The Story of a Semester!

The Story of a Semester!

This first semester of my freshman year at Southern Connecticut State University has been a whirlwind of events. I swear I cannot believe it is already going to be December break. I want to go back to the very beginning for you, to tell you about my experiences here and what I have learned about myself and my school work. I would really like to really reflect on my academic time here so far. Lets go on a virtual road trip!

            I think I will start off by talking about the struggles that I have faced this semester so far. My biggest challenge has definitely making time to do my homework instead of doing other more entertaining things. I know that school comes first but there would be times I would find myself slacking or giving into other temptations such as hanging with friends or going out. Everyone knows in college the more you study the better you do so I should have spent extra time on my work. Often, I would find myself saying “Oh its not due for another two days so I can go out tonight”. However this would bite me in the ass later because I would have to stress to get it done the next day.

Another challenge I faced was staying organized. This is always hard because there are assignments that are continuous that you always need to remember to do (blogging) while at the same time you are getting new assignments every day. Sometimes it feels like its never ending, the second one thing is assigned and you go to do it, three more things pop up. So making sure I kept on top of all the work heading my way without accidentely forgetting something here or there was hard to do at times.

Around the middle of the semester I realized that I was slipping into this problem a little more than usual and decided to turn things around. I started writing out every assignment in my notepad and plan for weeks ahead. Every week I would write the things I already knew were due and then add the day to day assignments as they came. Yet there were always times where I would still get lazy or frustrated and give up on something. It is also very easy to make the excuse “I am so tired, I will get up early tomorrow and do it before class.” But let me tell you, this never works. For me at least, I cannot get out of bed early to do homework, it never has worked and I do not believe it will.

Despite this, I would also like to reflect on the good that I have done. I am very proud to say that I have been getting A’s on test and projects. I have overall become much better at staying organized, writing everything down and sucking it up and getting what needs to be done, done. I also have been known to get ahead, whether it reading or studying for the chapter in Psychology. I think my biggest achievement over all though was not giving up, it was always easy for me in High School to become unmotivated. This year although I would mess up from time to time I really stayed focused and pushed through my desire to say F*$& this.

Speaking of achievement, this semester I picked up some good habits; one is asking for help. I always used to hate to go for extra help because I did not want to look stupid. This year I began going to Math extra help and writing conferences. I asked people around me for assistance as well. My last movie I had to make I asked a CC named Jason to help me because he was very good at making videos and technological stuff and it ended up paying off. Now I don’t make this too much of a habit because I always do whatever I can do first and only when I absolutely need help will I ask.

This has helped me with my goal that I set for myself this semester. My goal was to do the best that I could do. Of course there is always something extra that I could have put into it but overall I am somewhat satisfied. So I did fall somewhat short because if I did as good as I possibly could I would always he doing work for hours on end. Which to me is a little unrealistic but I did put a lot of effort and work into my classes. I also balanced my social and work life relatively well so for that I am happy as well.

From here I simply want to continue to do well and not let the workload stress me out. To take it how it is and work my butt off. I need to say no sometimes and buckle down. Sometimes I really let the little things distract me, even if they are not at all very exciting. The most important thing is to remember to keep my mind on education and always put that first. I am not paying all this money to goof off. Improvement is always possible as long as I work towards it. My new goal is to keep this mentality up and step up my game even higher for the next semester!

Congratulations to everyone who finished their first semester in College!

Keep up the good work !

Last Safari

This week I attended the co-ed soccer game at More-Field House to support my friends. This past Thursday was the final play offs. It was nice to go and support people I know. They were competing against each other but I was rooting for three different teams at the same time. Of course I rooting for the Cool Runners though, they won the first game they played and then the team South of the Boarder won their game as well. Therefore, it was down to Cool Runners and South Of The Boarder which was their biggest competition. The cool runners had two people injured and one who was sick but still played a good game. They ended up loosing but it was a close game and very entertaining to watch. I saw people from my classes and a lot of other faces. I enjoyed going to watch and being apart of activities happening at Southern.

Success and Failure

I was asked to reflect on my greatest success and failure from this semester so I will briefly go into this without taking away from my final project because I also need to talk on that. It is hard to say that there is just one success or one failure that stood out the most overall. However I will start off with my greatest failure. I believe that my greatest failure this semester would definitely be surrounding math. That is the only class that I am not happy with my grade. I did not want anything below a B- throughout my college career yet have already fell below that. Coming into college I already knew that math would be a challenge for me but I could have put a lot more work into it. I feel as though I did not do so much work in that class because it wasn’t required. In class the professor writes out equations on the board the whole time and we do not do any ourselves. On top of that we do not have any homework so there is no outside required work. That hurt my grade and also made it easier to not work hard for that class. Yet it should have been the opposite. It was hard for me to sit down and go through everything myself because I was hating the class and hating the subject. I would have to say that my biggest success this semester is staying on top of all my subjects and pulling myself together to organize and get what needed to be done, done. Of course there were some slip ups but I got my work done and stayed on top through the stress and other temptations. Some people slip into the college experience and let their work stay on the back burner. 

