FINAL ASSESTMENT

College what does it really mean? One way Webster dictionary describes it as is an independent institution of higher learning offering a course of general studies leading to a bachelor’s degree. This definition use to scare me more than anything because of the two words independent institution. My first thought was college will be a lot different than high school and I loved high school so I didn’t want it to change. In high school our teachers told us everyday when homework and papers were due and when we would have tests and quizzes and I was not ready for that to change at all. What if my college professors did not care if I passed or failed? I’m the type of person that needs inspiration or just a little encouragement and I knew in college I wouldn’t get that from certain professors. I knew I had to be independent and it’s something I never was so I was mostly scared of the transition from high school to college but our learning communities actually helped me a lot.

I feel that for the most part I succeeded with my course goals for the semester; I never thought I would make it but I did. It was the scariest semester of my life because as I mentioned earlier I have never been independent and for the first time I was. I didn’t have my parents or teachers telling me when to get things done and I was fine. I thought that I needed someone telling me when and how to do something or I would never get my work done but it wasn’t true at all. I told myself when to get my work done and it always got done, I never missed any important assignments in any of my classes. I’m proud that I can be independent and not struggle with my classes and work load. I have to admit though having the learning community personally helped me because I had people that I actually became friends with going through the same thing as me. Everyone in the class was struggling with the transition of high school to college and we shared it together. We all had what seemed like a hard work load but we got through it.



I'm going to make a chart to help with time management



Even though I believe I have grown as an individual in college I have to work on my time management skills. I do all my work and I do it on time but I always wait till the last minute I just can’t help it. Let’s take this paper for instance we’ve had over a month and I waited to the last day it was due to put the finishing touches on my paper. Procrastination is my worst quality as a student and something I need to work on next semester and something I think I can fix. It won’t happen over night but if I push myself to get my work done earlier I know I can do it. I still have a lot of my bad high school traits with me at college because I did the same thing last year; wait till the last minute to finish a paper. I know that they would come out a lot better if I just took the effort to start right away but I just can’t, something always gets in the way but I need to change that. Along with time management I have my horrible organization to worry about. I never know where I keep any of my class paper and tend to loss a lot of work I need. I start of the year neat and organized but slowly progress into a slob. I have folders and notebooks for every subject but somehow I still can’t stay organized. It just doesn’t make sense.

  This semester has been amazing and horrible at the same time but I wouldn’t change a minute of it. I’m a strong believer in taking the good with the bad. The bad qualities and bad days make you who you are. I have had one of the worst days of my life on this semester but it has only shaped me into a better me. I learned from my mistakes and know where I went wrong and know never to do those things again. I truly believe this class will help me with my remaining time at Southern because of everything you taught us. You taught us about deadlines, how to be more tech savvy, and you taught us how to be a strong vocal person in class. I have just started my journey at Southern and I can’t wait to see how it ends. I hope some of my fellow friends from this inquiry class will be there at the end of my Southern journey.

My First Project

Next Semester

My personal goals and academic goals are basically the same. I’m here at Southern to get a good education and graduate in four years. I don’t want C’s in my time at Southern so for next semester my personal and academic goal is to get all A’s and B’s. If I get all A’s and B’s I’ll be a very happy person. People always say I worry to much about grades and it shouldn’t so matter. Maybe if I relax a little then I wouldn’t stress so much but I feel if I get below a B then I’m letting myself and my parents down. That is why I’m glad I know what I need to do next semester to achieve my goal. I need to focus on my classes be prepared for a hard semester. This semester taught me that hanging out with friends is fun but if you want to succeed in life I need to study more. Another personal goal will be to look for a club that I might like to join. In high school I was in about 4 clubs and it feels weird not being in one at college so I think it might make me feel more apart of Southern if I find a club I’m interested in.

My social goal is to keep all the same friends I have now and make more. All the friends in my dorm I great I talk and hang out with them everyday and were very close. I’ll be happy if we stay friends. There are also the friends I have in my classes now I don’t want to lose touch with them just because were not in the same classes. However I’m really excited to start my new classes and make new friends. It’s always nice to make new friends and that’s what I’m excited for next semester. But I need to make sure it doesn’t affect my academic life like it has this semester.

I should evaluate my time next semester with this website http://www.bucks.edu/~specpop/time-manage.htm

How Far I Have Come!

For the semester I consider my greatest failure and my greatest weakness differently. My greatest failure would be my economics class as of right now I have a C+ and if I don’t ace the final it will stay that way. To me anything below a B is failure and I’m very disappointed with myself in this class and I’ve been studying nonstop for the final to make sure I make it up to a B. I know I should have studied harder in the beginning and then I wouldn’t have to be in the position where I need an A on the final but I know I will do it.



