One Semester Down, Several More To Go

Who would’ve thought that I’d learn so much in college? More than just what I learned in the classroom? As a college student, I think I’ve learned quite a bit about myself. In the beginning, I had somewhat high expectations for myself to start out on a high point and for me to go out and experience some of the many new things being in college has to offer. In some ways, that did happen, but not to the extent or the expectation that I had set. Some of the goals I set, were a bit on the unrealistic side.   As far as my place in the learning process, I feel I’m on the border between Creativity and Autonomy. I refrained from seeking out help as much as I could, so I could gain a bit of independence.

There have been many challenges that I’ve been faced with this semester alone, such as having a class that is entirely essay oriented, getting used to doing more work outside of class than in class and the amount of work, dealing with myself and the transition to college, and of course dealing with horrendous procrastination. I think I’ve overcome a couple of my biggest challenges this semester, but I could still do with working on improving some of them. When it came to a class that was basically essays, I was scared to say the least. Essays aren’t my strong point. Apparently, I proved myself wrong with the essays I’ve written for this class. These essays have been better than the ones I would write in high school, and I really don’t know how that happened. The workload outside of the classroom, while I consider that a challenge that I had to overcome, I fell into it pretty easily. Considering I didn’t have much homework at all throughout high school, it felt somewhat normal for me to have homework every night. It gave me something to do. But as the semester got winding down, I found it harder to concentrate. As for me, it’s been a rockier road than I expected, and I made it to the end alive with just a tiny bit of motivation. Procrastination is still a huge problem for me, and it’s something that will take a while to correct.

So far, my biggest achievement has been making it through my first semester of college alive. When I first started, I was confident that I would do well in all of my classes and not get swamped with demands and the work. I am not that same confident person now, although I was able to stay on top of my classes and work, it took a toll on me as a person.  My ability to easily procrastinate didn’t help me, but I still procrastinated and it shows. I think knowing that I survived, is enough motivation to keep me going. There weren’t many habits that I had adopted this semester to help me achieve these goals, doing well in school and the habits I developed there are what helped me through this semester.  I do think that I got better at completing homework assignments and projects though.  I relied quite a bit on myself and other classmates instead of using available resources to me.  Personally, I found help using counseling services.  This kept me going, and staying on track. For next semester, I could make use of the writing and tutorial centers. I’m sure if I used them this semester, my papers would’ve been a lot better.

Coming to college, time management was not my friend. I wasn’t very good at it. As the semester went on, I found myself getting better and better at it. I had adopted the use of post-it note to-do lists, and they seemed to help me out a bit. Being able to see everything you had to get done, made them a little easier to do. Most of my time went into getting little tasks done, and being sidetracked quite easily. When it came time for essays and projects, I was able to get them done easier when I planned out what to write and just focus solely on that one task.

My grades overall were really good.  I found that I got the grades I deserve, and it’s easy to tell which classes I put the most effort into and where I slacked off. Mostly B’s, a couple A’s, generally the grades I expected. I don’t feel that I’ve learned much. Whatever material we covered, was usually gone after a test or a quiz. If I’m not interested in a subject, or somewhat good with it, more than likely I won’t retain much information. A semester is not long enough to fulfill everything that was expected as seen by the syllabuses I was given. If anything, there was a lot of rushed material, skipped sections, and unfinished sections as well. This was especially true in my Intro to Psychology class; there was too much material to cover in too little time.

Personal goals are things that I decided to put on the backburner for the first semester this way I could get used to my schedule and the workload that came along with it. I wrapped myself up in it so much that I didn’t make time for myself to achieve any personal goals. I don’t believe that I’m anywhere near where I wanted to be personally, whereas academically, I am. That has become one of my items on my list of things to accomplish next semester. I’ll be taking classes that interest me, and I can begin working on some of the personal goals that I have or yet to have set.

From this point right now, I’m working towards one goal; doing really well, earning all of my credits, and then it’s off to England for me. Knowing that I’m but one or two semesters away from reaching my ultimate dream is a bit overwhelming and very much exciting. In order for me to get to that point, I have to keep doing well and making sure that I get everything done. I’m confident in myself that I will be able to do these things. In upcoming semesters, I can improve on little things like participation and seeking out help with homework and essays.  Next semester, I want to work on being more outgoing and explore what the Southern campus has to offer. Instead of focusing only on academics, I want to get out there more and get involved. There are already a few clubs that I have in mind that I want to be a part of such as Active Minds and Colleges Against Cancer, I’m hoping that I will be able to be involved in both of these and make for a good second semester.

