Finally the Semester is Over..

As a college student I have learned that I am very independent. I’ve always depended on my mother for things and when I came to college I had to do everything on my own. I’ve never really enjoyed asking others for a helping hand anyways and I wasn’t going to start just because I had to do things by myself. I am in the middle of my learning process and I will continue to keep learning. My biggest challenges so far have been time management and secondly my priorities. They both go hand in hand with one another. I could never find the right time to finish my assignments because I chose going out to be my main concern. I was introduced to a lot of new activities such as night life and I went along with the hype of it all. Once I realized that my main focus wasn’t school is when I buckled down and put my focus back on schoolwork. I was kind of disappointed in myself knowing that I let my friends alter my decisions. Whenever they wanted to go to the club I would tell myself I had more important things to do but I wanted to have fun more. I’m glad I realized this early in the game and although I don’t enjoy night life anymore it was fun while it lasted but I had to put myself first.

I suppose my biggest achievement was growing up. I needed to grow up a long time ago and college actually made me do so. I wouldn’t say that I was immature but I could definitely say that I was very simple minded. I am grateful for this experience because without it I don’t know if I would have noticed the things I know now about myself. Another big achievement is making it to the second semester although it isn’t over yet it’s pretty damn close. I didn’t actually have any processes to make certain that I earned success in these areas. My only resource was myself. I could also say my mom was an excellent motivator from afar. She put a lot of pressure on me which was good because it was more of a reason not to disappoint her. I’m going to be better next semester because I feel that growth is necessary.

Time management was literally my enemy although my workload wasn’t a lot I became very lazy. At first I was all excited about my classes then once I got used to them I began to getting bored of school work and more excited about the club scene. For the beginning of the semester, my energy was on partying and having fun and towards the middle and the end I became more focused on school than anything. I knew that if I kept focusing on less important things my college career would have steered downhill.

My grades have been fairly decent. I’ve gotten some really good grades I am proud of that reflect on my time and effort and then there has been some grades that I am not so proud of. In my inquiry class I’m pretty much learning about how to survive as a freshman and learning tips. Anthropology class was the most interesting to me mainly because it was the study of human life and that was new to me. English class wasn’t like regular English classes I’ve taken before. We discussed more about the world and things that impact our society which was better than learning about how to write although we touched basis on that too. Math was typical, numbers, letters, and equations. To maximize my learning I am going to review and practice what I’ve learned in class that day outside of the class. At this point in my college career I am where I want to be. Happy and successful, although some of my goals weren’t met, I know that I’ve tried my hardest. 

To improve in my upcoming semesters I am going to stay on task as much as possible by eliminating outside factors that are distracting. My goals are to manage my time much better, to pass my classes, making the Dean’s list, and go on to my sophomore year. I plan on meeting these goes by being on top of everything I have to do and stay focused and not let little things affect my priorities. Next semester I plan on getting all of my assignments done rather than putting them off until last minute. Studying will be more on my agenda than anything because I didn’t really study as much as I should have instead I would think I knew material and then once I took a test I would soon find out I was wrong. Partying will not be my main goal for next semester and semesters ahead because it isn’t worth doing poorly in school. I have high hopes that next semester will be a great one.

Growth

I had goals before I came to college to do as best as I can and have my work be reflected on that. Some of the goals were mainly academic some social as well. I wanted to open myself up to new people because it’s important to make friends rather than be a “Debbi-downer” and I also wanted to check out the club scene…which got real old real fast. Anyways I really wanted to make the Dean’s list, but unfortunately that isn’t going to happen and I’m not mad because I know I could’ve put in 100 percent and I surely did not. Not making the Dean’s list is probably one of my biggest failures because I was hoping it to be a great success. Sometimes you win some you lose some. I can say I’ve successfully put in as much effort as I was willing to and the days when I felt like doing nothing I got up and did it. I will take a lot away from these experiences. In future semesters I will really and I mean REALLY try my best instead of half ass-ing something just because I don’t feel it’s necessary. Sometimes you have to put your pride aside and handle what you have to do. I’m hoping for a great college experience for the rest of my years.

Final

I’m not quite sure what I want to do for my final project and that’s scaring me! My mind switches between a video and blog post because I want it to be interesting and for people to get a feel from where I am coming from. I am going to follow the “guidelines” from the blog post about the final assignment. I think I want to have a section with interviewing my friends and how they’ve changed to see if freshmen all go through the same type of things. I also want to incorporate like a before and after kind of segment. I don’t want to get too personal but I kind of do at the same time because I have a lot of opinions on college.  Before I came in I thought it was all just a big party with harder work but there is much more to it. I have not worked up some questions or any ideas yet they are all in my head but I soon have to put them on paper. I’m excited because I really think this could be interesting but I do not want to get my hopes up for a great video. Reason why I do not want to do a blog post is because it has to be 600 words and I hate a word count limit because I feel pressured to complete that requirement; just like this blog post. Well anyways I also want to add in the video some reasons why I don’t believe I should have come to college. I’m in the middle with this whole thing.