You need to learn how the break your weakness 



My greatest weakness has been the last month without a laptop. It has been so hard for me considering that everything now a day you need a laptop. With all my papers, research paper, blogs, presentations, and making the video. I was in the library almost everyday and night using there computers it was very inconvenient not having my own anymore.

My biggest strength now is time management and being on my own. When I was in high school I relied on my parents for everything they told me when to do homework, when to clean my room, when to eat, and when I could and couldn’t hang out with my friends. Now that I live on campus I’m my own person and I know how to take care of myself. I learned to do my homework and study before I go out and have fun. I also clean my room without being told to and if I want to go out and have fun with my friends I don’t need anyone’s permission. I’ve grown and became my own person finally and that has been my greatest strength this semester growing up.

inq 2

This is still a rough draft and it's out of order but please leave feedback

The Ultimate Dream

My ideal life after college is that I will be have life long friends, a husband, I’ll be successful, have a nice life, and mainly to be happy. As long as I have a good job and family I’ll always be happy. However I know I want to be a paralegal or lawyer. I’ve always had these dream of becoming a lawyer and helping the innocent that can’t help themselves. When I was younger my mom and would watch lifetime a lot and lifetime movies always involved someone getting framed for murder or kidnapping or something like that and I dreamed of becoming some that would help the innocent. Now that I’ve grown up I know how hard it would be to become a lawyer so right now I’m settling for becoming a paralegal but who knows maybe one day I will be a lawyer.

As I was saying before though as long as I have people that love me and a family and I’m happy that would be my ideal life after college. Being happy is all you can really ask for in life but I know that if I was lawyer no job would make me happier. Who wants to be in a boring office job there whole life never really accomplishing anything. I want to be someone that conquers life and makes it an adventure. Being a lawyer in my eyes is the least boring job in the world because your always doing something. I personally love to argue and win the argument so I know that would be a good job for me. I also love helping people so becoming a lawyer after college is the ultimate dream and who knows maybe it will come true.

I'll miss everyone!

Me, Madison, and Katie

I loved our little learning community. In a way it was just like high school, it was the best type of transition we could have asked for. We really needed to be with the same people in two classes it was helpful. I love everyone in our inquiry and English class there all awesome, I meet some really great friends in this class and I’m going to miss everyone. Thankfully I’m still in some of the same classes as a few of my good friends, a lot of us are taking the same English class, and Madison and Jocelynn are in my math class I’m excited to still see everyone. I also know that I’m going to stay in touch with Sarah, Shelby, and Melissa because we all get a long so well and there friends I definitely want to stay in contact with.

These learning communities were made to bring people together and it did. It was also meant to bring a group of people together that are all going through the same thing. We are all freshman trying to get the hang of things whether its dealing with homework, friends, roommates, or teachers we all know what the other one is going through. We also are all there for each other the best we can. I made a lot of friends and connections with  the people from my English and inquiry class and I know wouldn’t have been as happy in English if these people weren’t in my inquiry class. I am so sad that English and inquiry are over but I know I will still see my friends next semester!

I hope I made you understand why these learning communities are so important every freshman should have one! Here are some better answers about what a learning community really is http://www.evergreen.edu/washcenter/lcfaq.htm#23

Thanksgiving Feast

Well considering it was just Thanksgiving I thought I would talk about the food we ate on Thursday. My mom went overboard with so much food, there was to much food for only six people. We had a small Thanksgiving this year just my mom, dad, brother, aunt, uncle, and me but my mom cooked for about twenty people. We had turkey, ham, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry, rolls, lasagna, green beans, apple pie, pumpkin, cookies, and much more. I normally don’t eat that much at Thanksgiving because I’m a picky eater I’ll have some turkey, rolls and cookies for desert. My parents always yell at me to eat more since there is so much food but I don’t really like any of the other food.

I always feel bad that my mom cooks all day and I never help your make anything but the deserts. She did a great job on the food this year it made me wish I wasn’t such a picky eater. I do have to say I made some good cookies this year and I was told my apple pie was delicious (I don’t eat pie.) I really enjoy Thanksgiving altogether it’s a nice relaxing day with the family and if I do want seconds on any food I don’t feel guilty because it’s one day a year. This year I had two helpings of turkey since it was so amazing and I can’t wait till next year so I can have even more turkey and cookies!

If you're having trouble finding recipes for Thanksgiving next year look here http://www.oceanspray.com/

video draft

I tried uploading my blog and it wouldn't let me I thought home my home computer would let me upload but it doesn't and it doesn't let me put my videos on either so I'm going to try and redo the video on a computer at school that has windows movie player since I don't know how to work the imovie on the mac computers.

Changing...