Final Project Check Up

To be honest I have not yet started the final project but I already know I am not doing a video. Therefore there is not much brain storming that needs to be done. I will go down the list and answer each question in a note pad. Then I will find a theme maybe or some way to connect it in a fluid story that will not be so dry and just one answer after another. Once I do that, the ball will be rolling. I have not started the project yet not because I am procrastinating but because I have so much other work and studying to be done. Trying to wrap up all the final assignments, tests, projects and getting organized for finals. The thing that I am not sure about is what type of four pictures am I going to include in the essay. This is because I am just talking about my progress so how can I really put interesting pictures to that? This is something I will ask about and other peers in class on Thursday when we work on our projects in class. So the making it interesting part will be somewhat of a challenge. I feel as thought that is easier for someone who is doing a video. But I will give real and insightful thoughts and reflections on my progress and experience this semester at Southern Connecticut State University.

Writing Center

I went to the writing center to get help on an essay for English 112.The essay was about Fast Food restaurants and how they mistreat their workers. The assistant who helped me was named Sarah. She was very friendly and helped me organize my idea to set up and have an essay that flowed more fluently. I enjoyed the experience but personally I like meeting with my own teacher because she knows exactly what she wants and I know if I do that I will get the good grade. With the writing center I feel as though I sometimes second guess the editing they do because I'm not sure if that is exactly what my teacher would want. Overall it was a good experience and if I could not schedule an appointment with my teacher i would definitely use this resource again.

Final Reflection on "The Creative Habit"

We can gain a lot from Tharp's perspective about not only creativity but also autonomy. She depicts creativity in a different way than we would normally think of it. Most times when one thinks of creativity we think only of art work, painting and projects. But her book focuses more on how to find your own creative habits not only in art but in your life in general. She shows that creativity to her is more of a self driven thing. To her you have to know your goals and drive yourself to achieve all that you want to in your creative projects. To her it represents individualism and who she is as a person and she wants us to find our own too and rely on our own ideas. This is important because it helps you learn about yourself and after you learn about yourself, you learn to stick with it and not be afraid to express these ideas. To be free of fear and create without inhibition. You get to really know your desires and wants which can help you not only with your individual creativity but also with other aspects of life. Anything you do in life that helps you to find your identity is worth it, I feel as though some people spend their whole life not knowing who they are. The more you know and understand who you are the freer you are to be creative with your ideas. Twyla Tharp also talks about how you can incorporate this more into our lives by doing those exercises she put after every chapter. They are there to expand your boundaries and incorporate this “theory” of creative habit into your everyday life. This is something we all should do because it will better ourselves and make for a more interesting creative society. 

College/Life Problem

This will be my final video for this class, thank goodness. I am not the best at making videos but I still put in my effort. We had to do a video on a problem college student’s face but I feel as though we have already talked about the major obvious ones. At first I was going to do a video on sex and what to do if your roommate is having sex all the time but then i decided to change it to STD’s because that is a world problem. I feel like a lot of problems you have at college you will have out in the real world, after all this is a transition to the adult "real" world. Throughout my video I liked my music choice all though it would be nice if I could manipulate the sound volume throughout the whole thing but it does not allow you to do that. I think the video clips go well with the story and add some humor. Something that could have been better is that sometimes the words linger too long and show up on the next picture but that was not how it looked until the movie downloaded so I could not fix it. The movie is much more fluid then my previous ones and overall I am happy with the outcome. 

Exercise #9

and 

Both of these photos still mimic how I am today. I love my grandma to death and me and my brother are still inseparable. Something that is off about this picture is that my cousin Lisa on the far left is hardly ever grumpy or unhappy. In this picture me and my brother are showering my grandma with kisses and affection and maybe my cousin feels left out. Yet today and as long as I can remember she was the most rational and level headed of all of us. This picture is also taken while we were camping. Ever since I was born me and my family went camping every year. That was how I grew up and have a ton of memories with my family there. It was always my brother, mother, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Only when I was real young did my grandma come along with us because she was still feeling up to it. Now a days my mother and step dad are the only ones who still go camping but now they have a trailer. As the cousins grew up we stopped having our camping traditions. But the love I have for my family has not changed.