Campus Safari: Jitta On The Track

Jitta On The Track a rapper from CT, my hometown came to Southern to perform. I never listened to him before because I just wasn’t into it. All my friends listened to him through and were like obsessed, which was annoying because I felt like they were hopping on the bandwagon. Anyways I went to see him perform because I was told that if I actually hear him I would enjoy his music. Well I enjoyed the beats but I just wasn’t feeling him still. I didn’t fancy him mainly because his ego is too high and he seemed way too cocky for my likings. Bandwagon style is not my type so therefore I still don’t like his music but he is doing good with his career he has opened up for other rappers like Waka Flak and Drake. Good for him!

Underage Drinking

My video is similar to my regular ones. I always have the same setup but that’s because it works for me. I think that it was not as good as my last one because I was rushing to get it done last minute. If I would have done something different I would have started it earlier rather than thinking I had all the time in the world. My videos theme was Underage Drinking and the topics were related to that.

twyla

I didn’t take a liking to The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp that probably a few people have, although there was some things I did “enjoy” reading. The book to me seemed like she was trying to get people to dig into their past too much and solve out more things to better their lives. Yes, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing but there were these exercises that didn’t seem so relevant and relatable. I guess maybe it’s me and I’m not interested in text like that so I probably wasn’t willing to open up to the lessons being taught. Besides all of the exercises I did think that the points she made were meaningful. For example, when she was discussing fear and distractions, both go hand in hand. You try to get over your fears but what is distracting you is that fear itself. There was some relevance to that. Also another point I agreed with was about balancing your life with you, by putting you first. You can get very far in life if you put yourself first rather than people you’re more focused on what you need to get done. If I had the chance to read the book again, I wouldn’t. 

Personal Autonomy..late :-\

Last inquiry class we met in the library to not only research autonomy but also to find out more about Buley Library. I’ve learned how to check out and find books, use the libraries website, and make the library more useful for me. It wasn’t hard to find a book once I found out its general location. Autonomy means having the right or power of self-government. So basically you can do what you please but I think to a certain extent. We were told to find a book and article relative to our subject. The book I chose was Personal Autonomy in Society by Marina Oshana. Now obviously I didn’t read the whole book to its entirety but I did come up with a conclusion to what Marina is trying to get at. She develops autonomy and how it affects a person’s relationships with others and also the absence of certain relationships socially. She argues against many things such as content, procedural and psychological accounts in regards to autonomy. Marina doesn’t believe that command over someone’s motives and their freedom to realize their will are good enough to secure the command over their life that autonomy requires. I believe Marina was the right person to publish this book because she is an Associate Professor of Philosophy. The article I found during the session with the librarian, “Autonomy and Submissive Behavior among Students at the College of Nursing” written by Leman Senturan was really helpful. Reason being is that it was research studied on nursing students currently in college and I found relevance to it because I am studying to be a nurse. The research was conducted to define and analyze the levels and relationship between autonomy and submissive behavior among nursing students. The result was that nursing students are expected to have high levels of autonomy and a low level of submissive behavior. Since I’m not already enrolled in the nursing program I can’t fully relate but I think it is good to be autonomous but better to have a submissive attitude because you’re more obedient rather than having an attitude about getting the job done.

Campus Safari

I didn't do anything really on campus this week. I was too busy catching up on my work and stuff to really do much and plus I went home. Even though I'm late with it yeah I didn't do anything special.

Twyla Tharp Exercise: You Can Observe a Lot by Watching

Although I felt like a creep doing this exercise it was alright because I wasn’t being spotted while in my zone of creepiness. Exercise 5 on page five was You Can Observe a Lot by Watching. The exercise was for me to go to a street scene and pick a man and a woman together and write down twenty things I’ve observed. I didn’t know I was going to have to casually follow them as they walked down Wintergreen which was so weird. Lol. I’m going to go in order with what I have seen.

11.   Woman looks at her reflection in her phone, possibly checking out how she looks

22.    Woman puts her phone in her back pocket

33.   Man reaches into his front pocket and takes out his chap stick then applies it to his lips then puts it back into his pocket

44.   Woman looks up at him and they both smile at each other

55.   Man nudges woman

66.  Man grabs the woman’s hands

At this point they are just walking I don’t see much for about three minutes

77.  They unlock hands

88.   They both cross the street

99.  Woman takes her phone out and then checks herself out…again

110. Man puts his hands into his front pocket

I’m pretty sure the woman asks him for Chap Stick

111.   Man takes out his chap stick and hands it over the woman

112.   Woman give back the chap stick

113.   They continue to hold hands

114.   Man reaches into his back pocket and answers his phone

115.   The two kiss each other and probably say their goodbyes

116.   They depart

I kept watching for a little

117.   The girl looks back at him

He doesn’t look back and that was the end. I suppose they were more than friends because they were holding hands and they kissed when they said goodbye. The second “couple” I noticed were different. I didn’t see them on a street scene but I followed them close by out of Engelmann

11.       Woman greets man with a hug

22.     Man takes out cigarette

33.      Woman offers lighter

44.      They both sit down in front of the Student Center

55.     Passing the cig back and forth every three drags

66.   Woman puts cigarette out

77.    They both get up

They’re both walking towards the dorms

88.      They are walking fairly close towards one another but no sign of hand holding/touching

99.    Having conversation the man looks down at the woman

110.   The woman looks up and they both smile

111.   Laughter

112.   The boy puts his right hand in his right pocket

113.   They depart

This couple wasn’t interesting at all and I think they were just friends. In comparison to both couples I think the first was like I said more than friends and were interacting with one another more too. On the other hand, the second couple was friendly but probably knew each other for a while.

