My First Semester.

I remember that first day of college as a student at Southern. I can’t even to being to express how nervous I was. College is where everything starts to become real, and where you life starts falling in place. What if I’m the only one who doesn’t have a clue? What if I never find myself? Those were the questions that consumed my mind constantly, making me feel so uneasy.

                My first semester at college helped that though. I started my first week or so off with the mindset that I would hate it. I was never a school person at all. I never put really any effort into my work because I had close to zero interest in it. But I realized that if I wanted to get somewhere in life, then I needed to open up my mind about school. That was my first goal for the semester; to be more open minded. Most people’s goals are to get good grades. Not me, though. I just wanted to see a change in myself as a student. I’m proud to say that I came very far with working towards that goal. Even though I still have no plan for the future, no desired major, I still had positive thoughts about them for once. I realized that I shouldn’t get down on myself, because it’s okay to be confused and unsure about what to do. Also, I tried my best no matter what situation it was. I wanted to prove to myself that I can do it. That I can be positive with my school situation. That I can put a lot of effort into work and be happy with the result for once. I was so used to being compared grade wise with my twin sister. She always had better grades than I did. This was my chance away from her, my own school, my own grades to worry about. I did prove all of these to myself, which is such a nice feeling.

                 The first thing I learned about college was that it is nothing like high school. At all. I'm not a fan of change. So getting past the initial struggle was hard, but I can say that I adapted quickly. 

                Just like any college student, there are always some roadblocks getting in the way of you progress.  I struggled with time management in my beginning stage at school. I’m a night owl. I stay up until three in the morning every night. That does not mean that’s the best time to do work, though. At first I thought it was. I would save all my work until that moment, and I would be completely over tired and way too stressed to finish everything. I soon realized that I won’t show my full potential this way. So, I began to practice better time management skills. I would set reminders on my phone at a certain hour of the day to get something done, and I would. I can easily say that my biggest challenge turned into my biggest success. I took that challenge, that road block in my way, and worked on it to better myself and my work.  

                Along with all of this, I am also very proud of my grades and my performance in general. I was able to pull off midterm averages of B’s with a couple of exceptions. That made me so happy. I got though my first semester of college on a good note. But, the actual grade I received isn’t what’s most important. What is important is what I’ve learned. I’ve learned so much information that will be useful to me throughout my years at Southern. I can always look back on it with a positive outlook.

                If I didn’t open my mind, I probably would not be writing this blog post right now. Being so open minded about school is new to me, and I feel like this opened my eyes that I can be this way about anything else in my life. These blog posts helped me keep track of who I am, making me realize something new with every one of them. Next semester, I’m going to continue to try to find my way, and keep staying positive. I’m going to keep my grades up, and won’t let myself go downhill. I’m excited to see what the future brings me. 

Success & Failure.

I’ve had many successes and failures this semester. They all helped me learn and grow as a person. One success I’ve had is I’ve tried my best in all of my classes. I put a lot of effort into my work, even if it wasn’t as much as I should have. I still found the motivation to get everything done and put in my best work. I’m really proud of that. I’ve never been the type of person to give my all in a subject. But I realized that I should change that, which I did. I think that is definitely my biggest success. I can take away so much from this. I take away the motivation to continue this throughout next semester and the one to follow. I proved to myself that I can get things done and I can put my all into school if I try hard enough.

One of my biggest failures is putting things off so late. I procrastinate so much. For history, we would have big papers due and I would wait until the day before or two days before to write them. This caused so much stress on me. From this experience, I’m definitely going to take away a learning experience. I know I need to work on it. Also, not going to some classes all the time was a failure. This was especially in math class. I wouldn’t go to many of the classes because it was so boring, and so late. As a result, I missed a few unannounced quizzes that really affected my grade. From this I’m taking away that even if a class is boring, I should still continue to attend them because of the risk of a decrease in my grade. 

Final Project Brainstorming.

The final project is something that should be in the back of everyone’s minds. So far, I've been just brainstorming and writing down simple thoughts. I haven’t really done into detail with everything; I just want to get an idea of where I can go with the paper. I want to figure out how to make it interesting and unique. It seems like it’s going to take a lot of thinking and planning. In this project, I’m going to start off saying how I was before. Before I started college. Then I’m going to transfer into how I changed as a person and what I realized about myself. I've learned so much. I realized how much I put things off. I realized I need to change all of my bad school habits. I worked on that throughout the semester though. So I’ll go into detail about that.  A personal goal I had was to be more open with school and classes. Unfortunately, I’m still not open at all. But I realized that I’m just not the type of person that likes school. Next semester I want to continue working on that, and maybe find myself in a place where I found a subject that interests me. I want to include I’m going to make sure I make it personal and try to have it show who I am as a person, how I’ve grown, and what I need to work on.  

Video #3, Freshman 15.

