live and learn

            This class has been almost a failure for me this semester. I was expecting to learn a lot more about the campus from the teacher, not being graded on how I went about learning about it. I am a student athlete; I swim 20 hours a week and when I am not in class, I am with my team. There is never a break for student athletes, so I would have little opportunity to walk around campus and ask questions where I needed to. I also hate the fact that everything was online for this class. I hated that I had to go onto a page, not related to school in order to do school work. My English teacher definitely struggled with teaching his class also because we never learned anything about the library. It was almost as if the roles had switched for teaching. The English teacher was telling us how to work the library and what to do in stressful freshman situations.

            I definitely showed a lot of weaknesses this semester. I can get disorganized easily, I struggle with technology and I did not complete the campus safaris. Here are the things that we did or did not work on this semester:

1)     College-level skills, transitioning from high school- definitely worked out for me. I had to be able to think more abstractly, work under different situations and make sacrifices that would not need to be sacrificed in high school. 

2)     Critical thinking and creative thinking- critical thinking is the most important thing in college. You need to be unique in order to stick out. In high school, maybe you didn’t want to stick out, but in college you want to be different and you want to stick out. You want your professor to know your name and know your study habits. To develop a relationship with a professor would be the best thing to do, but most people do not want to be different and not talk to their professors about school.

3)     Time management, organization, study habits- I have had the best time management test then any ordinary college student. I had five classes to pass (or get A’s) and on top of that twenty hours of swimming each week, plus swim meets, plus team activities, you name it. There would be weeks that the team was at the pool for thirty weeks at a time.

4)     Personal goals, struggles, and accomplishments- I wanted to get all A’s this semester, but that obviously did not happen. I am not going to beat myself up because of it because I have three years and a semester left to improve myself and do well in school. I struggled with the technology of this class. I also struggled outside of this class with a broken foot. My swimming times have been at an all-time low. I also have been struggling with my depression this whole semester with the adjustments.

5)     Social and academic spheres of college life- I have never struggled socially. I probably get that gene from my dad. Him and I have never been quite ones. We are open to anything and anyone. Moving into a new environment with new ethnicities never troubled me as it might for others. Academically, I have been doing very well. My high school was one of the top schools in Massachusetts, so college is almost easier than my high school.

6)      Blogging, finding your voice- I personally thought blogging was not fun and not effective to do homework, etc. I never found my “voice” through writing blogs.

7)       Techniques for college success- going to class and taking notes; that is all you need to pass really. Being creative and unique is what you truly need to be someone and be REALLY successful in college.

8)     Leadership, moving out of your comfort zone- I moved out of my comfort zone the second I crossed the state border of Massachusetts and Connecticut. There is not a moment that you are not crossing that comfort zone. You are living with strangers, you are taking new classes, and you are alone. There is not any other part in your life that you are really doing this. College is a learning experience inside and outside of the classroom.

I have no regrets about anything. If you do not make a mistake, how else are you going to learn? Of course I would change my attitude of how I came to class every day with a more positive attitude.