Fears

Just like Twyla Tharp I have fears as well and my top five are:

1.       Being in the dark by myself

2.       Never finding a true love

3.       Becoming blind

4.       Losing my brother or mom

5.       Zombie apocalypse

I know they seem rather extreme…but I don’t fear just regular old things. Nothing simple puts fear in my heart besides the whole being in the dark thing but it’s more like being in the dark in an unfamiliar strange place where I don’t know my way. I came a little bit out of the darkness fear this weekend because I went to a supposed to be haunted placed called Under Cliff with a group of like five friends including myself. I was scared mainly because it was already dark outside. So anyways it wasn’t even haunted but I remembered the assignment on the blog so I told my friends to leave me with a flash light just in case I couldn’t find my way and they walked away. I was left in the dark all by my lonesome and for the first like five minutes I wanted to run but I realized I’m only running still in the darkness. I couldn’t hear their voices just their footsteps. Then they footsteps became silent and I thought I was hearing things. I was so scared for someone to just come out and grab me! After about fifteen minutes went by I stood up and turned on the flash light and my friends were close. They never left in fear that I would be too scared. I’m not too sure if I’m completely over my fear but at that moment I wasn’t so afraid like I would normally be. Maybe I will know for sure if I’m stuck in that position of being left in the dark but not by choice. I never had a bad experience in the dark but I always sketched myself out as a child thinking I would hear noises or felt an odd vibe and that kept me from wanting to get over my fear.  I learned that I should probably stop overreacting and just get over it. 

campus safari

The Forum Theater Troup from the CAMFAMI came to SCSU and I thought it was good. Even though it was spoken in Spanish there was English subtitles that helped me understand. What I liked about it was that the women aren’t professional actors but they did a great job at showing what a struggle it is for woman in Mexico. Even though I am not from Mexico I do believe that it was an eye opener for me to see that women were still struggling for justice and equality. I wish there was something I could do for the families in Mexico. It was cool I attended this to see how the views of other lives.

Twyla Tharp

When I first got to reading Twyla Tharp’s, The Creative Habit I actually took a liking to it. The first chapter was an introduction to what the book is going to be about and what aspects that people give to what makes creativity. “Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits.” That is a quote from the first chapter and the habits are pretty much rituals. The rituals in this sense aren’t all religious and what not but is taken from a religious thought in some way. For example, Twyla wakes up every morning at 5:30 and goes to the gym. As she keeps doing that the ritual isn’t waking up but getting into the cab and telling the driver where to go. Rituals are good practice because by the time you have completed the first step, you aren’t then going to question why you’re doing what you’re doing because you are already doing it. That is probably a confusing way to word what I’m trying to say but it all makes sense in comparison with the book. As I kept reading I didn’t really vibe with the second chapter. I felt like when she was giving examples of people she knew and their routines such as a composer, chef, painter and writer friend I couldn’t relate to them so I wasn’t getting too much out of it. Although, what I did take from their routines, as a whole, was that in order to really stay on task with what you’re into, you have to find something that gives you motivation to do so. I didn’t give up reading though because she then turned to make some valid points about subtracting things that are distracting you from getting to your own creativity. Hopefully, further into the book the chapters will be more relatable to me, if not, and then I should at least get something out of reading.

Southern is a Good Place to go to School

For my video project I decided to talk about downtown night life as well as what you can do there in the daytime such as shop. I also discussed the benefits for living on campus and why I enjoy it. Lastly, I discussed why I believe more people should attend Southern Connecticut State University. The main differences in this video to my first one is that I am the only person talking in the video, there are no other interviewees which is kind of not what I wanted but due to the weather I had to settle for less. In comparison to the first video I worked on, I still had transition animations and music because I just think it adds a little bit of spice. I have a lot more pictures in this video than I did the last and now that I think about it I don’t think I even added pictures to my last video. Well, anyway, I think I progressed with the timing because I was told my video was too fast. My weakness was making the video this time was making it five minutes. Last video I was easily over now I’m about 20-30 seconds other. I am happy enough with my results even though I wanted more input from other people, what I ended up with was a little masterpiece. :-D

