of the students there. The president was a man stereotypically named Mohammad, but Dakota was more interested in the vice president of new student affairs, a man named Jamil. He had a friendly smile and a note underneath his small profile told new students to not be shy in reaching out to him, as the MSA had a lot to offer.
Dakota smiled, reading the page. It looked like this group was going to be kind to him, even he still wasn’t sure what was expected of him. He wasn’t a man of faith himself, and he knew that Muslims were religious and not simply Middle Eastern, but surely Professor Martinez had accounted for that in contacting potential student groups to ensure that they were okay with students who may not strongly conform, or conform at all in the case of Dakota. He resolved that he’d try to be as respectful as possible.
His train of thought was interrupted by a popup on his computer reminding him that he had class in fifteen minutes. Ever the diligent student, Dakota exited his applications and closed his laptop, putting it inside his backpack. He slung the bag around his shoulders, and grabbed his latte and half eaten breakfast sandwich. He took another bite, and his mouth pouted. Somehow, while he was ignoring his breakfast, it had started tasting gross. He threw it in the first trashbin he passed on his way to his second class of the day.