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.