Hi! I just had my first bass lesson today at my cities conservatory. The teacher pulled out sheet music and told me not to worry and that I’ll learn how to read it soon. I then played basically just by watching his fingers and using my ear. For context I’ve been playing guitar CONSISTENTLY for maybe 2 years (I started playing 8 years ago) and just picked up bass, the whole time I’ve never read sheet music and my teachers have only used tabs. I’m just kind of worried that instead of learning how to actually read sheet music I’ll just memorise the parts instead! Am I worrying too much given that this was my first bass lesson? Thanks for any replies 
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You read it from left to right…
And, yes, you are worrying too much 
There are many ways you could learn to read sheet music; many internet resources, online courses, and apps etc. Or, just ask your teacher!
Also: even if you could read music before, as a guitar player, sheet music for bass is in bass clef, which requires some adaptation.
And finally: learning parts by ear and committing them to memory; or, imitating/mirroring others is not wrong at all, and should not influence your ability to learn sheet music. Your incentive perhaps… but learning to read music is a really useful skill going forward!!
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You’ll end up doing both, don’t worry about it.
Think about a child learning to read. Their parents read books to them, and with repitition, the child learns to recite their favourite parts of the book. They’re learning from memory. But as they recite the lines, they’re also reading the words, maybe there are some they don’t know, but they remember the lines. In turn, this helps them to recognise the words.
The same thing will happen with reading music. You’re not going to spend 100 hours studying sheet music and then suddenly finding you’re fluent. Instead it will be an organic process that you get better at while you also get better at playing the instrument.
So don’t overthink it. Follow your teacher’s guidance and see where it takes you. Have a look at some tutorials or explanations so you can get a basic idea of how to read sheet music, and then little by little you’ll pick it up as you go.
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When I get a new sheet I read from bottom to top. I need to know how punishing is the outtro before I get started, 
there’s no secret or short cut to it you just have to read an do more reading until it’s a second nature. On the bass it helps to also plot along on your bass plug in or not. Unlike tabs there’s more than place to play that notes.
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Learning sheet music takes time and isn’t easy at first. But the more you get used to playing with it the more it becomes an instinct just like reading a book.
What helped me with reading music was sight reading pieces, you look at a new piece for the first time ( its usually an easy and simple one) and look at it for 7 minutes, practicing, playing it, humming it, ect. Then when the seven minutes are over you go through the whole piece. I have done it with my band and we even do it for the UIL sight reading part. It helped me, perhaps it could help you 
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Do you know where I can find some pieces for sight reading practice as I’d love to try some?
I have horrible memories of being a child and having to do sight reading as part of my piano grade exams. I remember having just 2 or 3 minutes before having to play the piece in front of the examiners. I had no idea how I was supposed to do it, but I think I stumbled through it.
Now as an adult, it’s crazy that it’s something I actually want to do!
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User @Tom_Read has graciously shared many of his sheet music transcriptions!
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I know I also thought it was super scary at first, but then I find myself enjoying it because I know it makes me play better and helps me with reading rhythms.
And about where to find some, there is no specific pieces labeled for sight reading and I’ve never chosen one myself as our band director chooses them. However I think that finding a simple bass line and playing with the song that it’s from could be fun since it doesn’t have to be a super classical piece, for example one of the pieces we did was called block party. I hope that it helps you and that you have fun doing it.
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I had this same problem with piano lessons.
I couldn’t read, but I could read very slowly and memorize.
Hopefully the teacher will have a nice reading method - something that will build up those skills.
The best one I found for electric bass is, sadly, out of print.
It was by Molto Music, and it was called Essential Sightreading Studies for Electric Bass.
Phenomenal book.
So, something like that, or an online tutorial, and you’ll be able to catch your eye up to your ear.
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I could read standard notation in treble clef before picking up the bass. I did this course after I finished the second pass through B2B.
B2B provided the foundation for me to continue with the book. I gained more fretboard knowledge, how to apply notes on the sheet to frets and most importantly, to me, how to choose the best fingering.