For our final blog post, I wanted to try to make this one my best. I thought the topic was very interesting and could be done in so many different ways. I chose the freshman 15 and I’m happy with the way it came out. At first when I knew we had to make a skit, I was nervous because I hate doing that. But it ended up going very well and I had a lot of fun with it. I think I did a good job with explaining the problem, especially in the skit. That’s how many students are at southern because of the many options available. I could have included a little more information about the solutions, but I feel like what I did was enough. I also didn't want it to go over five minutes, so I had to cut a little out. Overall, I am very happy with myself with how this video turned out. I was so used to the technology used so it came so easy to me.

Creativity and Tharp's Perspective.

Tharp’s perspective is something that is very unique and creative. From her book, we can see how important creativity really is. Creativity is being able to use your imagination or come up with multiple different ideas to something. It’s the ability to think deeper about something. We gain so much knowledge about how important this is and also we realize things that we would never think about before reading the book. Like accidents. I liked this part because we realize that in order to be creative, we need to be prepared for something unplanned to happen. The creative aspect comes into play when you need to be able to think of a way to fix it. We can incorporate this into our everyday life when something unexpected happens in school work, or anything else. We shouldn’t just get bummed that nothing went as planned, while instead we should think of new options. Teaching creativity is hard, which is why it’s not taught in schools. It’s more of a personal thing. Not one person has the same creative habits as the other. It’s all personal. But, it can and should be taught to express it. Expressing creativity is so important and should be done more often instead of pushing people away from their creative self.

We need to attempt to be more creative. As an individual, I think I am personally a pretty creative person. It is important to surround yourself with creativity. People shouldn't be afraid of what others think. They shouldn't be afraid to take risks, to be wrong, to accept challenges or to come across failure. This is important because it shows how each person is different. You shouldn't be afraid to express yourself because of the fear of being judged. We need to become aware that there isn't only one way to do something. 

Autonomy.

                From our class in the library today, I learned a lot of useful information that I will keep in mind throughout my time here at southern. This was only my second time at the library, and the first I only walked in for a few minutes. Our assignment today was to search for a book on anatomy, find a journal article, and a definition of it on an online dictionary of encyclopedia. The book I found on anatomy was called “Anatomy of Public College”. The journal article was really interesting that I found. It was called “Faculty Motivation and Scholarly Work: self determination and self regulation perspectives”. This article was very interesting. It talked about motivation and how to fulfill basic needs of an individual. If you put your mind to something, you can get it done. It’s as easy as you are willing to make it. Anatomy is defined as “free will; self governing, ability of a person or a group to choose a course of action. Autonomy is a basic human right and is one of the principles of bioethics.” (oxford dictionary). Autonomy definitely applies to any first year students. As a first year student, you learn your own time management and what works the best for yourself. First year students need to discover themselves as an individual. You gain a lot of independence as a first year student, which is a part of what autonomy is. Autonomy is commonly defined as self determination, so as a first year student, you realize how important it is to be able to be able to get things done by yourself, and know what pushes you to do something. This is all very important for first year students to gain knowledge on, because it will only help them out throughout the college years. The lesson on autonomy today in the library I think was a very well start to our lesson on it. 

Campus Safari #16: Career Counseling

For this week’s campus safari, I went to the school’s career counseling. I gathered some information while I was there. The office hours are Monday to Friday from 8:30 to 4:30 pm. It is better to make an appointment, but sometimes if you just walk in they will have some available space. At the career counseling services you can talk to someone about anything career related. They will help you with anything like selection a major or finding a job. From what I saw I think this service would be very useful to many students. It will help them out so they feel like they have someone to guide them to the right direction career wise, because this is a common struggle for most students. 

Brew Ruts into Grooves.

On pages 208-209 in The Creative Habit, I chose to do the exercise call Brew Ruts into Grooves. In this exercise, I had to pick a bad habit and do something to make it “good.” Bad habits aren’t meant to be eliminated completely right away; you just need moderation, which is exercising the groove. A bad habit I have is chewing too much gum. I can easily call it an addiction. Throughout the day, there will be countless moments where I need to be chewing a piece of gum just to be able to function correctly. This especially occurs when I’m stressed out. To make this habit worse, I don’t just chew one piece of gum then I’m all set for a few hours. I chew multiple pieces of gum, one after another. I’ll chew a piece then put a new one in not even a minute later. I constantly find myself chewing and spitting out gum in a constant cycle. I buy gum so often, and I need to make sure I have a 60 piece pack of gum with me always.

Habits need to be slowly fixed. To make this habit “good”, I limited the amount of gum to be put into my mouth. I made sure once I started to chew a lot of it, I had my sister take the gum away from me so I wouldn’t chew any more. This was honestly so hard for me to do. I felt lost and like I was missing something. Thinking about it now, I realize this is a good thing to do. I know limiting my gum chewing habit is for the best, and by trying to slowly fit it will really begin to become easier. I made sure that each day I would have my sister take the gum away sooner. It was so hard, but I’m glad that I took part in this exercise. 

What Are Your Fears?