School Work Comes First

The difficult situation I have been in this semester is the same problem I imagine any college freshman has managing my social life with my school life. Down deep I know that my school work should be the most important thing on my mind and nothing should be as important. My parents are paying a lot of money for me to live on campus and go to school at Southern so I don’t want to disappoint them but when someone ask me to hang out ill leave me school for later and go and hang out. This is something I really need to work on because I can’t just stay in the routine of putting my social life before my school work.

I’m hoping that next semester I learn from this semester and put my school work first. I have one semester almost complete so I know what I did right and what I did wrong and I believe it should be easy to change. I know I’m going to have to change my priorities though because I am taking six classes next semester and it’s going to be hard. I’m going to be in a harder math and obviously our class isn’t the best in math. The only way I’m going to have a chance next semester is if I start to change now. Next time I am doing homework or studying for a test I’m going to tell my friend that I can’t hang out. It’s going to be hard for me since I hate missing things with my friends but it’s going to be something I have to do and something I will do!

There is a lot of information in this link and a lot of different links that will help me manage my time. Are you having a hard time managing your time? Look here! http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/14629/time_management_for_college_freshmen.html?cat=25

Peer Advocates

My peer advocate club

When I was in high school there were multiple situations when I had to be a leader. Two specific situations were when I was president of the club Amnesty International and when I was a member of peer advocates. I think I was more of a leader when I was part of The Morgan Peer Advocate Club. We were role models for the school because we were above the influence. We were a group of leaders trying to make a difference in the community that we live in. We were there to bring what we learn in our training sessions, and use it in the real world. We didn’t just learn about problems out there, we would try to make what we learned, a good-kind of reality. Our main mission within in our school and town was, to improve the place we learn and the place we live in by maintaining drug-free living. We went through a year of training to help guide others live the same drug-free life we lived.

I choice to be a leader within my community because I don’t believe in drug use and there was way to much of it in my town. I knew to many good people that ended up turning to drugs and are now “potheads” I wanted to help as many people as I could stay away from drugs. I lost to many people to drugs and I wanted the cycle to end so I joined peer advocates. I was only apart of peer advocates for two short years but I really believe in what they are about and wish I joined the club my freshman year. I think becoming a peer advocates saved me from just becoming another drug addict in my town and I am eternally grateful for the peer advocate club. They do great work and help a lot of people and I’m glad I can say I was apart of something like that.

I don't believe I talked enough about how important a peer advocate but this link does http://www.vanderbilt.edu/isss/documents/PeerAdvocateJobDescription.pdf

Wilkinson

Wilkinson Hall

When it comes to studying my locations are pretty boring; I study in my room, the common room, the library, or the basement of Wilkinson hall. I’m not very adventures I like studying inside in the quite. I know a lot of people that like to study outside but I get way to distracted outside I need the quiet and calmness of my room or just any place inside my building.
 

I know where suppose to talk about an interesting place to study but haven’t had the need to find any new cool place to study I’m happy with my room or the common room. The common room is actually a very fun place to study because everyone is studying and you help each other out. For instance me and three other girls on my floor are in the same economics class and we just had a HUGE test Wednesday and we all studied in the common room together and really helped each other out. I don’t know how I did on the test but I’m hoping that the atmosphere helped me study better.
 

Once it’s nice out again maybe I’ll try studying outside for finals but for now I think I’m just going to stick with studying in my room or the common room. There are the few times when I need to go to the library to study because that’s the only place I can truly force myself to study and stay focused but I know everyone knows they can study in the library. I think you just need to find a place the works for you.

Inquiry

I actually find our inquiry class very intellectually stimulating. It was one of the only classes I have where you need to really think about what we are discussing. At first I was going to say that my economics class was the most stimulating class but everything I learn is in the text or in my notes, with inquiry there is no right or wrong answer to the questions, it’s all our own opinion.
 
We always have to read articles before class and we have to think about what the articles are about. For our last class we read about grade inflation and what it does for our society. Do our high school teachers just give us grades based on hard work and because they just want us to pass but our college professors don’t care? These articles make us think and take a side about grade inflation there is no right or wrong answer but we do have to really think about it. Everyone had different opinions some people believed that if you work hard and study that should mean you automatically get a good grade but I however believe that working hard doesn’t mean you deserve a good grade, you need to go above and beyond in college.
 
Inquiry is the only class where I can voice my opinion and have an open discussion. In math there are no opinions, you’re either right or wrong with your answers. That is why math is so boring you can’t have any creativity or discussions like in inquiry. I really believe people need a class where they all have full out discussions or debates about there opinions.

Grade Inflation

I want to get that A

 In my high school grade inflation never really happened. My teachers really believed in earning your grades on your own and giving no extra credit. If you didn’t do your homework in my school you were pretty much out of luck because that is all my teachers cared about; being prepared for class. My teachers were big on “preparing us for college” if we turned in work late or unfinished they would give us a zero and say that doesn’t fly in college.
 

