Saturday, September 28, 2013

5V:Agency

Agency is defined as relating to action, power, movement, initiative.
                This can relate basically with every college student. If you don’t take action and do your work or try your hardest you will fail most definitely. But say that you take agency by doing your work, then you will succeed.

                In my case I have taken agency and have done all of my school work and am continuing to do my very best. I am taking action and movement and applying them to my own life and my own situation. Though college may be more work to some, if you figure out some way to break it down to what works for you, you have the opportunity to succed.

5I: SMOOTHIES

               When you hear you have a floor meeting you first think, who left a mess where or who was smoking what in which room and how they’re going to punish everyone for it. So when out RA’s went knocking on every door for a room meeting in the common area, my roommate and I dragged ourselves down to the common room and were greeted by Hawaiian necklaces made of flowers and tropical fruit smoothies made from an assortment of berries I had been craving since I have left home. We played limbo and danced and took pictures with our roommate in cute straw skirts.

                What’s the point of all of this? Are our RA’s just trying to get on our good side. Personally I think it was a good way to relax and unwind from a longs day of classes and an even longer month. Though doing all your work is important, I remember learning that you need to take breaks from everything and rest your brain so that you can better complete the tasks you are given. So maybe this whole smoothie thing is a good way for success. I don’t know but either way it was fun J

5B: Social Butterfly or Academic Wizard?

               
This week we did a time sheet recording, basically, everything we did for a week. I expected most of my time to be spent sleeping and socializing, yet I was only ½ right. I do spend most of my time sleeping in a week (no surprise, I expect most people do) but I actually spent the second most time on homework.
                Though I only have 2-3 classes a day, the work load is much more then it was in high school. Even though I start my homework right after classes, I find myself often doing homework late into the night. But I know why. Most of my homework usually consist of reading, which is my downfall. I was able to go well over 30-40 hours (the recommended amount of time a week to spend on homework) a week but I am a very slow reader and it is more difficult for me to do it then most. But there is one thing that I am lacking on: socializing.
                Though I do socialize with my roommate when I’m done with my work and with friends during lunch or on the walk back from class, I find that outside of those things I don’t have much time to socialize during the week. I find that the time I spend socializing is almost ½ as small as the time I spend doing work and sleeping which is usually opposite for most. But part of me doesn’t want this to change.

                I am finding such a good success in the quality of my work and the success of my grades, why would I want to jeopardize this? Some may argue that, you need to be outgoing and social with everyone to get the true college experience and find your most happiness. But I’m happy with the good grades I have and the pride that comes along with them. In the end, I think whats best is doing my work and seeing if I have time to socialize after, or I could even plan times to hang out with people so I know what I have to work with.
Though I didn't get out much this weekend, one of my best friends from high school came to visit me :) 





5A: College Success Pleases All

           
We have two types of goals in our lives: our goals and our parent’s goals for us. My goal in college is much more of a futuristic goal. I want to become a teacher and I’m going to do my very best to do whatever it takes to become a teacher. My parent’s goals for me are much more short term; make Dean’s list. And though this is a much more short term goal, it is not my own.
                Though I am striving to get the best grades I can, which it might lead to Dean’s list but I’m looking more as a futuristic goal. And if this first month of college is any reflection of how I am going to do for the rest of my college career, then I’m headed down a very good path toward success.
                In high school my grades were “average,” which directed reflected from my work, which was average as well. I didn’t put my full effort into my work and it showed. I would receive B’s and C’s on a report card and not even care. But once I got to college I realized that I needed to change. I am paying thousands of dollars for an education in my dream job, education, and if I don’t put my very best into all my work, I won’t get to be a teacher. I have not had any failures at this point and am constantly receiving A’s in my classes because I know I’m putting in the most effort I have.
                I also realize though, now when I don’t get an “A” I am disappointed with myself. Even if I get a B+, I wish I had done better or studied more because I don’t think I did my very best. In the end I think this kind of criticism on myself is good because it means I’m going to constantly be putting more effort in my work to reach that “A” range. This means I had to work on my procrastination problem which seems to be under control for this past month because, as I said before, if I am rushing through my work to get it done in the night, I’m not putting my best effort into my work which means I won’t get the grade I know I am capable of.
                Something that stood out to me in the readings about success was the 4 Pillars; Capture, control, plan, evolve. You need to figure out what your short term goals are, figure out what you are going to do about them, do them, and then change them as you change and evolve so you can constantly be succeeding no matter how you are in the academic process.

                When you tell people you are going to college, I feel as if they’re constantly checking up on you and ask how you are doing and what your grades are like and such. And every time you tell them you feel bad giving them a bad report, so why no succeed and feel the pleasure of being victorious. College success pleases everyone!

Saturday, September 21, 2013

4V: Delayed Gratification

Before now I had never heard of delayed gratification. In class, we discussed delayed gratification as the ability for a person to put off the instant thrill of something immediately in the hope of something better in the future. It has to do with the amount of patience you have, like how long you’re willing to wait for something you want, which correlates with willpower, this meaning how much can you wait for without breaking down. People have different amounts, though you can strengthen the amount of willpower, sort of like a muscle and in turn, you have to have a greater delayed gratification.

Link to actual definition: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gratification?&o=100074&s=t

4I: Go Team, GO!!