Everyone has at least one thing that they’re afraid of, that holds that person back. There’s one simple solution to this. Face them. I know that sounds so difficult, because even I have a hard time facing my fears, but it’s the only way to get past them. My biggest fear is change. I’m afraid of changing something that has been set in stone in my life, into something completely different. I just can’t do it. Change stresses me out so much even just thinking about it. Even if it’s just a simple thing like updating my phone to new software… I refuse to do it, just because it will look different. I need to tell myself that change is good. It opens you up to more things in life.

I’m also afraid of opening up. This is weird for me to write about this, because I never even talk about it. So I guess in a way I’m facing that fear right now. I always have a hard time telling someone something deep or personal. I just feel weird about it, so I just hold back and keep it inside. I usually begin to start telling someone, but I start to panic and just say “never mind”. I get mad at myself always, I say “wow that was the perfect time to bring it up, and I missed my chance”. Opening up is just too hard to do. But, I know it’s best. Opening up makes yourself and the other person closer, and so that person has a better understanding of where you are coming from. This is something I need to work on.

My last major fear I have never figuring out my life. What if I never find something that interests me? What if I go through college only to end up with no major? What if I spend my life working part time jobs just to get by? These questions constantly consume my thoughts. It’s so hard to picture myself later in life, with a career that I’m happy with. I have absolutely no clue where I want to end up in life, and that’s what scares me. I need to tell myself that this stage in my life is the beginning point to finding my path. Everyone find themselves. It may take longer than most people, but I will eventually figure of my place in life.  

Campus Safari #1: Talk to a Professor

For this week’s campus safari, I got in touch with one of my professors. Dr. Olumide, math 95 section 10 professor, has his office hours on Monday at 515-615. If you can’t make it that time, other times can be arranged by appointment. His email is olumidek1@southernct.edu. I have taken advantage of emailing him multiple times this semester. I asked him two questions. I missed one of your quizzes, can I make it up? And how important are small quizzes in effect to my grade? In answer to the first question, he told me that there are absolutely no make ups for quizzes, except if you have a document or note. I wish I knew that because the quiz I missed, I had pink eye and couldn’t make it to class. It’s good to know now though. To answer the second question, the quizzes are only 20% of the grade in his class. He said he will continue to give out more of them to help boost people’s grades. Asking him these questions that I wasn’t sure about really did give me a better understanding of this course. 

The Creative Habit

                When I first started reading “The Creative Habit” by Twyla Tharp, I wasn’t sure what to think of it. At first, the first chapter didn’t really make me interested to keep my attention. As I read a few more pages into the book leading to the next chapter, I started to like it a little more. I’m not a huge fan of all the personal connections, yet they do help me understand what she is trying to say. In chapter two, I did find myself pretty interested though. When she started off talking about how rituals are the beginning of the creative progress and how they are a reminder that you are doing the right thing. I never thought of it that way, and it made me think of my rituals. I realized that they actually do remind me that I’m doing the right thing, even though I’m not thinking of if that way.

                She then talks about DNA and how it is kind of like your creative hard wiring or personality. I do agree with this. Its kind like where all your creative genes are stored. We are all made differently, not one of us is made up the same way. We all have different creative parts about us, it’s what makes everyone their own person. Still, I’m not a fan of what she added in at the end of the chapter in the “exercise” and “creative autobiography” section. The memory chapter of the book was also interesting. I have an awful memory, and I liked reading about all the different types of it. As I continued reading more chapters in the book, I slowly started becoming less interested. I think this is because of all of the personal connections. She could have easily left these out. But putting that aside, the main topics or ideas are very interesting to read and become aware of. 

Video Reflection

                This video assignment was definitely more difficult than the first one in my opinion. It took me a long time just to figure out what my topic was going to be. After I decided on one, it was still really difficult. But once I finished and I was in the process of making, it actually started to get easier. I think it turned out pretty decent. The last video I used iMovie, and this one I used movie maker. So, it took me a long time to figure out how to use the program, which made it so it was my first time making a movie. I think one of my strengths is that the text slides have interesting affects and are easy to read. Also, the music fades out nicely and doesn’t just stop randomly. I also like the interview I put in, because it gives someone else’s opinion. For the interview, it was taken while driving in a car, which went along with the theme of the video. I think that added a nice touch to it.