I agree with a lot of my classmates were saying though, I do believe if you go to all your classes and do all your work to the best of your ability and study as much as possible than you should be able to get a B or higher. I have learned that the teachers in my high school that pushed me to do more than just average have really helped me out. If they just let me get away with doing the bare minimum and I still passed I wouldn’t have learned anything about what college is all about. People hated my high school and said it was just a joke but I really believe they have helped me out.
 

I personally don’t believe in grade inflation because it makes us lazy as a society but I do believe you work hard and put all your effort into a class then your professor should take that into consideration. I do not believe Cs are acceptable grades so I will be doing everything in my power to get a good grade and I know I will have to work hard for those good grades. 

Can grade inflation be dangerous http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/gi.htm

Try reading a good book

Quite honestly this has been one of the most stressful weeks of my life and there wasn’t much I could do to help that. On Tuesday evening one of my friends spilt soup on my laptop and there hasn’t been much I could do to fix it and on Wednesday evening I realized I had a paper saved that was due for my Thursday class. I had no idea what do since there was no way I could get that paper off my laptop so I decided to go the library and rewrite the paper but the computers in the library weren’t working. So between Tuesday and Thursday I was just completely stressed out and there was no way for me dealing with that stress until this weekend.

Whenever I come home and just relax with my family do I become unstressed. I guess I’m really not answering this question that great considering the week I had but normally just coming home for the weekend with my parents works. The other thing I do to relieve stress is to read one of my books. I use to read for pleasure all the time but being in college I really haven’t had the time. I read probably the most embarrassing series considering I’m in college now but I love The Pretty Little Liars series and The Clique series. This weekend I read the new Clique book and it was so relaxing.
People always think I’m weird when I say I love reading for fun but it really helps me out. I think I’m actually going to the bookstore tomorrow to stock up on some more books. If you don't know how to relieve your stress go to this website...http://www.cyberparent.com/stress/25ways.htm

The Dreaded Midterm Grades

My midterm grades were not the greatest but they weren’t bad. I feel that I really need to buckle down and focus on my classes for the rest of the semester. I’m doing the best in my English, inquiry, and wellness class. My other two classes are math and economics which aren’t as good as I would like them to be because my grades were just average but I know I can improve them by the end of the semester.

I’m going to start with talking about my English class. My English teacher works well with trying to help us get a good grade. I have a B+ in his class and I believe I can even get it higher with the next essay. I expected this grade when I got my first essay back. I hope my grade goes up by the end of the semester.

For my inquiry class I had no idea what to expect because we have so many blogs and projects and homework assignment I can’t keep up with all the grades. I was excited with my grade because it means I have been doing my blogs well and on time and my midterm project most have came out good. I hope I can keep this grade.

My wellness class is just easy. I’ve had a paper and a midterm in this class and I’m doing very well. The class only meets once a week so I have to get all my work done on time but its easy if your work gets done. I wasn’t surprised with this grade.

In economics we’ve only had one test and that’s all that counts so I knew exactly what I had in the class. We have two more two tests and I know I have to rock them or my grade in this class won’t be as good as I need to be and economics is important in the major I’m leaning towards.

Math was the only class that I was really surprised with my grade I thought it would be much higher but I talked to my professor and I know how I can get it up soon.

Response to articles

Getting poor grades on anything always made me have a panic attack. Anything below an 80 is just unacceptable in my eyes and in my parent’s eyes. I admit that I can be lazy and just do the bare minimum but I feel  that if it meets what is required why shouldn’t you get at least a B.  However I disagree with the article that talked about just showing up and doing the readings should be enough. You have to actually know the material and study the material in order to get those good grades.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/education/18college.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=student%20expectations%20cause%20grade%20dispute&st=cse

This article was right in talking about how students react to getting a C and thinking they deserve a B. I’m the same way though when I get bad grade I almost hate myself and I need to know how and why I got that poor grade. School takes more than just effort you need to know what’s going on in your class and be prepared for test. The one thing I disagree with this article about is “He said that if students developed a genuine interest in their field, grades would take a back seat, and holistic and intrinsically motivated learning could take place.” I personally think grades are important no matter what and shouldn’t take a back seat. I know I’m always concerned with my grades; how can you get into a good college with bad grades or graduate school with bad grades. Your grades should never take a back seat. My suggest to students that don’t understand why they’re getting a low grade is to go and talk to the professor and see what they can do to improve their grade.

Nobody wants an F

Motivation

My video is all about motivation. Self motivation vs. rewards, do people work better for themselves are the idea of having a reward waiting for them at the end? Before I started this video I believed most people would say the reward but in the end mostly everyone said self motivation was the best motivation. I hope you all like my video!

BEING BROKE SUCKS!

I NEED MONEY FAST!!!

