Sleep Eat Play

Sleep, go to class, eat, hang out with friends, sleep, go to class, eat, hang out with friends. That seems to be the basic overall pattern of my life as a college student. However I’ve become pretty good at splitting my time up fairly amongst the four pretty well, now I’m no professional and there are areas for improvement but so far it is working pretty well for me.

Now, when I’m not sleeping or eating during the day I’m almost always doing my homework. Often times I take a nap after my first two classes which end at 9am on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays after my nap I normally eat and do homework which for me works best because if I’m tired while doing homework I mind as have had a 10 year old do it. Looking back at my data this week I spent about 60 hours sleeping and 30 hours in class or doing homework. I also found that I tend to do more homework on Mondays and Friday’s this is probably due to the fact I only have two classes during the day and both are over by 9am, leaving me a lot of free time.

My nights mostly consist of my friends. My friends are a huge part of me and without them I would probably go insane, so for me it is important that I make time for them. Sometimes we go out and sometimes we just stay in and watch movies. I spent approximately 48 hours with them this past week including the weekend when I went home. Although I do spend a lot of time with my family and friends I am almost always able to get my work done and in on time.

Although my system has worked for me so far there are a couple of things I can definitely work on.  One not spending so much time sleeping during the day, I need to start getting to bed earlier so I am more awake during the day. Next I need to figure out time during every day to do enough homework where I won’t have to do so much on Monday’s and Friday’s. Last I would like to try and not go home so much on the weekends but that is definitely going to be a struggle. Although we are only a month into school my system I have works pretty well for me and I am happy to say there are only a few things I need to tweak.

So many clubs my head is spinning

For my safari this past week I decided to take a look around the club fair and I’m very glad I did. Sothern is a very diverse group of people and it shows through in the different clubs, there was a drill team, army club, sororities and fraternities, math clubs and education clubs. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly. Me being so friendly I stopped to talk to a great deal of the tables and one of the tables I stopped at was the NAACP table, now at the time I didn’t realize it I was just talking to the ladies behind the booth about the outcome and the variety of tables I started to ask her what their organization was and if it was diverse like the others, they started to giggle so I looked down and realized what table I was in front of. I began to laugh and walk away partially because of embracement and partially because I smelled the food. After lunch I found the isle with all of the sororities and fraternities including the one I’ve been rushing. Overall it was a great day, it was really nice to see all of the different ground and talk to so many different people. Southern really has a great community and I’m very lucky to be going here.

An A+ is more than just effort

After reading through tons of blogs it is clear not me that I definitely need to redo my home page mine seems so boring in comparison to most. I loved reading everyone’s blogs they were all so well written and interesting. I think I enjoyed looking at the titles of the posts the most. It was interesting to see how people pulled the readers in, it was also a good insight into the creativity of the writers. Out of all the blogs there were a bunch I loved but only a few stood out.

Although I don’t know much about grading a blog I feel that the blog titled Next Generation deserves an A+ it is beautifully written and the pictures are a great touch. The way she makes her sentences flow seem effortless. All of the posts are interesting but I especially liked the post about her hardship in life titled One word: Optimism. I enjoyed reading this one because I felt a great sense of compassion it takes a very strong person to not only deal with the death of a close family member but also act as a fill in parent. One of my other favorite pieces she wrote was the post about the club fair, it had a sense of humor in it when she said “they didn’t have to ask me twice to put my name down” taking about the photography booth and it didn’t feel like she was just blabbing on about nonsense it felt like she was having a conversation with me.

Everyone has done a great job with their blogs. So many have their own personalities and they are all very interesting.   It is easy to tell that most people have put in a lot of time and effort into these assignments. Over all I feel that Venice definitely deserves an A+ for her blog. She made it fun, relatable, all of her posts are written very well and most of all I highly enjoyed reading it!

Something like Hogwarts

I’ve always wanted to go to Hogwarts. Not only to fly on brooms and help Harry take down Lord Voldemort but to feel appreciated the way the students there seem to be. Yesterday at the New Student Convocation I felt a similar feeling. Maybe it was because everyone on stage was dressed in robes and silly hats or maybe it was the torch of knowledge lighting but there was a sense of community and welcoming in the room. It was nice to be able to see all of the schools head professors and leader in once place welcoming us. Although it wasn’t Hogwarts it was a still a good experience and I enjoyed almost all of it. 

Being organized is just the begining

Over the past three weeks I’ve been fed information about the importance of staying on top of my work, making a schedule, sticking to it and how to take good notes. But for me by far the most important thing I’ve learned over the past couple of weeks is to stay organized. For me organization is the key, without being organized I easily lose track of my work and end up forgetting to do assignments which really isn’t good.

Part of being well organized is having good notes and a good understanding of what you’ve taken notes on. This is something we’ve talked a lot about this past week. Note taking has always been a struggle for me, I haven’t know exactly what to write down, what to forget and what to get out of the reading or discussion. But after the discussion in INQ last week I think I have a much better understanding of what I’m supposed to be doing when I take notes. I have started to take notes the way that is taught at Cornell. I feel this has already started to help. I’ve tried it in my wellness class which I’ve been struggling and in my philosophy class and so far I feel I’ve been getting a better understanding of the work and discussions.

Not everyone learns the same and not everything that is important to help me study and succeed is the same for everyone else. However I think the basic principles are the same, work hard, stay focused and find what works for you. Staying organized is key to keeping track of your work however the levels of organization may vary  and for me, I need to be very organized and take very good notes otherwise my in class work is pointless and I forget everything. Hopefully my new note taking skills and my organization will help me stay on track and keep my grades up.