Fear

In Chapter 2 of the “The Creative Habit” the author, Tharp challenges us to write down our fears when it comes to being creative and putting yourself out there. I do not have many that really pertain to this. It is not a fear of being laughed at, but in confidence in whatever I am creating. If it is not something I am particularity good at I am a little more hesitant to share it. If I know something is not my strong point I will still do it but not feel as good about it as something I am really proud of. If there is something that I am satisfied with there is nothing someone can tell me to make me change my mind. I will have no fear in sharing it because at the end of the day I did it for me and I like it. Whoever laughs at me, that’s their opinions and I could care less. As for the other things, I always have something to say whether I choose to say it or not. The other one saying that once executed, the idea won’t be as good as in my head, that happens all the time. You either fix it or suck it up and move on. The only fear really that I have is that I will put 100 percent work into it and it will still be bad, disappointing myself. That is sometimes the reason I do not put all my effort into things.

 

Multicultural Center

The multicultural center is located in the Adante Student Center on the second floor. I have previously talked about the art work in the Student Center but did not touch upon what the multicultural center really is. Its purpose is to be a recourse for Southern students and the community to promote awareness of Cultural Diversity that was established in 1991. Not only that but it also raises awareness for other cultures and sets up events such as the West Indie Show Case and National Hispanic Appreciation Month events. It also offers educational programs that help recruit and keep students in school. The other events they sponsor include; conducts art exhibitions, film programs, lectures, and conferences and house a book and video library. Another main goal is to be a positive force in the lives of African Americans, Asian Americans, Latino/Hispanic Americans and Native Americans.

 

Miss Tharp

When I first started reading the book, “The Creative Habit” by Twyla Tharp a few things popped into my head. At first when she was talking about how you need to have a set routine. I agree that practicing your creative habit will improve your performance but the way she described it reminded me a little of OCD. Also some people do not want to do the same thing every morning. That could hinder their creative ability, just because a routine works for you does not mean it works for everybody else. I am not saying that I completely disagree with this because it has validity, yet I just wanted to point out some flaws in this idea.

            One part she talked about was, “In order to be creative you have to know how to prepare to be creative.” (Tharp 9)This goes back to our discussion of the 10,000 hours and whether or not you are naturally gifted. She states that even Mozart worked at his music everyday for hours since he was a small boy. She said, “Whatever scope and grandeur you attach to Mozart’s musical gift, his so-called genius, his discipline and work ethic were its equal.” (Tharp 9) I also believe the part where she discussed cutting out distractions, that will definitely help when doing a project or creative task.

            I really liked the part where she gave us exercises we can do to better ourselves and our creativity. I thought that number 2, “Build up your tolerance for solitude” was very true. Most people need to learn how to be alone and be alone confidently. She said, “Alone is a fact, a condition where no one else is around. Lonely is how you feel about that.” (Tharp 31) I really like that quote because it is completely true. However, the next one tells you to go a week without mirrors, clocks, newspapers and speaking. In this world today that is impossible. How will you get anywhere you need to be if you do not know the time.

            There were many other good points, for example your creative DNA is interesting because everybody has their own DNA or personality to their creativity, what makes them their unique self. Which includes their preference in art, music, dance etc and how they create. Other things I liked about this book was the Your Creative Autobiography, although there is no way I would remember my first creative moment, I don’t remember any of that. Overall the book is somewhat interesting and so far this is what I think about the book. 

Southern Diversity

Finally after computer, phone and power outage difficulties, here is my completed video! I am much more happy with this video then my last so I am definitely improving.The thing I believe I did well with this video is that there is a clear beginning middle and end that are labeled with a title slide, a conclusion and cast, followed by bloopers. I also stuck to one main topic which was diversity and I thoroughly went through the issue presenting the reasons why southerns diversity makes it a great place to go to school. Although there are some errors in the film such as in one slide words go over a picture that I was not able to edit out. For some reason the words did not show up on the edit version only when the film was played. The other some what of a mistake was that the music did not fit the mood perfectly but that was the only soundtrack I could make work. Other than those few things I am pleased with my film. It is not as hard to watch as my last one and I got to personalize this video a little bit more than the last. I also did not just put video clips back to back, I learned how to make slides with words on them for transitions and how to play around with the transitions effects between slides.

National Hispanic Heritage Month

For campus safari this week I attended an event at the student center. It was called the "Fourth Annual Empowering Lives Presentation". It was in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Throughout the event they had dancers preform to break up the speakers. Overall, the most important speaker was Bethzaida Sanabria-Vega. She talked about her Latina background and how she was born in Puerto Rico and is the oldest of many kids. She never thought she would grow up from a poor family being Hispanic and make herself into a judge. At first, her only goal was to become a lawyer. Yet she was so successful and good at what she did she ended up being a judge. Her speach was definitely inspiring and interesting. Also towards the end the stepping up drill team performed so I was there to support my friends and they did well! Lastly they served delicious Spanish food, which was for sure the highlight of my day.