Back home I had an awesome part time job. I worked at nine west a woman’s shoe store and I mostly worked on weekends so I was pretty busy but I had flexible hours. When I was going away to school I decided to quit my job because I didn’t want to have to go home every single weekend but now that I’m at school I am completely broke and wish I still had my job. I was worried that I wouldn’t want to go home every weekend but so far I have and I haven’t had much to do. Now I have no money and nothing to do on weekends. It is really hard to find a job on campus or even in my home town now. It sucks because at school all my friends want to go out or order food but I can’t because I have absolutely no money. My parents kept telling me to save my money for school and not just spend it on whatever but I of course didn’t listen. I didn’t believe that I would need that much money for school and I thought I could find a job on campus but I was wrong. I hate to admit but a lot of the time my parents are right about stuff like that but I just choice not to listen to them for whatever reason. Right now I am the cliché college student that has no money for anything. I am hoping to look around the Clinton outlets tomorrow for a job since it is literally two minutes from my house or I’m hoping to find a job on campus because I can’t be broke anymore. I love money and I love spending money so I need to find a solution to my problem quick! Let me know if you hear of any jobs on campus.

Lee is Awesome!

Our peer mentor Lee is awesome! At first I didn’t know why we needed a peer mentor since we went a month without one but Lee is very helpful. She knows a lot about the campus and how to get involved with the campus and it’s something I need. I’ve realized I have had way too much time on my hands so I need to find a job or a club on campus to get me involved and I believe Lee can help me with that.

I also wasn’t sure what the big deal about having a peer mentor was, I thought it was just an upperclassman who needed to put something on their resume and was just here because they had to be there but Lee seems to want to be here. It’s obvious that Lee cares and she wants to make it work within our class. Lee is also a very real person. She told us about some mistakes she’s made in her past and I really respect that about her. I recently made a big mistake and I haven’t been able to really admit to and share it with people but maybe I will be able to own up to my mistake like Lee was.

I also like the activities Lee has us do with her every Thursday especially the first day when we got in a circle and did her laughing exercises. I was having a bad day and that actually made me feel a lot better. We are very lucky we have Lee as out peer mentor because she is very real and seems to really care about us. I’m looking forward to the rest of the year with her!

Laughter

No Idea?

I still haven’t decided what I want to do for a career it’s a big decision and I have no clue. I’ve always enjoyed helping people so I know that will be a big factor in deciding. I don’t want to just pick a major to get it over with; I want to know that it’s the right job for me.

When I was younger I actually dreamed of becoming a lawyer and that is still a big option in my life. I did a job shadow at a law firm and I really enjoyed everything they did so I’m leaning towards law at the moment. The only thing that is holding me back is all the schooling. I know that makes me sound lazy but I just don’t know if I can go to school 4 extra years and it would be very expensive.  Instead of a lawyer the next best option would to just be a paralegal.

My second choice is to be a therapist. I’m basically a therapist with all my friends back home. They come to me with all their problems which are mostly relationship problems. I love being able to help my friends and knowing that they can trust me is the best feeling in the world. They come to me about everything and I try and do my best to give them good advice so maybe being a therapist would be good job choice for me.

I have many different options to explore and that’s why I find college so exciting. Everything is new to me and I’m only a freshman so I can still decide what major I want. If you're having trouble deciding then you should look at this website. http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Pick-A-Major

Good Blog vs. Great Blog

There are many things that make a blog either just a good blog or a great blog. You need to make the blog your own. Everyone has their own type of voice or style and that’s what you need to put in your blog. If your blog doesn’t sound like you then it might be a little confusing. I tend to have my blogs with a more serious tone so it would be hard for me to just switch into a humor tone.

Another thing you need is pictures. It’s my opinion that pictures brighten up a blog and just make them more fun. You don’t need many pictures one or two is plenty but those pictures make a huge difference on your blog. People see the pictures first and wonder what your blog can be about and when they actually read your blog they have the picture as a connection. Pictures help you connect to almost anything. When I see a blog I get turned off if all you see are words because I believe it’s boring.

The last thing I always have in my blog are links. I want everyone to know where I get my ideas from. When I wrote about time management I wanted the link that helped me help everyone else out. The links are fun because you never know what will be on the other side. I tried posting a youtube video in my last blog about We The Kings but I couldn’t figure it out but if you know how to post videos to your blog it makes it more interesting. If I saw a blog with a We The King music video on it I would watch it. Everyone has their own style and you just need to make sure you put that into your blog.  

Motivation

Is this what we need to feel accomplished?

How do you get motivated in life? Does it come from yourself or others offering you a rewards? When we were younger and played sports we were motivated to win by the little trophies they gave us or else the whole season would have been pointless. When you get older you realize the game is more about winning and playing well for yourself not just for the stupid trophies. When I went from playing soccer for fun to a premier team everything within my motivation changed. Does this happen for everyone?