Campus Safari: Pumpkin Painting

This past Thursday, there was pumpkin painting on campus. I was the only one of my friends who signed up I guess because they thought it was lame but I love Halloween. I met a lot of new people and painted not one but three mini pumpkins. At first, I wasn’t so sure if we were allowed to take the pumpkin we painted back to the dorm with us so I did more than one so I would possibly have that opportunity. When I went there I saw my friend Pam, which was shocking and we both painted our pumpkins like kittens. When I was painting I started to miss home though because I always carve pumpkins and get into the Halloween spirit but now that I’m at school it just doesn’t feel the same. I’m also hoping that there isn’t a snow storm this Halloween AGAIN I will be so disappointed even if I won’t be trick-or-treating all the little kids should at least be doing it. J

Midterm Grades

When I logged onto Banner Web to access my student record midterm grades I was surprised to see what I got. I thought it would be the complete opposite between two classes which are geography and inquiry. The grades throughout the semester that I received in inquiry were fairly decent but in geography they were quite low. Come to find out I got a B- in geo and a C inq. I wish that I could actually see the number grade because I don’t know how to determine my GPA from a letter. I thought that was stupid until I found out that when the semesters over my GPA will be posted. I have a B- in math and a B in anthropology. I’m okay with that. I really wish that I did better than B-‘s because I was shooting for a B+. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. Overall I am satisfied with my performance but there is still room for improvement. As for the C in inquiry, I am not disappointed because I don’t participate like I should in class discussions and I forget to blog sometimes so what I got is what I deserve; like right now for example this is late. For the remainder of the semester I really need to buckle down. I keep telling myself that so I need to actually stick to my promises. I know that for the rest of my college experience it’s not going to get easier but harder and if I don’t accept that right now then I won’t have the mindset to want to continue later. These grades were an eye opener so I look forward to the rest of the year.

Natures Beauty

This picture was done by Nina Martinez; she is a freshman and also my roommate. If I were to give it a title it would be Natures Beauty. That’s kind of corny but whatever. She had to either make a picture or take one for her wellness class. What I like most about the picture is its simplicity and how it seems peaceful. I also like how the leaves on the tree are a relief to the picture. Lastly, I enjoy that its nature colors and that the bark of the tree is made from yarn as well as the detail in the sky and grass. What could have been improved is the sun because it looks so dull and not expressing the bright sky like it was supposed to. Or maybe there could have been lighting and shading done differently to the sky to make it appear like the sun was actually shining. I asked her what her picture meant and she just said she likes art. The background represents her love for the clear sky because she was born in the U.S Virgin Islands and the skies are always blue. The picture I don’t believe was put anywhere in a classroom on campus but it is in our room which is technically on campus. Anyways, instead of making a tree Nina actually wanted to make a palm tree but she thought that was too difficult which is why the bark looks like it was supposed to be one from a palm. I still like the picture anyways. I wish every day I could wake up and have the ability to even make something that looks nice but I am just not skilled in that. I can do sculptures and pottery but drawing and painting just isn’t my thing although I really want it to be. Art is beautiful. 

Tour

I haven’t done anything on campus that’s worth talking about in this safari. So I guess I will talk about what I am going to be doing tomorrow. There is a tour and I volunteered to be a tour guide which I am really excited for. I remember when I came for my tour the guides in my group were really enthusiastic and nice. They made me want to come to Southern more than I already wanted to before. I hope I can do as well as they want us to and I am excited to meet new people. If only the tour was today I would have something more interesting to talk about. Now I have to study the paper they gave us so I can actually have some relevant information to give as well as answer questions.

Stress

On campus I don’t know anything that that is really fun besides the quad in the front of my dorm. There is a volleyball court in front of my hall. I have been stressed lately only because in the beginning of the semester I was more on top of my school and now I am not so on top of things. Well anyways I went to play volleyball and to come to find out it really is a stress reliever. Going back and forth and serving the ball is so enticing, I enjoy it a lot. Another thing I find stress relieving is stress balls. In my hall we have this group thing that’s made for people with stress and anyone can come and there is yoga too which is very relaxing. In my opinion, I stay active by going to the weight room or taking runs around campus because it keeps my mind off of all the things that keep me stressed. School is very stressful itself and on top of all that there are relationships with other people and professors that you have to maintain. I don’t know but college is on another level of stress and I realized that once I got here. One friend told me to relieve stress be masturbating, I thought that was rather weird so I was decided not to. Another way I try to lower my stress level is by eating. That is my main problem, I eat my problems away and then I become more stressed because I gained weight. There are so many things that I try to relieve my stress but none of it is ever good enough. The best thing for me to do is put myself is to go into a solo area where I can just think about all the things that are bugging me.

Setting Goals

I am so impatient when it comes to getting my grades because in high school I was able to go online whenever I wanted to and see how I was doing in my classes. Although we’re still in the first semester I was really dedicated to my work and trying hard but as the time went by I was getting less motivated. Well actually I wouldn’t say I slacked off but I don’t think mind is in the right place. For example in geography class I got a really low score on a reading quiz and I would get it if I didn’t read but I actually read page my page. It was so aggravating!! Ugh. I did meet my goal requirements but I just feel like my head isn’t in the right place. I’ve had successes with my other classes besides that damn geography class. My setbacks have really been myself. For the second half of the semester I plan on going to the library much more often to get away from all the busyness and make sure I am more focused on what I need to do. Another goal I have is to dedicate more time on my school work rather than going out. I will continue to stay on task by just making sure I actually do all the stuff in my classes and finish them before I decide to do anything irrelevant.

