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.