                All videos will have weaknesses. I think one weakness in this video is that it’s kind of a boring topic I chose. There was not a whole lot to include, so I feel like it was kind of just repeating itself. Compared to my last video, I think this one flows a lot nicer. I made it so there was less to read on the slides, because my last one had too much text. I definitely made some progress, even though I used a different movie program. I felt more experienced and knew what would look good and what wouldn’t look good, so I kept that into consideration. For the next video to come, I feel like I will improve even more, making a more advanced and interesting video. Here is the link to my finished video: 

Midterms

 The midterms are finally done with. Unlike most students, I was not worried about them at all. I don’t normally get stressed out over tests, which is mainly a bad thing. I hardly studied for any of them honestly. For my history midterm, he hasn’t posted them yet or graded them I don’t think. We had to write a take home paper. He hasn’t even graded the first papers we’ve written yet. My philosophy midterm grade was a B. I am so happy with that grade. I was not prepared at all for any of the material on it, and I went into it knowing I was going to probably fail it. But, I was pleasantly surprised. For Spanish, we didn’t have an actual midterm exam. It was just a combination of our tests and class work, which averaged out to an A- for me. I was never good at Spanish, so I really don’t know how I’m doing so well in this class. I’m pretty proud about that. My INQ midterm grade, a B, is just how I would assume. Math is what really got me mad. When we got the tests back, I received an 82 which was great. But looking at the grades online, it says I have a D-. After I emailed my professor he told me that because I missed a quiz, that affected my grade that much. I’m still so mad because I do so well in that class, yet I had pink eye on the day we had a pop quiz and now my grade suffers. This does show that I need to go to class more often, even though it’s not required. I cannot calculate my GPA if these were my final grades, because I only have 4 grades instead of 5 so it would not be accurate. I don’t put too much effort into classes honestly, and I never really have, but my grades I received do show a pretty good job of it. I do try hard at everything I do, even if it’s not as much I should be doing, and I am very proud of myself for it. 

The Beauty of Art

                I walked into Earl Hall for the first time looking for an interesting piece of art. It was fun walking around and admiring everything I saw made by students. Art always interests me in some way; it shows a very personal side of people that I think is incredible. From the many beautiful pieces I found, this one really stuck out to me. It didn’t have a name or artist’s name that I could find, and the lighting made it so there was a pretty bad glare. But from what you can see in the picture, it looks really cool. It’s nothing really special or amazing, but it definitely caught my eye. Two simple ideas of vases turned into something great.

 In person you could see each little detail put into it. There were many patterns that made it look more appealing. You can tell that it took some time to make it look so perfect. I also love the color choice that was used. The light brown for the base of the vase along with the darker brown for the design really flowed well together. The scales on the dragon were done very well I think. It kind of reminds me of something you would find in old ancient times from history. I think that’s what each vase represents. They vase with the man and the one with the dragon both are compatible with each other, and give off a very ancient feel. I wish they had a name though, I’m very curious to what the artist would call it. After seeing this, I’m definitely going to have to walk around and wander to find some other great pieces of art on campus.

Campus Safari #14: Acoustic Performance

                On Friday, I went to the school’s performance of the Rocky Horror Show. There were shows from October 12 to the 20^th, either at 2 or 8pm. I’ve seen the real thing many times, so I was very curious to see how the school would do with it. I didn’t know what to expect coming into it. Honestly, I was so impressed. The costumes were great, the acting was phenomenal and they did a great job recreating it. I was entertained the entire time. The show is five dollars for students and 10 for the general public. I really recommend going to see this show the students put on, it is nothing you would expect at all. If you haven’t seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show, you should really watch it, especially before you see this school’s take on it. It will help you understand it so much better and also help you see how perfect they did with it

                

Walking to Relieve Stress

       Midterms always cause a lot of stress for most people. They are always studying all day and night, c constantly stressing out. The only problem with this is that they are too occupied with studying that they don’t leave any free time to relieve that stress. Luckily for me, I was hardly stressed. But, to relieve some of it that I had, I decided to go for a nice walk around campus. For me, walking always helps with anything. It is a great way to clear your mind and escape for a little bit. I never really explored the campus at Southern that much, so I decided this would be a great thing to do. It was a beautiful day outside, it was windy, but not terribly cold, the perfect walking weather. I ended up finding out so much more about southern that I never would have known about if it wasn’t for that walk. I normally walk around the campus, but I don’t really wander around. I walked past the dorms; I commute so I don’t go that way normally, and ended up a little bit back.

I didn’t stop to talk to anyone, which was so great. I just had my music and myself. Walking alone with music always relives stress; it’s the best way to do so. It works as a great escape to just distance yourself from the world for a little bit. I know to most people, this isn’t really considered “fun”. But, to me, it’s so much fun. Walking will always do this to me. The nice weather and music blasting just add to it. This actually did help with the stress and thoughts of having big tests coming up. 

Goals.

                Looking back at this first semester of college, I am actually pretty happy with the way I’m going right now. I was never a fan of anything school related. I made personal goal to study more, and to put more effort into my work. I did a good job at completing these goals so far. I definitely have made time to study, unlike I usually do. I also am better at managing my time. I still rush to get things done and leave them until the last minute, but I’m definitely doing a better job at knowing I need to get something done soon. In the start of the semester, I knew I was going to struggle with Spanish, because I always have in the past. So, I told myself I’d put effort into this class. Currently in that class, I am getting A’s on all of my tests. That’s a major plus that I never thought would happen this semester.