Campus Safari: First Day of Work

On Saturday I had my first day of work which was door knocking for the election on November 6^th for Linda McMahon. I was a little bit nervous but not really because I knew a friend there who was going to be in my group, granted we got to choose. There were people there who already did this so they were going to be the leaders of us new comers. My group was all guys except for me, total sausage fest. Well anyways I had my eye on three out of the three who were there. They were out of my league but they seemed quite interested. OK ha-ha I will talk more about the job. So while I was there it was three of us students working and we each got two packets with a map and then addresses of the houses we were supposed to be going to. None of us encountered rude people which I was happy about but it was just tedious work that I actually didn't mind too much. We’re supposed to be going back out sometime this week which I’m looking forward to. I enjoyed my first day because it was fun and it wasn't cold and I think I will like working much more in the future.

Failure = Success (eventually)

Failure isn't necessarily a bad thing in actuality I think it is positive because if you don’t fail that means you never tried. In the book Mindset people with a growth or fixed mindset handle failure differently. For example, having a growth mindset you’re more open to take responsibility and learn from failure and have room for self-improvement. On the other hand people with a fixed mindset are the ones to believe that they don’t need new knowledge and the genes they have inside caused by nature is what they want to remain with. In the reading The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination Harry Potters author, J.K Rowling discusses failure in like I said before, a positive way. In her opinion failure is a stripping away of the inessential. In other words the things you don’t need might be taken away from you but that only leads to the thriving to want get them back. There was one thing I agreed with in the reading, What if the Secret to Success is Failure? “The idea of building grit & building self-control is that you get that through failure” says Randolph. To understand that I guess you would first have to know the meaning of grit which is to go or look through carefully in order to find something missing or lost. In this case the missing piece is success and you’re looking through failure. When I fail at something I tried so hard to achieve I used to get really upset and not want to continue to try. It’s easy to give up but much more difficult to have the ability to get up and do it all over again. In life things are not just given to you and if you ever really want something you’re going to have to be willing to do anything to get that.

Nursing Program

Okay so I forgot about this Campus Safari thing yet again. Too busy focusing on the wrong stuff. Hm so I guess I will talk about today when I went to the mandatory meeting today for nursing major freshman and it opened my eyes up to a lot of things. One being that I thought to apply for the program the people who look at all your grades looks at everything but it's just the numbers of the pre-rec classes you need in order to go into the program. This weekend at home my mother and I went over classes to register for the spring and this meeting helped me narrow down and select my options.  I just hate that being a freshman we register for classes last I think it should be opposite because we haven’t exactly experienced it like students have older than us.

Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone

Recently I've sort of stepped outside my comfort zone but only because I didn't want to feel left out. It wasn't anything serious but it was done off campus. When I went home this weekend I hung out with some old friends and some people I didn't know. I like to meet new people yeah, but lately I've been feeling kind of down and not wanting to that. So anyways when I went home I saw my friend from high school and he said he was going to be meeting up with some other friends of ours so I like invited myself to hang with them. Within that time they were not pressuring me but pretty much pressuring me to meet their home town friends that I've never met before. I was hesitant but I did and he told me that every Friday they all go to the Burlington Turnpike and car race. I think that type of stuff is fun but only on the Fast and Furious not in real life. I went anyway. I had more fun than I expected!! It was awesome even though my friends weren't the ones driving it was their friend whose name I forgot but his car had a really good system and sub and HYDRAULICS  Wow it was so cool ha-ha. So anyways I was really happy to have stepped out of this awkward stage I’m going through and met a handful of new friends so when I come back home I have more people I could hang out with and also a car race so exhilarating I want to participate in that again. I hope now that I’m back at school I won’t be so kept to myself and I can start putting myself out there again like I once did before.

How to Stay on Task and Deal with College on Your Own.

I posted this wrong I put it on google and not blogger. Oops

I started the video late but I was still able to complete the assignment. I think that it was fun to actually put it all together because I can personalize it and make it my own. I had my voice in the background asking the questions but I didn't like it much so I incorporated the questions into the video following my interviewees’ responses. All in all, in my opinion I think my video turned out quite well. BESIDES THE FACT THAT IT IS TAKING ME NUMEROUS AMOUNTS OF TIME TO UPLOAD THE STUPID THING. I hate this.