I’m going to interview my physical wellness teacher during my next class to see what she thinks about all this. Is your life healthier if you do something for yourself rather just for a reward? I’m interested in seeing the results. I’m also going to see how someone feels when they graduated high school. Did they feel accomplished and proud of themselves for making it so far and graduating or was graduating just a reward for them? I want to see how people feel about there lives. http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=9741&cn=353

Honestly I don’t know how I feel about my own question yet. I know when I graduated high school I was proud of myself for doing and starting getting ready to start the next chapter in my life but I was also excited to just be out of my high school. It really depends on the situation because sometimes you don’t need a reward feeling good about yourself is plenty. I’m looking forward to explore this idea further.

We The Kings

Jennie and I at We The Kings

AnnMaire and I at We The Kings

I never really listened to much of We The Kings before there concert but I really enjoyed their concert. My friends from home were came up to see the concert to so it was just a really fun night. My home friends meet my school friends the whole night went great. I listened to great music, hung out with old friends, and new friends. 

The beginning of the night went by really slow and I almost regretted going to the concert. We waited outside for what seemed like forever, we didn’t have that great of seats, my friends were taking forever to get there, and I didn’t even know any of the opening bands songs but once We The Kings came on stage the whole night turned around. I remembered how much I use to like there music and how great they were on stage.  

During the concert I was sitting with my two new friends from school AnnMaire and Jennie, we had a great time. They live right across the hall from me so we normally hang out in the dorms but the We The Kings concert was the first night we actually went out and did something. We were singing and just having fun and it was a great night. Towards the end of the concert we saw this group of girls run to the stage so we followed them and it was the best part of the night. The last few songs we were right by the stage dancing and singing along with the band and people we didn’t even know. We were all connected through this night.
    
The best part was they sang my favorite song Check Yes Juliet last http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CUyWJ7UINM&ob=av2n . I was disappointed because I didn’t think they would play it but they finally did at the end. We all had a great night and I’m really glad I ended up going!

Professional Bloggers!

The first blog I’m going to talk about is http://moviesblog.mtv.com/. It’s a blog about all different types of movies that just came and movies that have been out forever. I’m doing my first blog on movies because I love going to the movie theaters or just watching movies in my dorm. The first blog on this website is called 'Virginity Hit' Not Just Sex, But A Film With 'Heart And Soul' and it’s about the movie “The Virginity Hit” and I actually just got home from seeing this movie. It was a funny movie and I really liked it but I agree with the blog when it said "I think Zack [Pearlman, Bennett's co-star] got an email from a lady that said that they were pleasantly surprised they were that the movie didn’t portray women in a negative light – as just sex objects." I really like this movie blog I think it’s interesting how they talk about new movies and old movies and I liked how it wasn’t all summary of the movies but more about what to expect from the movie.

The second blog I looked at also had to do with movies but in my opinion this blog looks more professional http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog+sciencefictionandfantasy. This blog talks more about sci-fi movies. I love sci-fi movies so it’s nice that they stick one type of genre of movies instead of all movies like the other blog. This blog also has links and trailers to see what the movies were about and the other blog just showed pictures. The one thing that this blog also does different is it summarizes the movies too much.

The reason I did both my blogs on movies is just for the fact that I love all types of movies; like comedies, sci-fi, girly movies, or even action movies. I might even want to be a movie reviewer when I’m older that’s why I really enjoyed reading these two blogs.

Is 24 Hours in a Day Enough?

         Time management is a hard thing to figure out. How exactly does one figure out how to sort there time out? There are 24 hours in a day, and that may seem like a lot but it really isn’t. I never know how to choose what to do with my time when I’m not in classes. Do I sleep, hang out with friends, go to the gym, talk on the phone, watch TV, or do homework? When I decide to do homework I have to choice which class to do homework for. That is the hardest part considering I always have so much homework in my classes.

            The past couple weeks I have learned a little more about managing time. I know that the best time to get your work done is in the day because for me that is when all my friends are in classes. I have my dorm room all to myself and basically the dorm floor. It’s nice to have the quiet during the day because when night rolls around I can’t get a minute of silence. I get done with most classes around noon so that’s when I get the most work done and I still have for something fun to do at night. There have been the occasional times when I take naps after class instead of doing my homework which means I’ve had to pull all nighters to finish that homework because I was too lazy to do my homework right away.

            Since my last blog about time management I have learned how to manage time a little better. The first two weeks was doing homework all at midnight but the past two weeks has been doing homework and noon and not having to worry about work when I get back from hanging out. The pressure from doing work late at night is gone now and my work doesn’t suffer. I’m still getting use to time management but it’s getting easier every day. I actually made a chart to help keep me on track and it looks a lot like this one.