Grades

I have finally gotten all of my grades back and I would say I am somewhat pleased. In Anthropology and Psychology I have an A- which I am very pleased with. I will continue to work as hard in those classes and get that grade even higher or at the very strive to keep it the same. For right now Psychology is my major so I am extremely pleased I am doing very well while at the same time I am not stressing too much about the class. It is relatively easy to me. Now, in composition I have a B+ which I was somewhat surprised about because Essays are not my strong point and I have to put a lot of effort into that class. Although I will admit there have been times when I put little to no effort and skated by on the essay. After seeing that I am almost at an A, it makes me want to push harder to get an A in that class. That would make me very happy. For this class I was actually disappointed because I have a B, which I thought I was doing a lot better at. I put effort into this class and my grades I have seen in class have been good so I did not expect a B. That definitely annoyed me; therefore I will try to bring it up because there is no reason to have a B in INQ. Despite this, the video assignment we have coming up concerns me because I am very bad at making videos and this could further hurt my grade. The only thing I need to do is keep up with the times of my blogging. Many times I get so caught up in my other work I forget the time and before I know it the blog I was supposed to do was due yesterday. I have started to write it out in my planner in advance and will definitely work on that. Lastly, I have a C in math which is not good but at the same time I am relieved that I am passing. Before this last I knew I was not passing but I pulled it up with my Mid Term and the fact that he threw out my lowest grade. So I am temporarily relieved but then also equally as stressed because I need to maintain and even go further to get the ideal grades. If these were my final grades my estimated GPA would be about a 3.22. To sum up I believe that yes my grade does reflect the amount of effort I put in, except for INQ, I thought I put more effort in than what showed. 

Multicultural Center

The multicultural center, located in the student center on the second floor is home to a small gallery of art. It is all from one artist and they change who it is every semester. This time it is an African artist who is drawing people in the shape of Africa and put African American individuals that the shapes of their heads make words like love and respect. All of the items are a large collection of variations of the same concept. She is trying to convey the feeling that we all came from Africa and we should have love for the country and love for African Americans. This collection is extremely interesting and I encourage everyone to go look at it. I really like the art work, it is very interesting and it is also like a puzzle trying to find out where the words are inside the picture. The only thing I would have liked to see was some color in it. If she put color in some of them and left some of them black and white I would have loved that. It is trying to accomplish peace and love. 

Fried Dough

This week there was an event on campus. It was Thursday night when I first discovered it, I was walking back to my dorm after stuffing myself with dinner. There was a truck by the side of my building with the words, "Fried Dough" so you already know I was interested. Me and my friends swarmed the truck to find out what was happening with it. It turns out we got there before the event started. In the basement of Farnham there were activities happening that you must attend to get the fried dough. Of course I bought a ticket and joined the crowd inside. They gave away fried dough and candy apples which was great. Whenever you get involved on campus they have some type of treat for you.
 

Stress Free!

Lately we have all been stressing over our midterms and studying for all our very important tests. In order to relieve some tension and stress we decided to have a game and movie night. In the basement of our building we checked out the materials to play pool and brought down cards and spoons. We play this game called spoons that is competitive but always gets us cracking up. We all planned out that it would start after Conn dinner, therefore all our homework had to be done before so when we were downstairs no one would be thinking about the homework they had to do. That was the most important part and point of the night. You cannot be stress free knowing that you have work to do. It will sit in the back of your head and you will not quite focus on having fun but at the same time you will still be stressed. So we continued to play pool, spoons, listen to music and dance, and just chill and talk. It was a great way to relax and not something we usual get a chance to do because we all have different schedules and free times. But we planned it and really scheduled it out. I am happy that we got a chance to do this because we have not had a chance to do this since the beginning of the year.

Improvement Is Key

As midterms come around I have started to reflect on how I have done so far in my classes. With some aspects I am very happy and some I am not as pleased with. Although I have only gotten one grade back I have a general idea of how my grades are. The one class I got back was a class that was originally very hard for me yet I almost have an A. This has just pushed me to really go that extra step to get that A. Now that I know I am that close I will definitely put the 100% and be extremely proud at the end of the semester when I have that A in something that is not my strong point. The only worry I have for this semester is Math. I might not get a good grade in that class, and that is worrying me. Other than that the rest of my grades are all in the B and possibly A range. So I am almost reaching my goals and by reflecting on this it will push me to finish up the semester with great grades I can brag about. This means putting more time and effort into my work even when I really don’t feel like it or have more entertaining things to do. Overall I have continued to improve and work on things that are difficult for me. I even went to tutoring sessions for math to help out with my grade. Having said all of this, for next semester my goals are simply to do better. With more effort and more time I will have the grades that I want and deserve. I am also in much anticipation to see what the rest of my grades are this semester and cant wait to think of new ways to achieve a better grade. 