Mindset

I have yet to buy the Mindset book which I will be doing tomorrow but from what I’ve listened to in class it is about the types of mindset people may have and what they are. I think they may be arguing the reasoning if the people who are put into a certain category should be in there and what characteristics do they have that lead them into that category. In class we discussed fixed and growth mindset. A fixed mindset is belief that you have a fixed amount of ability and intelligence and cannot change that. For example not wanting to seek new knowledge and all you know is what you need to know or capable of knowing. On the other hand a growth mindset is belief that the basic qualities are things you can cultivate through effort. For instance, the willing to learn, take on new challenges, and capacity for growth and also taking responsibility to learn from failure in order to self-improve. Not too long ago we read 10,000 hours to success and in my opinion this is a type of growth mindset. Basically 10,000 hours requires you to put in time and effort in order to achieve your goal and be successful in whatever that may be. That is a perfect reason why it is growth because your skills are getting better and better as time goes by.

Campus Safari

On Thursday, September 27 there was an event for the This I Believe called Performing Art as Salute to Excellence. At this event there were current and graduate students who performed beautifully. One girl told a story in song about dreams and making them come true. Another girl did poetry about overcoming struggles in college and she was great. There was a flute and piano duet which I never knew could sound so good. Even with no words I could really feel the emotion in the music that I really enjoyed. Going to this event made me see that there are so many people with talent that go unrecognized and I was glad that I and many others came to see them. I felt great and I plan on attending much more of the programs that SCSU has to offer.

Questions

Before, I actually gave the video project I shot I dreaded it because I didn’t want to interview people and be a bother but in actuality the people I interviewed didn’t seem bothered by me at all. I have yet to interview a professor but I am excited to do so to get a somewhat professional response. The topic of my video is how to stay on task and deal with college on your own. I chose this topic because I thought that it would help me with questions that I had myself and maybe for others as well. There is one question I think I will find one answer to which is “What do you do to make sure that your work is all complete and still  have enough free time for yourself?” I think the most valuable answers were the ones that the upperclassmen answered because I felt like they had more experience and I could take learn from their interviews and use it to my advantage. I think my questions are important to first-year students because it’s better for them to hear from different point of views and relate to what they have to say and hopefully use that to their own advantage. The questions I use aren’t going to make the video interesting; it is the response that I get from other people that does. A question is only interesting by its answer. By doing this video project I’ve understood that other students can relate to me and I’m not just the only one who is curious about college.

One Week

I didn’t realize how much time I spent relaxing rather than doing school work until I recorded what I did daily for a week hour by hour. It takes me about one hour and a half each morning to get ready. I take a nap for about one to three hours at most about every day and this week I spent thirteen hours napping. I guess you can say I’m a tad bit lazy. Over the week on average I spent twelve hours either studying or doing homework which doesn’t really seem like a lot but it gets me by. I typically don’t study for long periods of time because after a little while I will feel myself drifting into a different mindset as I’m trying to read and memorize my notes; reason for that is because I lost interest, get off track, and bored really easily. Calculating how much time I spent relaxing was twenty-four hours, which is double the amount I do studying or doing homework. If someone who didn’t know me were to see how much time I spend doing school work verses play time would really think I do not have my priorities straight which is partially true but at the end of the day no matter how many hours of sleep I have to sacrifice I do get what I have to done. I didn’t realize how much EATING could suck up my time but it does but nearly not as much time as my napping, studying, or relaxing. I already knew that those three activities took up most of my time but damn eating does its justice, which is why I am going to do less of that because I could be studying more and it’s really unhealthy for my body. In order to maintain my time I think I should finish my school work before I go out which saves me time at night so I can go to sleep earlier so I won’t have to nap as much and then my hours will fall into place. I’m thankful for this assignment because it was a real eye opener.

Campus Safari: Getting Involved; Involvement Fair

On Wednesday, September 19, 2012 there was an Involvement Fair in the Academic Quad. To my surprise I actually enjoyed it. It was hosted for inauguration of the president. There was a barbeque as well I ate bbq chicken, corn on the cob (my favorite) and potato salad. Anyways there were about 50 clubs and more and I signed up for a few. One of them was the Collegiate Health Service Corps which benefits me because of my major being nursing it improves knowledge of health careers, gains experience in health care field, builds resume with excellence and plenty more other benefits as well. The West Indian Club and the Anthropology Club I took a liking to because of my heritage and I am currently taking an anthropology course and I really enjoy it. I think these are great opportunities to get involved with SCSU!

Professor's Do the Grading, Not Me

The assignment to find a blog that deserves a grade A was difficult to me just because I want it to be fair but I also do not want to read everyone’s blog page by page. I randomly selected some links and looked for creativity and stuff but that isn’t necessarily what makes a blog interesting. I stumbled upon Beata Grudzinkski’s blogger Is This Real Life?  & reason being for her blog receiving an “A” is because this assignment I’m doing right now for her is I wanted to write about in mine. She had the guts to not do the assignment given but support strong reasons why. And also I think just by looking at it was well over 300 words so that just gets points in my book because I’m always trying to stop when I reach the limit. Anyways another one of her blogs that I really did enjoy was the “Brighter Days” because she really got so deep with it and I could totally relate to her situation because my grandmother had breast cancer. Runner up is Bethany Castellano, I like her blog because it is simple but pretty and I think that she does a really good job with talking about how she feels. Another thing I like is her titles because they seem really original, well at least to me.