Go to this website to help make your time management charts http://www.studygs.net/schedule/

Outcast United at Southern

I’m going to be very honest and just admit I hated Outcast United, I don’t think I’ve ever hated a book more than this book. I had to force myself to read it all summer long and it was just painful. I think the storyline behind this book was very good and this could have been a good book but it just was not interesting to me at all. The book is taken place Clarkston, Georgia. Clarkston was turned into a refugee settlement center in the 1990s. Suddenly Clarkston’s streets were filled with a wide range of diversity, it was no longer the typical people walking around the streets and there were kids of all colors playing soccer. In this town there was a woman named Luma Mufleh, an American-educated Jordanian woman who founded a youth soccer team of refugee children and the team became known as the Fugees.

Even though I didn’t care for this book I understand why we had to read it. Southern is just such a diverse population of people that we can’t judge anybody and we need to accept everybody for the person they are. That is all we heard about at orientation was how everything on this campus was so diverse and we all need to get use to that. Even the first weekend here we broke off into groups and talked about how the population of people is pretty even so we need to learn how to deal with everyone. The Fugees all had one thing that united them and that was the fact that they had soccer and here at school we are all connected through Southern. Somehow we all ended up at Southern and we are united in that sense, we may have a different religion, different skin, or different groups of friends but Southern UNITES US ALL TOGETHER!  

This website might help you understand the book better http://www.outcastsunited.com/

The Beauty of Free Writes

My first three weeks of college have been absolutely awesome! I have made great friends and I love all my classes so far, especially my English class. Professor Sinclair is super nice and I love his method of teaching. We are in the middle of writing our first papers for his class and he makes it very easy for me. Writing has never been one of my strong qualities and I’ve always just hated it but in his class I don’t mind it. I normally get writers block and just stare at my computer for hours not knowing what to say but for him we do free writes for 10 to 20 minutes and just write whatever we remember. Doing these free writes really takes the pressure off me for writing because nobody is going to see my free write so it doesn’t matter how my words come out.

I use to hate reading at this age

Our free writes have been on our memories of reading and writing. My memory is a bad experience of learning how to read with my second grade teacher because she never encouraged me. While in his class I remembered how much I use to hate reading and writing because of how mean my teacher was. Doing these free writes in his class is showing me how to remember all these memories in a fun way. Professor Sinclair tells us how to start our free writes and what we need to make a good story. I thought I was going to struggle with writing my first essay for college but I’m not worried about this essay because I’m just using all my notes from the free write. I probably have at least 7 pages of notes to use in my essay. I don’t have to struggle with starting the essay because I already have all my key points written down. The most surprising part is how much I hate to write but I'm actually looking forward to writing this paper.

http://web.mst.edu/~gdoty/classes/concepts-practices/free-writing.html

WOW!

Wow! Is all I can say about my two first weeks of college. These two weeks have been a combination of the best two weeks of my life and the most stressful. I have faced the challenge of having no idea how to manage my time. I live on campus and I have no idea when the right time to study is and when the right time to hang out with friends and have fun is? I need to find out what the best way of managing my time is because what I have been doing just isn’t working out for me. I’ve been doing most of my homework right when I get out of class and I’m alone in the dorms but when people get back to the dorms I get completely distracted from my homework and just stop. I hang out with them all day and don’t get back to my room till around midnight or later and by that time I’m exhausted and really want to go to bed but I can’t because I have to finish my homework. Doing homework when you’re exhausted is stupid because your work isn’t as good as it could be if you weren’t so tired. I guess the question is why do I wait to the last minute?

Nobody wants to be doing there homework at 12!

These first two weeks have already opened my eyes. I’ve learned that I need to come up with a better system to manage my time. I’m going to get my work out of the way early in the day so I don’t have to come back to my room at midnight and finish homework. I know it’s going to be hard to do my homework before I go out but it’s something I’m going to have to learn to do if I want to succeed in college. This next week is going to be my test to see if I can actually do work before I go out because if I can’t do it now it’s going to get harder each week to do. All I know is I want to do great these next four years in college, so I need to learn how to manage my time! This website has started to help me and I hope it can help you! http://www.studygs.net/timman.htm

True of False?

Does becoming great at something involve skills or practice? I thought the 10,000 Hours for Success article was very fascinating because at the end of the article I didn’t know what I believed anymore. Before I read this article I always thought that people were just born to be great at instruments like the piano or they were just born smart but I don’t believe that anymore. I believe it all comes from the amount you practice and how far you’re willing to go to be great. People that have worked at their skills for over 10,000 hours in their life obviously want to be great and they deserve to be great with all their hard work.
http://abundance-blog.marelisa-online.com/2008/11/17/outliers-10000-hours-for-success/

Personally I know it takes a lot of work to be great at something. When I was younger people would always tell me that I was a natural soccer player because I was better than most people my age, so I thought that meant I didn’t have to practice as hard. When I was in middle school I was cocky because I was captain and one of the best players on my team and I let that get to me so I stopped practicing as hard. By the time I got to high school I still played soccer but it wasn’t as fun because I wasn’t the star anymore, there were older girls that were a lot better than me and even people in my grade that I use to be better than practiced all summer and caught up to me. I guess the moral to this story was my natural skills only got me so far I had to practice to get better than everyone else.