                But, I do also have a new goal that I would like to make sure I keep for the second semester. This is to make sure I start working on essays or long term assignments earlier in advanced. I always find myself still rushing and hating myself that I didn’t start earlier. This always works out for me, yet it’s not always the smartest thing to do. I will continue to make sure I leave a little bit of time to study, to make sure I know the material if I have a test. My math class is optional, and I honestly haven’t gone to a few classes. By missing these classes, I’ve missed out on some material and I missed a quiz not even knowing. I’m going to make sure I don’t miss as many classes the second half of the semester to make sure I won’t end up missing anything important. 

Campus Safari #19: Major's Expo

                  For this week’s campus safari, I went to the Student Center for the Majors Expo. I was expecting to see a whole bunch of tables set up with all the possible majors. I thought it would be great for me to see them all, since I don’t have a major or any idea for a possible one. When I got there, I was actually surprised that there were not as many as I was expecting. As I was walking around, it made me realize that there is actually nothing I’m interested in whatsoever to possible major in. One table that stood out to me was the Liberal Studies Program. This is where you can create your own degree program by combining two or three minors. I also grabbed the Marketing brochure just to read about it a little. Besides that, I didn’t find anything that appealed to me unfortunately, which makes me nervous that I’m going to have a harder time that I thought finding a major that fits me. 

Failure.

The book Mindset talks a lot about failure. If you are a person with a fixed mindset, then you try to avoid failure. For example, if someone failed math, their reaction is that they’re not good at math. You will not see that person taking more or harder math classes because they don’t like the challenge themselves. In my opinion, they are afraid of failure and will do anything they can to hide from it. A person with a growth mindset will learn from failure. They take responsibilities from that moment and use it to change how they do something in the future.  They want to get the most out of every time something goes wrong. Chapter 6 talks about relationships. If someone is rejected or broken up with, a fixed mindset will feel judged and labeled. They won’t take the time to think about the reason or anything else. While a person with a growth mindset is understanding and forgiving. They want to learn from bad experiences and grow from them.

In many ways, you can easily benefit from failure. You can learn from your mistakes and grow. Being aware of these mistakes make it so they don’t happen again. It is important to accept failure. It’s not healthy to let it eat you up. Not everyone will succeed with everything. This will help a person become more successful. Success is surprisingly linked with failure. To be successful, you need to be willing to have a growth mindset. It’ll get you farther in life. This growth mindset and being able to accept failure will allow that person to have an easier time growing with all the effort they put into something. 

Outside My Comfort Zone

I work at Shoprite supermarket. I was hired as a cashier and have been working there for about a year now. Recently, they asked me to move to customer service. At first, I had to think about it a few times because I thought that I would not be able to do it at all. I eventually said yes because I thought it would be a good experience for me. Friday was my first day at the desk. I was pretty nervous but excited at the same time. From the first few minutes, it was already so much for me to handle. There were so many new things I had to learn and know about.

Eventually, the phone rang and I’m the one that has to answer the phone calls, obviously but I completely forgot about that. I was never a fan of talking on the phone. It always stressed me out just thinking about having to call someone, now I was going to have to answer countless phone calls and deal with people all the time. This definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. I had a weird feeling every time I had to deal with a complaint via phone call. Now it’s easier because I pushed myself to do it, because it was my job.

Also, another part of this job is paging other departments on the speaker throughout the whole store. At first I told the people I worked with that I would not do it. I honestly have never been so nervous. I kept pausing and asking stupid questions just to waste more time. The first time I paged over the loud speaker really broke me out of my comfort zone. It was awful, but now I’m completely used to it and don’t dread calling a department or answering the phone to a customer complaint.  

Campus Safari #11: Office of Study Skills Enrichment

                           For this week’s campus safari, I went to the Office of Study Skills Enrichment. I’ve never heard of it before I went, so I was very curious to what it was. I found out some useful information as I was there. I asked a basic question, what do the Office of Study Skills Enrichment consist of? It helps students with strategies and learning methods to help them out. Students will learn better test taking skills and study techniques to make them all better students. There are many different free workshops that students are able to attend. I think this office is very useful for every student. It definitely seems like it helps students out so much with things that they struggle with.  

Mindset and Motivation

In the book Mindset by Carol S. Dweck, there is one main argument going on. This is the argument of growth mindset verses fixed mindset. Growth mindset is the belief that your basic qualities are capable of growth through effort. Fixed mindset is the belief that your qualities are set in stone.  In the first chapter, there was a section called “A View from the Two Mindsets” to give a better understanding of the two. The example was that you got a C+ on your midterm in your favorite class, you received a parking ticket, and you called your friend because of how frustrated you were and the friend brushed you off. If you had a fixed mindset, a typical response to how they would feel would be “I’d feel like a total failure” or “I’d feel worthless or dumb”. When she asked what people with a growth mindset one response was “I need to try harder in class, be more careful parking the car and I wonder if my friend had a bad day” This example helped me get a better understanding on the two. A person with a fixed mindset would completely shut down, while a person with a growth mindset would take what happened and find a way to fix it for the next time.