Some habits are hard to break

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In this video I talk about how hard of a habit procrastination is to break and a couple ways to get out of the rut of it.  The topic of procrastination felt like a good topic for me because of its relevance as a problem for first-year college students. It's a big problem that I face as well. I don't think there are many on campus resources that can help with this.

The true definition of Creativity?

After reading Twyla Tharp, I feel like I have a sense of what creativity really is. She talked a lot about different ways of approaching projects, but it also went much deeper than that. I was able to take her words and apply them to ways of thinking and problem solving. From her perspective, we can gain ways of exploring our own minds and being more independent by using our own thoughts to come up with new ideas and propelling ourselves forward in life.  In class it was mentioned that Autonomy is the ability to create goals and standards that you set for yourself to live by, this ties into creativity because you have to know yourself, your likes, your dislikes, your limitations, etc. to be able to figure out what you want to achieve in life. Creativity can be defined in many different ways, but it’s mainly being able to think on your own and come up with your own ideas and thoughts. It’s important because without it, we can’t really achieve autonomy or advance in society. Any form of technology we have today was once a thought or an idea in someone’s mind. They created their idea when they put it on paper or began to make it. Being creative is what differentiates us from other people and makes us unique. Not everyone has the same creative style, and everyone’s mind is different.  Creativity can be incorporated in our lives in many different ways, especially when it comes to school. Trying out new methods of studying, putting a personal spin on an assignment, and taking risks, are all creative.  Even after reading Twyla Tharp, I still don’t think creativity can be taught. As I said before, creativity is something that comes from you, in your mind. There isn’t any way to teach someone how to think creatively because then they will just go out and repeat your style of creativity. That becomes more completion and imitation rather than true creativity. We should attempt this individually because it will really show how different and unique we are from other people. If we showed off our creativity, it’s possible that people would be a bit happier, because they’re showing off themselves. Attempting creativity socially could be a good thing because people’s ideas could be heard and put into action. Expressing our creativity could get ideas bouncing to come up with better or completely new ideas as well in the process. 

There's more learning being done than you think.

Maybe it was a bit late in the semester to get to this activity, but I feel it was well worth it. Spending an entire class getting to know the library, I learned quite a bit. Although I’ve been there several times in the past, mostly to use the computer lab, and even check a book out, I learned more about where certain things are located and how to find books on the shelves.  Navigating the library’s website was very useful as well. It helped me figure out that there is a librarian available for every major and how to find articles, books, and other resources that I may need.  This applies to all first year students in the way that at some point, you will have to use the library on campus. Whether it is for research, a place to study, or your professor wants you to check out a certain book, it’s helpful to know your way around and where to go to access specific information. The topic we covered is autonomy. For this, we had to find a book off the shelf, an online article, and a definition from the dictionary. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, autonomy refers to “the liberty to follow one’s will; control over one’s own affairs; freedom from external influences, and personal independence”.  From the book “The Adolescent Brain: Reaching for Autonomy”, autonomy is depicted as “No two children in a family or classroom are identical... Uniqueness within similarities is a central property of biology” (127). I had chosen this book because it deals with adolescences who are trying to figure out who they are, which is similar to majority of first year college students. There is a lot of learning done during your first year of college, and it’s not just through textbooks or in the classroom. 

Campus Safari #10: Mixed Feelings

I’ve never really put much thought into the food that they serve here at the dining hall. But attending one of the presentations the other night gave me a bit of insight into that. I had attended one of the Sustainable Southern presentations that was put on by Residence Life, and this was about the quality of food here and how the industries contribute to the price of food. We had watched clips from a movie, Food Inc., which showed us about the Smithfield factory. It showed me what it was like working there, and how terrible benefits are. I learned that they don’t offer worker’s compensation, and you have to call into work if you aren’t going to be there, despite whatever is going on with you, otherwise they instantly terminate you. Another clip we watched focused on the chemicals from factories being dumped into the ocean, and what it does to our food and how we can avoid this in the future. In the past, I’ve seen many movies like this one, and I realize that it is hard to eat organic, because of the price. They mentioned in the film that if places like Wal-Mart and other grocers carried organic products at a cheaper price, more people would be able to buy them and then it would become the new normal.