He's going to be greeat because he started practicing at such a young age.

I still believe that talent somewhat decides if you’ll be good at instrument, but it’s up to you take it the rest of the way. Do you want to be successful in life? If you do, PRACTICE and you should do great. After all the saying is practice makes perfect!

COLLEGE!!

To me college is a whole new chapter in my life. It’s a chapter that should be filled with great memories, new experiences, and new people but it’s also a chapter that will be filled with a lot of work. College is the time in your life when you try and decide what you are meant to do and who you’re supposed to be. Some people say college is the greatest time of your life and others say it's the most stressful time of your life. I can already tell I’m going to have a lot of stress because thinking about what I want to do for the rest of my life gives me a panic attack. The rest of your life is a long time and these four years are going to help me decide who I will become and that is a lot of pressure.

Is this going to be me?

College will help you accomplish so many great things in your life; like meeting new people, finding things to get involved with you love, and most importantly it will help you decide how to spend the rest of your life. Deciding how you will spend the rest of your life is probably going to be the biggest accomplishment you ever make and I strongly believe I won’t be able to make that decision without Southern. For right now though I’m not going to worry about my future and I hope college is going to help me accomplish having fun and learning as much as I possibly can. I know it may sound dorky but I’m really excited to take new and fun classes and see what’s at there. I’m paying a lot of money to be in college and I don’t want to waste it. I want to learn as much as I can, get the best grades possible, join a few clubs, and meet lifelong friends! If I do any of these things I know college will be worth it.

The first week of classes was so intimidating because I don’t know how to manage my time yet and I got a lot of homework, it was scary because I wasn’t expecting it. I feel as time goes on I will get use to college and get into a pattern but until then I’m just going to listen to these 25 tips http://www.quintcareers.com/first-year_success.html.

Who am I

My four years of high school were awesome but I feel like I was stuck in the same pattern and never really had a chance to change and become my own person but I’m hoping to change that this year. I would like to begin my journey telling everybody the type of person I am and the qualities I would like to keep and the ones I hope to change.

It has always been easy for me to meet new people and have fun. I’ve prided myself on being this outgoing person and somebody that will always try to make the best out of a bad situation. This past year I really learned out to have an extrovert personality because I worked in a retail store and you can’t be shy when working with people. I would just have random conversations with people I never met before about their jobs or families. I’m not going to lie I was a little nervous to start school and was worried I wasn’t going to meet new people but I've already met a lot of amazing people.

Some of my great friends

I’m going to say that my next best quality is that I am very trustworthy person. I know people always say that, but I really believe it is one of my best qualities. My friends come to me about EVERYTHING. I almost feel that I don’t have any time to tell people my problems because people always come to me with their problems. I don’t care at all though because that’s what a friend is for; they listen to your problems and don’t tell anybody your secret. Just last night I was giving advice to two of my friends and I know that I’m not going to tell anybody what we were talking about.

Ever since I was little the word tolerance was big with my family. They taught me that everybody is different and everybody is their own person and that I have to respect that. Since my parents taught me at such an early age about tolerance I believe that it has helped me out a lot in life and it’s going to keep helping me out while I’m in college. College is a whole new world to me and if I didn’t have tolerance I don’t think I could make it through.

Being proud can be a good and bad thing, I believe that everybody needs to be proud of who they are and what they’ve accomplished in their life but on the other hand being proud sometimes means you’re stubborn and I’ll be the first to admit that I am STUBBORN! But mostly to me being proud means I’m proud of myself and my family. There is nothing that could happen that wouldn’t make me not be proud of my family and friends because they are the hugest part of my life and how I became who I am. I’m proud of where I am in my life and I hope I’m proud of who I become in the future. I strongly believe if you can’t be proud of yourself you can’t expect anybody to be proud of you.

I'm proud of my family

Lastly I would like to tell you about my careless side. Unfortunately I tend to do or say a lot of things without thinking first. I mean who doesn’t? Making mistakes is part of life; you just have to learn how to live with those mistakes. However I believe that sometimes those mistakes make you a stronger person. They teach you how to do things differently and that certain things just aren’t acceptable. This year I hope to improve on my careless side and not make as many mistakes. I can’t wait to begin my journey at southern and show everybody the type of person I really am!