This connects to many of the things that we have been talking about in class. In regards to motivation, to be motivated one typically has a growth mindset. Also, you have to have a growth mindset to be a successful person. A growth mindset requires dedication and hard work, with the development of traits and skills. This is also what you need to be successful. You need to put in effort to further yourself. Having a fixed mindset would not lead to success because they put no effort in, and they believe that their abilities are set in stone, leaving no room for change. 

Commuting vs. Resident Life video

My video actually turned out a lot better than I thought it was going to. When we first got the assignment, I thought my video would turn out awful. But I put effort into it and am happy with my results. I made sure to pick a topic that would be interesting to find information about. I knew this would take some time, but of course I didn’t start right away honestly. Once I started, it was easy to get going. I took about two days to actually do the interviews then on Saturday and Sunday I put the video together. I put a lot of time into the actual making of the video on the weekend. I used iMovie for the first time and it was pretty easy. The only thing I struggled with was getting songs to play in the background and then pause when a recorded interview started. Also, the recorded interviews are harder to hear, and as much as I tried to fix that, it wouldn’t work so I just had to leave it that way. That’s something I would change if I could. Uploading my video to YouTube took a lot quicker than I thought it was going to. I’ve uploaded things to YouTube before so I knew what I was doing.

I think I did a good job making this video informative. I made sure to interview everyone with questions that would lead to informative answers. The video isn’t completely entertaining because it does have a lot of written interviews, but the effects and songs make up for it. I spent about half the time in the video introducing the topic and voicing my own opinion, and the other half was filled with other people’s responses to my questions. In the conclusion I drew about commuting vs. resident life, it’s similar to my own personal opinion. I do think commuting is the smarter thing to do. 

Campus Safari #3: Health Center

                For this week’s Campus Safari, I went to the Health Center. It actually took me so long to find. When I walked in, there were many pamphlets of useful information that I was able to grab. The staff was very friendly. A common health problem college student’s face is maintaining a healthy eating habit. With all the food available on campus, it’s definitely hard to make sure you don’t only consume unhealthy foods. There are salads available to include into your diet. There were also many more pamphlets that you can take to further your knowledge on any health related problem. The Health Center is a great place for students to access and stop by. 

FAQ project

                When first starting college, there are many questions that students would love to be answered. Knowing more before they start school will help so much. I think a lot of these questions are based on dorm life or being a commuter. For my video project, I chose the topic “commuter vs. resident life”. I prepared a variety of different questions to ask. First I’m going to ask people if they commute or live on campus. If they commute, I will ask how they like it and what’s the best/worst thing about it. Also, I’ll ask if they have a hard time finding parking or not. My final question would be if they would recommend commuting or not. I’m going to go to the campus police and find out how to get a temporary parking pass.  If they answer that they live on campus, I will ask basically the same questions. I’ll make them elaborate on certain things about dorm life.

                All of these questions are very important to first year students. They are important because living on campus or commuting is a very hard decision some students have to make. I know it took me months to decide what I should do. For days I went back and forth trying to make a decision. I ended up choosing to commute and I think it’s the best decision I made.  Actually seeing dorm life looks miserable, and I’m happy I chose to commute. Most students want to know how both situations are like before they make up their mind. It’s better to have as much information on this issue beforehand, to avoid hating the decision that was made. To make an interesting video, I’ll be sure to not bore the viewers with boring interviews. I’ll have them short and to the point. I am going to make sure that good advice can be discovered from it. 

Day by Day

When we were first assigned to create a daily list of what we did every hour of every day for a week, I thought it would be a lot and very time consuming. After the study though, it actually taught me a lot about how I manage my time. I realized that I don’t spend many hours doing school work. I’ll maybe sit for about an hour and end up taking a break. It made me aware of how much I actually procrastinate. I’ll know I need to do a paper, but I’d find myself listening to music or getting distracted. On the weekends I spend a lot of time at work or just hanging out. I normally will work 5 to 6 hours a day at awkward hours, making it hard to space out my day. After work I normally am mentally drained. I found of that usually after work I’d just relax for a few hours.

I do an okay job with time management. I spend a lot of time at school, some days I don’t get home until 8. Getting home so late makes it hard to have energy to do work when all I want to do is relax. I do work best late at night, but I think I should space out my time earlier into the day. As for the least amount of time, which I already knew ahead of time, is sleep. This study made me aware of how late I go to sleep every night. Most of the time it’s not until 2 or 3 in the morning. This is not healthy at all. From this study I definitely can take away that I need to try to work of better sleeping habits. Better sleeping habits will result in better work, and more effort put into assignments.  I definitely want to work on this for the rest of the semester, along with putting more time into school work and getting things done at a reasonable time. 