All together I think that grading other student’s blog just isn’t my job that is the professors so I did have a hard time doing so but I tried the best I can and can only hope someone notices my own!

Tips

There have been many different tips that professors have given me but the one tip from my English professor is to practice what you preach. No it isn’t completely relevant to college but in some ways it is. For example, he told the class that some of our friends may be slacking off and it is a friend’s best interest to give another friend advice but sometimes we find ourselves doing just the same. As a student we have to take a good look at ourselves and apply our habits and share it with another rather than tell someone else what’s better for them neglecting the fact that we also have to better ourselves. Another tip was from my inquiry teacher and she discussed agency. A few examples of agency are being responsible for yourself, have a connection with your professor, be structured and represent something bigger than self and determination. As a college student I can find myself being responsible for myself. Reason being is that it is my responsibility to go to class and if I choose not to it’s up to me to find the work missed. Another reason is I cannot expect one of my peers to always be my backbone because at the end of the day it is me, myself, and I. I don’t really think practicing what I preach will really help me because I am not a hypocrite so I kind of always act upon what I say and also that isn’t really applicable to school. I know that I will be fulfilling my full potential as a student when it is reflected in my work and I feel good about accomplishing it. How I can make sure that I’m doing so Is to stay on task because if I don’t stay on task then it will completely throw me off and once I’m in too deep I don’t try to get back into the shallow water.

Campus Safari: First Football Home Game

The only football that I really watch is the Bulldogs which is the team my little brother plays for. I’m not a faithful football fan and I don’t even have a favorite team I just root for whoevers taking the lead. I definitely don’t watch it every Sunday or place bids and all that.  Naturally though, I do sit down and act like I’m paying full attention to the Super bowl but only because my family likes to watch it AND the wings are banging. Mm wings and the commercials make me laugh! Well today there was our first home game against Saint Anthony University and from what I stayed to watch they were winning, on OUR TURF. How that happens, I just don’t know but anyways so I found myself really into the game maybe because I was with my good friends and we were all getting the crowd hyped up just like everyone else was doing. Half time is also my favorite part of football games because you can see all the good routines dance groups or cheerleaders put together. Today SAU, the Falcons, yeah their drum line was the bomb and their routine was too!! I came too late for the free t-shirts and subs but now I know for next time tailgating to get the goods starts at 12. Overall this game was something different that I’m not used to seeing at home and I had a fun time.

Debunking The Myth of Multitasking

According to Dave Crenshaw, the most common kind of multitasking doesn’t book productivity but it actually slows you down. This is true. In the article Crenshaw states that his mission is to create environments that let employees grasp full attention on one task before moving onto the other. Basically I don’t think he really believes in multitasking and neither do I. Junior year in high school I used to talk about how I can multi-task this and that until my chemistry teacher enlightened me with an interesting fact. She told the class that multitasking is physically impossible; a brain cannot focus on two things at once but switches back and forth really fast between two tasks. I did not want to believe it but one time when I was walking down the hallway texting and my friend came beside next to me I tried to hold a conversation with her while texting and the text I was sending were the words I was saying to her. Clearly, I cannot multi task. Crenshaw also comes up with a few tips to reduce “switchtasking” in his words and they are: take control over technology, schedule what you can schedule, and focus on the person. The tip that I feel like would help me the most is to schedule what I can because when I start planning ahead and forget what I’ve already planned I panic at last minute when too much is on my plate that I can’t handle. His way of scheduling is to set regular times within the days of the week and let others know that you’ll be scheduling accordingly so they know when to expect a reply. I guess that type of advice would come in handy for like a professional because at this day and age I am not a very busy person, the most I do is plan to go out with my friends and do homework. Like right now, it is so late to be typing this damn blog because I FORGOT ABOUT IT until I was singing in the shower and I remembered that we talked about singing in INQ class so then it reminded me I have something to do tonight. Thank God for that shower.

There's Nothing Wrong With Opening Up

Life is not always the easiest but from my past I’ve understood that I must keep my head held high through every situation. At the age of five my parents got a divorce and me being a daddy’s girl I was very distraught because I didn’t know how to handle it at such a young age. Well during that time my mom became pregnant with my little brother, who is the love of my life. Yes we have the same mother and father but we experienced different things. I was always jealous of him getting my mother’s love because she felt that he needed that more at the time than I did. I would always act like it never bothered me but it did, a lot. I never saw my dad as much as I used to and I used to cry at night. Being in a one income household with two kids to take care of was not the easiest for my mom. For about five months we were homeless and had to jump from about three houses just to have a roof over our head. Our financial situation was terrible but my mom did everything in her power to keep us together as a family. For a while, we weren’t as spoiled as we used to be and had to stay homebound. My mother struggled to keep us in Catholic School and I never knew why she would do that when we barely had money. She believed a good education and background was better than anything. Still even in seventh grade I was sad that all the other kids in my class had fathers that would attend our school concerts and mine didn’t.