The beauty of words

I decided to take on exercise 14, which was to challenge yourself by giving yourself a handicap. When writing, there are many ways to give yourself handicaps, like trying not to use certain words. I challenged myself to write a story without using the words attempt, love, wish, and for.

The air outside began to get that cold bite to it. Winter always brought Sophie great joy. She would spend the holidays with her brother, sister, and her relatives. Christmas was always a joyful time of year, only this year was different. Her grandfather had passed away just a few weeks earlier, right before the Christmas season begun. This had put a great amount of weight on the family’s shoulders. It was like this mist that hung in the air that you couldn’t get rid of. Everyone did their best to put on cheerful faces this season, but it was difficult. Sophie was doing everything she could to keep everyone’s spirits high. She was the one who went out, did all of the Christmas shopping, the cooking, cleaning, everything. This kept her from focusing on the sadness that everyone was feeling because of her grandfather. Her mother had noticed her behavior, how she had taken charge of everything and found it very heartwarming that she would take the initiative to take care of the family since she could not. Sophie’s mother was too wrapped up in grieving over the death of her father. The holidays became less and less important to her. Everyone in her family felt the same way, this season took a toll on everyone and sadness had replaced the happiness and solace that was the Christmas season. Sophie had done a very decent job of taking over. Her brother had helped with the cooking and cleaning while her sister helped with the baking and decorating of the house, getting it ready for celebrating the holiday with the family. Decorating the Christmas tree remained a family activity that they all had participated in. Christmas was only a few days away at this point, things became a bit more hurried and the house looked much more festive. All of the holiday shopping was done, Christmas presents were wrapped and placed under the tree as well. When the fateful day had come, Sophie’s family had woken up to Christmas presents under the tree and spent the morning opening gifts and exchanging words of thanks and warmth. Relatives from all over had come to join in on the Christmas Feast that Sophie had prepared with a bit of help from her siblings. They had all gathered around the table and joined in on the cheerful conversation, refraining from mentioning the passing of a beloved family member. It made Sophie feel better that her hard work had gone to good use and everyone was very satisfied. The somber mood that Sophie was in had lifted, she had joined in on the fun full heartedly instead of pretending like she was before. At the end of the day, Sophie felt much happier again.

this is my general feeling towards my story.

Overall, this challenge wasn’t incredibly difficult, but I liked the idea of having a handicap. It made me try to word my sentences differently instead of using the same words over and over again. This story is definitely not one of my best, but on a short notice, this is what my mind came up with and I ran with it. I’m not too happy with it, but it’s not terrible either.

Odd Fears That Seem Like Excuses

Yeah, failure at its finest.

There could be several things said for why I myself don’t finish projects that I start. I start out with a clear idea of what I want it to be, what I want it to look like, etc. Projects for me become hardships and chores in the end. Here’s why:

      1.       I’m scared of the outcome.

                When I start projects, I have a plan of how it should turn out in my head. Once I start out working on it, I find little things I can do to change it, and my original idea ends up becoming something that I didn’t expect, and the more changes I make, the less satisfied I’ll be with whatever I’ve created. It won’t look anything like I had planned out. The second I realize that my project isn’t working the way I wanted it to, I will stop and never go back to it. This is a good reason for why I’ve currently got so many unfinished projects.

2.       It’s easy to get lost

This one applies more to writing. You know when you write dialogue or action for a character, and you come up with something really good that you want to focus on? It can either add to your story or completely take you off path with how you wanted your story to flow.  This tends to happen to me very often, and it has. I mentioned I was doing NaNoWriMo this month, and I’ve quit. Not only do I not have time to write, it’s hard to come up with what to write about next and get stuck in writer’s block for quite some time, and because of what I ended up writing, and changing, my entire story lost its original focus point.

3.       I don’t have time

Projects take time to complete, which is why they’re called projects. This one is more of an excuse than anything, but it does hinder me from starting things. I had plans to make a quote poster to hang above my bed here at school. I bought the materials last month, and I’m only working on it now. This project encompasses all of my fears that I’ve listed here, only this one I will see all the way through despite these fears (I’m hoping).