Better off without you

My story is one I think many have but may be too scared or embarrassed to share. Growing up my mother was a single mother and my father was not in the picture, in fact I didn’t have clue who he was. When I was six I met him for the first time but our relationship was flimsy for a few years and then out of the blue he decided he didn’t want to be a father and walked out of my life. At the time I was heartbroken, I was 13 and afraid I had done something wrong. Was I weird? Am I not good enough? What will I do without a father? But now that it has been five almost six years I know the answers, yes I am weird and I’m very proud of it! No I’m not good enough for him because I’m too good for him! And live my life to the fullest with the family who does care.

Graduation day was one of the proudest of my life. After walking across the stage and throwing my hat I ran to my mother and whispered “I did it without him” she smiled back and said “yes you did”.  I was tempted to dig up my father’s number and send him a picture of me with my diploma however I thought that would be a little over the top so I refrained.

Graduation day was the day I realized that you don’t need people who put you down in your life. As long as you have a strong support system, it could be a total of three people but as long as you have them you will make it. As well after being depressed for months after my father left I realized that dwelling on the past will get me nowhere, the only way to move on is to not worry about what I could have done but what I can do now. Those are the two main things I plan on carrying with me throughout college. Without my father leaving I don’t think I would be the person I am today and I love who I am and I love my family and as bad as it sounds I am thankful every day that he left because without that happening I would not be who I am today.

I dont think we're in high school anymore

In my one and a half weeks of college I have learned many simple things, like which dorms are have the most fun, what teachers to watch out for and when to go to Dunkin Donuts but I have also learned things that are a little more valuable. I’ve learned that teachers aren’t really the ones who teach you in college, what we called hard work in high school is an easy day in college. But most importantly I’ve learned that college is nothing like high school.

Going from an hour of homework a night to 4 to 5 hours of homework a night is plain bonkers. My old style of note taking and studying is basically useless here in college. Yeah, it was a good preparation however it’s nothing like the amount of notes and type of notes I now have to take. I was always taught on the “first level” of leaning and note taking which was just comprehension and memory. However now we’re on the “second level” and we need to worry more about forming opinions and obtain a deeper understanding. But what does that even mean? Who knows, I guess it’s up to everyone to decide how much effort they put in and what they want to get out of it. But one thing that for sure is that the way I study and learn needs to have some serious changes!

In the article Debunking the Myth of Multitasking the author very clearly states that multitasking it not acceptable. He says “juggling everything at once gets you nowhere.” This is very different than what I’ve done. Multitasking has been a part of my life since I can remember but that needs to change. Multitasking can make it harder to complete tasks and often times the work is not done thoroughly. If I want to maintain a good grade and actually understand my work multitasking needs to be cut down if not taken out of my everyday life.

Safari Sunday

Here at SCSU the Community Coordinator’s or more commonly called CC’s are greatly loved. They are some of the most useful and kindest people here on campus. There are two CC’s per floor on every building. Becoming a CC is fairly easy, you have to fill out an online form with your basic information then go to group meetings where you take part in different actives to help you learn how to handle and react in certain situations you may run into. After that you have an individual interview in which you talk about why you want to become a CC.  Some of the responsibilities of a CC include making the residents comfortable, one night required duty a week as well as three weekend duty nights per semester. There are also weekly meetings that they have to attend. Over all being a CC seems to be fairly rewarding, one of my CC’s Courtney Scarpa says “I do enjoy being a CC! It’s a lot of fun and you get to meet a lot of new people. There are also a lot of perks, like not having to sign guest in or out, having your own room, a big be and a sense of authority.” Both of my CC’s Courtney and Chanel have been such a big help my first couple of weeks here whether I’ve needed help with my computer or just needed someone to talk to they’ve been nothing but nice. Everyone else I’ve talked to have had nothing but nice things to say about their CC’s too. From my perspective being a CC here at southern is a pretty good job.

Me? A blogger? Who knew!

I’ll admit since I’m new to this whole blogging thing, I’ve spent the last couple of days scouring the internet looking at different blogging websites trying to get an idea of what I want my blog to be like. I’ve seen blogs with pictures on every inch of the screen and blogs with bright colors (which although pretty I find to be slightly distracting). Also I’ve encountered some very boring blogs, no colors, no pictures basically no personality.  I’ve come to the conclusion I want mine to be simple yet fun.

                Since this is my first blog I would like to keep it kind of simple. However I also want to experiment, I’d like to try putting up videos and pictures. I don’t want my color scheme to be too distracting, or maybe I do because I’m not the most confident in my writing ability, but I definitely want it to be enjoyable.

I’m hoping to eventually start a different blog maybe one a little more personal than this. Since this blog will be mostly dedicated to school assignments I’m hoping it won’t be too boring. While reading some of the other blogs I realized that the very formal didn’t seem to keep my interest. I enjoyed reading the blogs that made it seem like the author was actually talking to me. It made me interested in what they had to say. I want my blog to be like that. Although it’s a school blog I’d still like it to be relatable and somewhat fun, something other students wouldn’t mind reading.  

Overall I want my blog to be fun, enjoyable and interesting like me. Isn’t that what a blog is all about? On top of school work I’d like for this to be a place for experimenting and stepping outside my comfort zone something I often have trouble doing. Wish me luck!

The next chapter

Not only is college a new chapter it is also a new beginning for me. New school, new town new people and new opportunities. It is a chance for me to make something of myself. In high school I was not as involved as I could have been and I barley tried in school just to maintain that B average. While I’m here at SCSU I want to change that. I want to get involved in more than one group and I want to try my hardest with my school work. In my family most have gone to college right out of high school but they have dropped out soon after beginning. I don’t want that to be me, I want to graduate and make something of myself. Walking into the building on the first day of orientation was just the first page of the next chapter.