Pep Rally

This week for my campus safari item I went to the pep rally here at southern, located in the gym at the Moore-Field House. When you enter you go in get a ticket and go up onto the left side of bleachers. It was interesting to me that the bleachers were on the second level and the gym was on the first, therefore you were looking down onto the activities. I have never been to a gym like that before and thought it was very different. I mainly went to support my friends on the step team and just check out how the pep rally's are here at Southern Connecticut State University. I ended up liking the vibe and enjoyed myself. It was for sure a positive experience. I forgot to take any pictures of the actual pep rally but I have a picture of me and my friend at the pep rally so I will post that.

Failure and the Mindset

I feel as though the idea of failure and the book Mindset is simply just the difference between someone who is optimistic and pessimistic. Someone who looks at the glass half full or the glass half empty. Sometimes when someone is depressed they will see a failure as a much more devastating thing then someone who is not. I see the author’s point that anyone can change their mindset, yes but to an extent. Some people are born nicer than others, happier than others. My friend Alyssa from back home is the sweetest girl I have ever met and could not be mean to anyone. She is constantly motivated and learning from her failures no matter what happened. Yet her sister is the opposite, she is lazy, depressed, and pessimistic. She failed out of hair school and now refuses to do anything and lives at home. Why can’t her sister think more like her? I think you are born into your mindset and the things that happen to you in your life affect the way you think. If many difficulties happening to me I would be a completely different person. Although I have tried to change my mindset to a more positive one, it is not as easy as it seems. However this method works to an extent I do not believe that everyone can be changed fully. Therefore depending on what you have been through in life, the support system you have, the motivation and self worth you possess and much more affects your mindset and reaction. Failure can be interpreted in many ways and that is highly dependent on your mindset, and whether or not you can or want to change that way of thinking.

Comfort Zone

I am not sure if this counts as necessarily counts as pushing myself out of my comfort zone but it is something I usually do not like doing. I asked a few people from my composition class to join me and do a peer editing session outside of class. I really hate sharing my writing but I figured it would help with my assignment and possibly a better grade. Also I figured I could learn a lot just by listening to how others organized their papers and how they put everything together. The difficulty I faced was finding one idea that connects all the articles and to be able to synthesize it into one fluent paper. So I figured I would academically challenge myself and step out of my comfort zone by doing this. At first it really was kind of awkward because I do not like sharing my piece especially if it’s not perfect and done well. But they helped me see the things I was missing and organize it. I did the best I could to help them as well and learned some good techniques and styles from their writing. Despite the initial uncomfortable feeling it went well overall. Now this is not something that I would do all the time but when it is needed and I cannot get a conference with my teacher or a tutor it could work. If there are no other resources available, make new ones. Your peers are here to help you as well, the more people you know and talk to the more people that can help you with an answer or problem when it comes down to it.  Overall I am glad that I did this and in the future will think more about continuing to push myself out of my comfort zone.

 

Granoff Building; Make a visit today

The health center is located across from Wilkinson Hall joined to the back of the Campus Police building. It is called the Granoff Student Health Center! They are there for any problems you may have while at southern concerning your health or well being. When I asked them about what some common health problems are they said stress is a huge one because it can lead to other problems such as eating disorders or drinking too much. When you walk into the health center there are posters and pamphlets everywhere. If you are ever curious about something; an std, disorder, stress, relationships there are pamphlets about almost everything. They have free condoms and free advice so go there whenever you need anything! They also said that if you’re sexually active to get checked for std’s every 6 months! Get checked today, it’s free!

Mindset; fixed or growth

 

I really like what the Mindset book is trying to tell us. The argument that the author is trying to make is that in general there are two mindsets; either you have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset or a mixture of both. I think that in general this is very true. Some people love challenges and thrive to learn as much as they can despite how difficult it is while others stick to what they know and would rather not go outside of their comfort zone all the time because they think they already know what they like and are good at. It is also true that most times individuals with the growth mindset strive to improve themselves while the fixed mindsets may feel like a failure and reflect one fail as saying they are a failure. I also thought it was very interesting when they talked about how those with the fixed mindset are more likely to be depressed (or it is more common). This does seem to make sense though because if they are taking things to the head and really letting it effect their confidence and feeling of worth than of course when things go wrong they will take it to the heart, unlike the people with a growth mindset. They see the world through different eyes, taking any failure as an opportunity to get better. This book is really interesting and although this is something I always knew in the back of my mind it’s interesting to me to see it in full detail and called to my attention. While reading it also reminded me of the article 10,000 hours because it talked about how with the growth mindset and effort anything can be achieved. Yet it is not guaranteed that because you work hard at something that you will succeed or be great at it but the difference is that the growth mindset will not take it personally and will keep working at it or try something else.