Campus Safari #9: Involvement Fair

            For this week’s Campus Safari, I went to the school’s involvement fair. Honestly I was never really into clubs at all, so I was hoping that Southern would make me change my mind about them. But, the club fair wasn’t that great in my opinion. I was actually really disappointed. There were hardly any clubs that I had some sort of interest in at all. So walking around looking for some that I could possibly join was impossible. The club “Best Buddies” did catch my eye, if I have to pick. It is an opportunity to be a friend and leader to a kid with any type of disability. That was the only one that I would consider signing up for. There are way too many sports clubs and academic clubs. I thought there are countless amounts of clubs for anyone, but Southern should have more clubs that anyone can find interest in. 

"A" level blog

            While reading through multiple students blogs, I saw a good amount of them that deserve an A. I thought it was actually really hard choosing. I feel weird giving someone’s personal opinions and thoughts a grade. Each one is different in their own way. While each blog had something great about every single one of them, not all showed as much effort as some did.

But, if I had to choose, I’d say Kiersten’s blog titled “College Survival Guide” really stood out to me and deserves an A for sure. Her title of “College Survival Guide” is really catchy and personally I think is a great name for this type of blog. A title really means a lot to a blog, and she did a great job choosing one. It gives readers a good idea of what they're going to find in each post. This blog is really nice to look at, it’s not too distracting but it’s also not too plain. She uses great pictures that really help get an idea of the writing. It is also very well organized.

                In her actual posts, she puts a lot of thought into them I can tell. She puts in a lot of details to back up whatever she is trying to say. This is definitely one of her strengths in her blogging. Her “Helpful Hints for Succeeding in College” post was one of my favorites. She did a good job transitioning what she’s picked up on so far, to her goals, to her biggest problem being procrastination. Everything was written very well and clearly, just like all of her posts. She stays on topic throughout the whole post, and it’s not confusing to read. Kiersten goes beyond the topic we are supposed to write about. She includes in personal examples to back up whatever she is trying to say. Her blog was by far one of the top ones that I flipped through. 

Being A College Student

               Within the past few weeks of college, I’ve already taken some useful information out of this INQ class. Note taking the right way is something that I really took out of these lessons. Taking notes is something you will do in basically every class. Making sure you write down the main ideas, key concepts and questions that you don’t really understand will help you succeed as a student from note taking. I know I will put this type of note taking into my habit as a college student. Note taking is going to be very important, and having notes with useful information and clarity will help me become a better student that I would be with messy, unorganized notes.

                I have the problem with taking too many notes. I end up just writing down every possible thing that I see or hear. This is an issue because when I go to study, I never know exactly what to study. I now have a better understanding of how to take good notes in class. Yet, the form of note taking that I do not find useful to me is the Cornell Note Taking System. To me, it’s too much to think about and do. It wouldn’t really help at all, I feel like just writing meaningful notes then looking them over after class is the best thing to do.

I know that I need to set some goals for myself to help push myself along. I always put things off to the last minute and end up rushing to finish or have a million of things to do in one night. When we talked about time management relating to effort, I know I have to rethink the way I get things done. A goal I have is to space my work out. If I know about a project or an essay a while in advanced, I need to start putting work into it day by day. This is so much better than waiting until that last night putting little effort in just to get it done. This always works for me, but I know I need to work on changing that. To fulfill this goal, I know I need to just do as much as I can handle at a good pace. 

Campus Safari #7: Fitness Center

This week, I visited the fitness center for the first time. I found out a lot of useful information that I've been wondering about. From Monday-Thursday the fitness center is open from 7-10pm. On Friday 7-8pm, Saturday 9:30-4:30pm and Sunday 2-7pm. There is a fee of $6o to join per semester. So, if you wanted to be a member for two semesters, it would cost $120. After counting 54 machines, I looked through the different types of classes it offers. One that I would be interested in taking is the cycling class. I used to take this type of class and it would be nice to get back into it. The cycling class is on Monday-Wednesday from 5-545pm. The fitness center is the perfect way for students to stay healthy. It would definitely be worth the $60. 

Getting Past It

             Unlike most people, I haven’t really faced many difficult things in my life that I had to overcome. I haven’t had a tragic death in the family, gone through a parents’ divorce, or anything along those lines. But, I have had to face a major fear in my life. When I was younger, about 8 years old, I was scared to death of dogs. When I would go over a friend’s house, I would force them to put the dog outside or lock it in a room. If I was taking a walk around my neighborhood and saw a dog, I would start bawling and run the opposite direction, scared to death. I can’t even explain how afraid I was.

It got to the point where it became a big problem and inconvenience. To hopefully get myself over this fear of mine, my dad came home one day after school with a golden retriever puppy sitting in my driveway. At first I was scared of course, but I ended up petting it with caution. The first week with the dog was awful. I would sit at the kitchen table with my feet up because I thought he was going to bite my toes off. Surprisingly, the dog slowly started to have a huge impact on myself. I realized that I loved my dog, and day by day I got used to him. My twin sister had the same fear, and while I started to love him, she continued to hate him and made my dad give him away. I remember crying all night for him back, holding his heart name tag tightly. We ended up going back the next day and taking him back, and he was the most important thing to me ever since. My life was changed, and my fear was gone, just by being strong and getting past it.