It took some time and how I coped was speaking on it because that does help. All the time spent upset was because every one of my emotions was kept bottled inside. In college obviously I’m not going to lose a dad again but I can lose something much more important and that’s my drive to try. When I feel like calling it quits that’s it I don’t tell anyone I just do and now I know that there are people that I can talk to that will help me persevere. For example, as of right now I have no difficulties, but Erica time I think will help me get over the problems I may face in the future. All in all I learned that in order to get over things you have to face the situation at hand and find the right person you feel comfortable with and talk to them. Nothing feels better than relieving your stress and I’m so grateful for the people who are there for me in my life.

Campus Safari: Fail

The whole idea behind Campus Safari is very, um, annoying but that is not why I failed to get the assignment done. I totally was not paying attention to the dates and realized that I was going home this weekend, but I am not going to make excuses for myself and neglect the assignment, so I heard from other people what was to be accomplished and then I felt bad because I thought it would be interesting rather than annoying. This will be late and I know it and because of my failure to do so now I have to write two blogs in a matter of two hours because my friend wants to watch the Hunger Games hosted at the Student Center at 8 o’clock. Instead I went to the book store and asked them for a j-o-b. Before I came to Southern my mother signed me up for work study and I was for sure I would get some kind of position and I didn’t. I was really aggravated so I wanted to see if there were other ways I could find a job. Unfortunately, when I went to the Book Store I was told that all the positions were taken and as soon as I got my spring schedule I should rush and give it to them. Usually, I am not the one to ask why something didn’t happen and I just go with the flow but I talked to who I believed was the manager (completely forgot her name) and asked her why my mom signed me up for work study if I wasn’t going to get it. My problem is that I always want what I go after and when I don’t get it I am ticked off. Well she continued to explain that there are so many students on campus who probably felt the same way I did. The amount of positions available at a certain location couldn’t hire all the students on campus or else hours wouldn’t be distributed evenly and it would be a hot mess. I learned from her that although you may be the first or the last person to go for something it’s not necessarily your fault that you didn’t get what you want because the world does not revolve around me. Thanks to the woman I understand that Southern has to look at the students as a WHOLE not just satisfying one student at a time but instead taking into consideration a group of people who stress the same issue.

Blogging is not my forté

I don’t enjoy blogging and I reason being is because I’m forced to do it but if it was just on my own time and explaining how I feel then I would enjoy it more. Blogging to me is just like reading. I like to read but a piece of text that I want to read not what someone else is telling me to read. In my opinion to blog means you’re taking the time to share with the world how you are feeling about a certain topic or anything in general. I think when a professor is telling you what to write about its less sincere because you then have to ramble on about nonsense you could particularly don’t care for. On the flipside, reading other peoples blogs are much more interesting to me so when I blog and see that people viewed it, it’s like I wasn’t just blogging for my own good health but for others to get a feel for what I have to say. I am more of a viewer on blogging websites rather than a blogger. I commend Professor Guarino for sharing other students in her inquiry class’ blogs because when I read them sometimes I get a base of what I should be talking about; not by copying. I like seeing if other students share the same views I do. To me, there isn’t a negative outcome from blogging because you can only learn take back a lesson or a point of what you read. When I’m in the process of writing a blog post it opens up my mind to a world of things I never would have thought about if I didn’t have to sit down and write about how I feel.  As the semester goes on maybe I’ll enjoy blogging a little bit more than I do now, I only hope that I do.

First Week

My new weird friend named Kam. LOL

The week before college started, I was so anxious and so many thoughts ran through my head for the expectations that were ahead of me and I did my own type of "pregame" for preparation. I thought to myself of making many friends or at least enough that could be my support system. The only thing I was excited for was that my best friend Alayna from home was coming to the SCSU with me. Move in day was very hot, and not as long. My mom woke my little (even though he's bigger than me) brother to wake up early so we can get there fast. Luckily, we were the first people in line! Thanks to my mom I got dibs the Loft bed before my roommate's did. :-P We unpacked and settled all of my things fairly quick which I was sad about because that meant less time with my family. I met my roommate Ashia first and we kicked it off quick! Next came Tayanira and she came later on in the day and left for a while so we didn't connect until the second day. All of us get along great and have a good connection and communication with each other. I also made really good friends with the girls on my floor.

The first three days of college the administration planned events for the freshman to do. My favorite was YOLO dance party. Next came the sex talk comedian Maria who came, she was funny but made sense and then the guest speaker who talked about suicide prevention.

First day of classes weren't hard, probably because it was the first day but they were fun! Not to support favoritism, but my favorite teachers hands down have to be my English and INQ because they both have high spirits, nice, and enthusiastic. My favorite class to learn about things is my Anthropology because it seems so interesting to learn about different cultures and species which is something I'm very interested in.

My overall first week of school was a different experience in which I did enjoy. I haven't felt too homesick but I do miss my little brother tremendously. I can't wait until I start to get into the real jam of things.