Video Reflection

To reflect on the video that I made I just want to say that this is the first movie I have ever made. Before this I didn't have the software and did not know how to do anything regarding making a movie.  So this is just an inexperienced start. I managed my time by spacing out the interviews that I did. Instead of doing it all at once I took it little by little because once you start it is easier to continue on. Another teacher I had said if you do a little of it at first just to get it started, it gets the ball rolling. As far as making the video informative, the interviews speak for themselves. It gives all the view, opinions, advice and personal experience with time management and how they make it work. I wanted it to be simple and informative, the topic I chose was a simple one therefore I broke it down to the three categories; freshman, upperclassman, and staff. As far as conclusions there is not one set conclusion, everyone does what works for them and the information speaks for itself.

Southerns Radio

I went to the Southern Connecticut School website and found out they do not have much information on their page. As far as events go, they showed many links and posters for Sinfest. Which past this last Thursday outside of Conn Hall. They have information up on how to get BOMB tickets and other prizes you can win. They had information about times the radio aired. The times consisted of; Monday: Full radio 6:15-7:00 PM, Tuesday: WTF are you listening to? 6:15-7:00, Wednesday: Radio Stevie 6:15-7:15, and Thursday: Mixdown Mixup where they will announce winners for a game they play. However, this is only for this week. In addition they had an Eboard with news on it, although there was nothing on it. As far as actually listening to it, either it does not work or I cannot find the right place to play it. All in all, I was not impressed.

Video Work Up

For my video assignment I chose the Topic of time management. To me this seemed like the most logical topic to pick, mainly because this is something I personally struggle with. Therefore I figured if I did “research” and interviews with students, faculty/staff, and older students it would be a great opportunity for me to learn more. By hearing a vast majority of others opinions and strategies I can see all ways others manage their time and find which ones would work for me. So this video will not only be helpful to others, but it will also help me in the process.

            When thinking about the questions I would ask, I could only come up with a few essential ones. This is because it’s more about the variety in answers than the variety in questions. It’s one main idea or question that everyone could have a different answer to. Some questions I would ask include:

1.)    What is your biggest set back in managing your time?

2.)    What does your daily/weekly schedule consist of?

3.)    Do you have a set schedule or do you go with the flow?

I have many more questions but I don’t want to spoil the whole video!

Anyways these questions are important to first year students because I believe that is one of the biggest struggles new college students face. This is something every individual needs to work out for themselves and perfect to ensure they can use it in the real world as well. This is an important tool we will need to use for the rest of our lives. Now is the time to look into suggestions and figure out what works best for you.

            These questions are going to spark an interest for those who are unsure of their time management or maybe want to explore other methods or schedules. For some who already know how to manage their time, they may not be as intrigued but they could still learn a lot and be open to other suggestions. I think it will be interesting just hearing a variety of different people’s responses. Maybe the differences in responses based on age and experience. This is what I am planning so far for my video project and I hope it works out well!

 

Tick Tock

                                                   

Time flies by in the week and before you know it, its over. After recording and being aware of what my schedule is I realized a few things. First off I did not realize how long I spent eating. When I go to Conn Hall to eat with my friends sometimes we will be there for hours. I knew we would spend a decent amount of time there but between lunches, dinners, and after dinner snacks and late night meals, I am there a decent amount of time. I also realized that there is not one set time I do my homework. Whenever there is nothing to do is when I get my work done, or when it needs to be done for the next day I will do it that night. My hours spent doing work is less than then or equal to the amount of “free time” I have, mostly because I stay up late. If I spend 4 hours doing my homework during the day, nap and then stay up late at night, I have more time to hang out with friends in the night. Overall my schedule has a general flow, from classes to naps to eating to homework in between. Yet I do not have certain times set for homework. Maybe that is something that I can work on, creating certain times where I know I will sit down and do my homework, no distractions or excuses. This is something that might benefit me. Although this is something I do not want to do but maybe I need to pick and choose the nights I stay up late with my friends in order to get more sleep and be more awake and able to do work the next day. Something I will take away from this for next semester is to slow down in the beginning and map out what your schedule should look like. Based on what classes, how many, the amount of work, and other activities and free time. Of course it can be adjusted as you go, but at least be conscious of it, in order to enable yourself. 

                                                   

Which club is for you?

There are so many clubs and organizations in this school. I was completely overwhelmed, and to this day do not know what organization to sign up for. Outside of Engelmann Hall they set up a big show for everyone to walk through and learn information. There were long rows of tables each broken up into sections for each individual club. Most had little treats such as candy, popcorn, free trinkets to entice you to come learn about their club. Towards the middle there was a section where anyone was invited to come sing, receipt a poem or whatever they choose. In total, it was still interesting and somewhat helpful to look through and see what there is. 