                Now, how does this relate to the difficulties I will face in college? I have a fear that I will never figure out what I want to do with my life, or what major I will end up in. I know this is going to take a lot to work myself away from this fear, but it’ll take time. I just have to have an open mind, like the dog, and I will find myself in a better place.

The Steps to Success

In the articles that we have read so far and the discussions we have had in class, they all seem to lead back into the idea of succeeding in college. In the article “Work Hard or Work Smart”, it takes about not only working hard, but also working smart to succeed in life. Working smart is making a plan, as said in the article; where as working smart is actually working on the plan. When I think about working hard and working smart, I bring back our class discussion on time management into play. If you work smart, you space your time out right. You don’t rush at the last minute to get an assignment done. It’s not working smart if you save work for all of your classes to one night. You’re working too hard to get everything done, and it turns into being rushed and not giving you best effort. Which also brings back the time -> effort discussion.

Bringing this further, I think that if you work hard and smart, it will get you farther in where you want to be in life. You can’t get very far by just putting in a decent amount of time, effort and work. If you really want to succeed, you will go above and beyond the required work. This means having a plan with what to do, and getting it done in a smart amount of time. “Work harder than you thought possible. You have way more in you than you can imagine.” When I read this, I agreed that when you work harder than you’re used to or comfortable with, you will see much more potential that you thought. You will discover things you never knew about yourself just by pushing to work that extra step. The theme of success in many of the articles read and class discussions have the impression on me that they will stay for the rest of the semester, showing how you can lead up to your own personal success in many different ways.

4. Visit a CC

For this week’s Campus Safari assignment, I interviewed a Community Coordinator to find out all the steps, benefits, and responsibilities in becoming one.  

How to become one:

• Interview by a res. life staff member 
• You must be in good academic standings
• An application is due by February for the best consideration 

Responsibilities: 

• Messenger between the hall residents and hall director
• Hours scheduled to be in their rooms in case of and possible problems
• Monthly floor meetings and inspects every room twice a month for health and safety issues such as fire hazards, mold or wires. 

In being a CC you must be a sophomore or higher with 30+ credits and have lived on campus for two previous semesters. CC's get room and board covered by the university and it looks good on their resume. Here is a picture of Sheldon's door

Blogging Styles

Out of the countless amounts of blogs out there, not one is the same. Each one is unique in different ways. It lets the writer be themselves. Of course some might look the same, but the actually words will always have their own message. While searching around for other blogs, I noticed this exact thing. I saw a few black and white blogs, like my own. Just because they might look “plain” or “boring”, doesn’t mean that’s true. Personally, I like that style and look. It fits me. I didn’t like the blogs that use different fonts that never match. While looking at the other blogs, I found out that many people have the same feelings about college as I do. I don’t plan on including many pictures or videos. It doesn’t look as well as it should with them. I also didn’t like when a few words would be in a different color, it was kind of a distraction. But, blogs shouldn’t be judged based on looks in my opinion. Each blog is personal, and the real meaning is in the hands of the person who writes each word on that blog.

My goal of this blog is to be as real as possible. I plan to be myself. Blogging shouldn’t be about hiding who you really are. I will write my own thoughts and opinions and try to keep it interesting at the same time. I have another blog, so I’m used to this. Unlike this one, it’s more of a blog about music and concerts with occasional personal posts here and there. These two blogs have two totally different styles, but are still me. That’s what a blog is. And that is what I plan on having my blog this was, a look at my thoughts and opinions.  

A New Beginning

College. The definition of college is something different for everyone. To me, it is about finding myself. I’m only 18 years old, how is it even close to possible for me to know what I want to do for the rest of my life? I remember the first day of orientation, when we had to separate by majors. While looking around at all of the different groups, it blew my mind that all those people had a plan, unlike me. They knew what they wanted. As I made my way to the “undeclared major” group, it made me realize something. There were others just like me. It made me realize that it’s okay to not have a clue in the world. That’s what college is for. Of course I’m worried that I’ll never figure it out. What if I never end up finding my place in the world? What if I never find a major that fits me? I need to put those questions aside and have an open mind. This is the reason why I chose southern. Southern offers so many varieties of classes. It makes it easy to pick and choose what stands out.

As for my first impressions on my classes, as expected, they weren’t too great unfortunately. Honestly, I’m not a fan of the idea of school at all. I find it so hard to sit and learn when I really don’t have any motivation at the end of it. But, of course I still fight to do well. I know I need an education and I know I’ll find my place someday. I know I’m going to hate Spanish class, along with history. The thought of those two classes stresses me out just sitting here. My goal is to have an open mind about learning and my classes. It’s only been two days; I can’t shut off from it yet. My time at Southern is going to hopefully lead me to my path in life, and it’s safe to say I’m ready to find out what that path is.