What's Good?

This one is definitely difficult for me to answer. I think everyone did a great job. I like a hand fun of them but there is not just one that I like the most or that I think is better than the rest. I will however talk briefly about some things that I did like in these blogs.

 For example the blog “My Experiences” was very interesting to me. I liked the pictures and the outline of the blog. I Enjoyed the writing, it had a certain style and personality to it. On top of that the writing was creative and fluent in places. 

Another blog I enjoyed was “What you make of it”, this one had a distinct look to it. It was very simple but attractive and clean. The way she writes grabs my attention and makes me want to read more. The pictures were relevant and taken herself.

 The last one that I really liked was “Setting the tone for the semester”, because he had quotes as his title, quotes in interesting pictures that drew you in and made you interested. Also the way he wrote was clear and informational and sounded educational. Those are just a few of the ones that stood out to me and that caught my eye. 

What helps you?

In these past few weeks we have discussed many tips and methods to studying, note taking, time management and much more. Some suggestions that stuck with me came from the note taking discussion. I liked the point that you should be writing down questions as you go along. The type of critical thinking questions that make you think about the big picture. This helps you make connections and think more about what we are really thinking about. Another good point was how we should make connections and analyze the notes while still in class to save time. Do not simply write down word for word what the professor says.

            An element I decided to use in my weekly schedule was a time management trick. To plan out a certain time a day or week that you sit down to make sure you get all of your homework done in a timely fashion. This way you know from say 2-4 you do homework, take a break and eat then 7 to whenever finish up and have the remainder of the night to do whatever you would like.

            Some aspects that were not useful to me was the outline of the notes. I don’t particularly like that structure because I cannot have a set sections for certain things because most times I will need more room and then it will mess up the whole page. I have my own way of doing notes so I will just stick to that. Which is not a big deal.

            I can use everything we discussed in class and read in the readings to ensure I successful meet my goals and be the best student I can be. I can make sure to go over my notes from class everyday and synthesis so further my thinking process. This will help me learn and get the most I can out of this course and any other.

Owls loose

Today I attended the SCSU football game. It felt like I was back at high school, sitting on the bleachers watching my school except for the fact that everything was bigger and better. I liked the fact that there were so many tents out in the tailgating section. Each one filled with delicious food and friendly people. There was a great vibe and lots of activity going on. They also played much better music than normal. My school only played band music so this was much better. The game was as interesting as football can be so I cannot complain about that either. Also the other teams marching band was insane! It looked like it must have took forever to practice and they were on point. In the end we did loose the game 30-14 but it’s the spirit and the effort that matters!

Nature Vs. Nurture

For this weeks readings and discussions I would like to talk about Malcolm Gladwells 10,000 hour theory. When thinking about this it reminded me of something I learned in Psychology, the Nature vs. Nurture theory. Which questions if we were born the way we are going to be (inherit traits) or do we learn them because of our environment. This relates because in our class discussion we debated whether it was because we were born with natural talent or learned through hard work to become successful and whatever task. I believe the answer is also similar to Psychology. I believe it’s both, being born with a natural ability always helps (genius theory) but you could also learn through hard work. Let me give you some examples. Someone who is extremely awkward, uncoordinated, and has no sense of rhythm is not going to be good at dance, yet with 10,000 hours of course they could learn however they might never be as good as someone with natural ability. At the same time someone could be horrible at math, or anthropology or a certain type of study but with 10,000 can master it. I believe it depends on the activity or genre you are trying to master. In addition to this most children are born with genes that make them good at certain things but they are never explored. If you don’t use it you loose it. However by practice and dedication you could still master that skill, even if your not necessarily good at it now. In the article Gladwell even says, “It’s certainly clear that great achievement is possible without putting in 10,000 hours of deliberate practice ”.

Of course some discoveries or brilliant people can master or accomplish things much faster but I believe the point is for those who are not genius. That they too can accomplish great things using this method. Meaning that yes both are true. 

Depo Provera

Trying to find a difficulty I faced in my life that I wanted to share was extremely challenging. While I was debating my roommate reminded me of something I told her. One difficulty I went through recently was when I got the Birth Control Shot Depo Provera. For plenty of people this shot is harmless and does its intended job. For Me however I got severe side effects.

            The thing with the Depo shot is that once it’s injected into you there is no way to take it out. You have to wait five months for it to run its course. Once it is injected it takes two weeks to take affect. Exactly on the 14^th day I randomly got an anxiety attack and began throwing up. For the remaining 3-5 months I had to deal with anxiety issues I never had before. It also made me extremely nauseous and sometimes eating at all would make me vomit. I am an already skinny girl and throughout this time I lost around 14 pounds even though it is supposed to make you gain weight. In addition to all this the imbalance of hormones created yet another problem for me. After seeing several doctors and cardiologists I learned because of this I had developed Atrial Tachycardia. A heart condition that could or could not go away after the shot wears off.

             To me those months were a living hell and even today I do not feel one hundred percent back to normal. But through this I learned to not take the short cut and try the new experimental things. I had heard warnings about the shot but figured it would be much easier then remembering to take a pill everyday. I learned to stick to the proven methods and to never put something in your body that you cannot take out.

            This lesson helps me in college on a small scale but is still important. It just teaches me to be careful about my body and to treat it as best as I can because you only get one life so you shouldn’t make it worse with drugs and whatever else

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The Life of a CC

There are a few simple steps to becoming a CC at SCSU. The first step is deciding you want to be one, once you have decided you can move on to attaining that goal. Step two; you must have lived on campus for a year for the simple fact that you have to know what you’re doing and be able to give advice. Step three; you need to simply apply. After that you will have two interviews, the first a group interview and the second is individual.

            Being a CC however comes with plenty of responsibilities. You have to be a good influence and leader for your residence hall while enforcing all school policies. If someone is breaking the rules it is their responsibility to do something about it. They must create a community by hosting programs and getting to know everyone. They are also in charge of health and safety by inspecting rooms twice a month to make sure there are no rules being broken and your room is clean. This also goes for the halls and bathrooms. They also have duty nights once a week from 7pm to 2am at the front desk. They also have the option of attending hall counsel because that’s where their funding comes from for their programs.

            You may be asking “What do I get out of it?” The answer is you get plenty of benefits such as free housing. That’s huge! That saves thousands of dollars. It is also a job meaning you get paid on top of it. You also get the privilege of making programs and activities for your hall. So you are given money to create a fun activity with food! You also develop new and better relationships with the staff members. That can serve very useful.  

Heather; My CC for Wilkinson Hall

What's your style?

When looking around at the recommended blogs and many others I noted a few things in particular. There seemed to be a few main types, organized information for a purpose and random personal blogs. They went from simple and clean cut to extravagant and detailed. One specifically was very organized for a purpose. The blog ‘my goal is to help others “thrive in life & business”.’ His goal was just that, he also had sections or links such as; services, products, speaking, planners, inspirational ideas, empowering women, etc. I found out a lot about the tone of the bloggers. Some were very casual speaking whatever came to mind and others were more business like. To be honest I liked the more casual ones because they were much more interesting to read. I like that they could come up with new and interesting topics frequently instead of talking on the same topic although the more informational blogs would be more useful. One of the recommended blogs “Rebecca blood” I was not the biggest fan of just because the posts were so short and hardly had any topic at all. It was more like status’s. Which would be alright but the things she posted about, for example the mail, was not too interesting to read. For my own blog I am clearly aiming for my audience to be college students therefore writing things in a casual tone that pertains to them. Things maybe I could bring to others attention or interesting things I found out or learned. Maybe occasionally a question, why is such and such like this? Seeing as this is the first time I have ever experienced blogging my goal is simply to do a good job. To make a blog that will earn me a good grade as well as being interesting to others. As far actually making it interesting to others I will just have to wait and see what I come up with. I am sure there will be plenty of motivation and inspiration as I go. 

College Trial

College to me is somewhat of a trial. You’re living away from home and trying to balance your responsibilities without having someone there to remind you or step you through it. No mom to nag you to make your bed or do your homework. I say this is a trail because we are learning to grow up while having the luxury of not paying bills, groceries, and much more. College to me is the transition into the “real world”. At first it will be nerve wracking and the first few days, weeks even and you’ll have moments of doubts when you’re not sure how you will manage but you’ll realize how short the year really is and how everyone says it flies by so fast. College really is what you make of it, if you want to have a good time and do well in school you will. The more you get into the experience by joining new clubs and meeting new people the better time you will have. There are so many things I want to accomplish and learn. For example I want to perfect time management, to be able to map out and use my time effectively instead of the usual procrastination. I would love to be able to be self sufficient, figuring out new and challenging things on my own. Socially I want to grow with this community and join clubs in order to meet new people and branch out. Yet overall the hardest thing will be to balance my work and play. I need to buckle down when time to do work but of course have time to go out and enjoy my time here. All this talk about what I want to accomplish brings me to my set of goals for this year. I am planning on keeping a great GPA while still participating in activities and having free time. But with that goal my expectation is that I will be able to get help or tutoring when need be. Some times it might take me that extra step to do well. That would be my only concern is that I will not have time or will not be able to get extra help if needed. Other than that I have had a great college experience so far, met some great people and have been enjoying my free time.