                 
Blue and white slowly fill the bleachers as everything is about to begin. The roaring from the sidelines grow louder and louder, as the scent of freshly grilled hotdogs and pizza sweep over the air. For some this may seem unsanitary but for me, its home. As I approach the field this Friday night, I feel the excitement rush over me like none other. My brother had tortured me with watching long football games as a child but over time I had grown used to it and grown to enjoy it. We take our spot on the cold steel bleachers, waiting for the team to come out. As they do, the bleachers start to rumble with the sound of raging fans feet pounding upon them. And then it begins. Southern Owls constantly are tied and in the lead so it is never much of a nail biter, but it doesn’t have to be; every touchdown scored is a victory in every fans heart. When half time comes on, we watch the dance team preform a well-choreographed number and make our way to the snack shack for refreshments and get back to our cold seats to watch the second half again. This half is played much like the first and we stay in control and win our first football game!

4B: Choose Your Future!!

Does how you’re raised, affect how successful you will be?
When you first hear this, well I know I automatically think, yes it does. For one, money and social standing in society play a large role in how far you’ll go. If you have the money, your parents could pay for you to go to a huge, prestigious college such as Yale or Princeton. With that comes the label that people and job opportunities will see, making you look more qualified to have a job, rather than someone with les fortune, who went to a state school. Secondly, if you go to an inner city school or live in a town that is poorer, people are going to tell you that you have a lesser chance to get into a good school or a good college and end up with a minimum wage job. So the odds are already against you as society sees it, or tells you, so why even try?
But thinking about this, I might say no; how you are raised cannot affect how successful you’ll be. You might have the attitude of, “I’m not going to follow the stereotype of what everyone is telling me I have to be or what my future is going to be. I create my own future.” Well, maybe not that exact wording but you get the idea J

Thinking about it now, I would say that it all depends on the individual person and how they take on life. If they are more “go with the flow,” and are put in a bad situation, they will have a hard time being really successful. But if you refuse to let everyone make the decisions for you on how your life is going to be, chances are you will have a better chance of being successful.





Friday, September 20, 2013

4A: There's Hope for you Yet!!


                When we were younger, we had the attention span the size of a speck of dust. Do you remember every Christmas (or whatever holiday you happen to celebrate) we would wake up at the peak of sunrise and run downstairs and see what presents were awaiting us? Though every year we would wait and anticipate its arrival, and every year it was totally worth the wait (except when my mother or grandmother bought me socks or underwear. Let’s be honest, we all hated those relatives at that moment!!) Most of my favorite childhood memories consists of these of unwrapping my favorite toys and getting money from the relatives. Though, overtime, the excitement has faded as our age grew.
                Though there are still curtain things in my life that I would be excited to wake up extra early for, such as I did for Christmas. For example, let’s take something that everyone enjoys like chocolate chip cookies. The preparation and the time cooking them may take really long. But in the end, you know it’s going to be worth it because you’ll have a great treat. Though I do admit it takes much of my willpower to wait and sometimes I give into the temptation and go straight for the batter.           
                But are all people like that in my society; will they give up “making the cookies” and go “straight for the batter” as I usually do, because the impatience comes over them? I don’t think that it specifically has to do with the American society. People have a level of so much they can handle with patience but once you reach their limit, they won’t hold back and will lose their collectiveness short after.
                 “The power to resist temptation is our ‘greatest human strength’” (Resistance Training for you ‘Willpower’ Muscles.) Though you may be like me, with the willpower or patience of a 4 year old child, there is hope for us yet!! Your willpower, or patience, is like muscle in the sense that is can get stronger with work. You can push your limits further each time and help it grow so that, overtime you can have the ability to wait longer or resist more.       

Saturday, September 14, 2013

3V: Motivation

Most will agree that it is tough to create motivation for a teenage. I’m a teenager (obviously haha) and I know that I’m a difficult person to motivate. Probably because it doesn’t matter what it is, but I would be happy spending all day in my pajamas in my room, watching reruns of Friends.
                My self-definition of motivation would be the urge to do something. But you have different levels of motivation for different things. Like example, watching Friends in my room and eating a bag of Doritos takes little motivation, but something such as, an essay that is due in two weeks, will take me a while to get the motivation to do (usually my motivation doesn't occur until late the night before the essay is due)

                But if you’re not careful you can kill motivation, this is called, disassembling motivation. For example, if you have one of those teachers that make you do homework but never check it, your motivation for that homework will dwindle, because you really have no urge to do it (though I might admit that we kind of love that teacher because to some, she technically “doesn’t give homework.”)

Motivation:

3I: Trouble in Paradise

You those people that love storms. The way the thunder and lightning clash together, having a huge fight in the sky. They love the pitter patter or large raindrops falling on the cement of the residence parking lot. Those people were in heaven a few days ago during the storm, yet I was in a hell like nightmare. I hate thunder storms. When I lived at home, I would hide under a large comforter and watch a movie and wait the storm out.
                It was worse for me this week because we lost internet around 6:30pm and I still had an Italian assignment to do, and sadly I couldn't complete it in time. I emailed my professor frantically, yet I know it was too late in the hour, so she wouldn't answer me.

                The next day, I spoke with her after class. I had explained to her that the assignment had closed before I had a chance to complete it and she calmly told me that, this could happen to anyone and she would reopen the assignment because, chances are, it did happen to someone else. This made me realize that not all professors are “out to get me.”

Friday, September 13, 2013

3B: Winter Wonderland

I love snow! I’ve been around it my whole life. My dad has been a skier since he was young and naturally he passed it onto me; the moment I turned 5 my dad got be on the two skis and basically pushed me down the hill. Ever since then, from the months of Novemberishh to early March my feet are glued to those long wooden boards. I even took up snowboarding a few years ago so I could spend even longer in the snow and mixing things up. Even during a school week, my dad or my older brother will take me up to Massachusetts to get some night skiing/snowboarding in.
                Over the years I have become more committed and eager to better my winter sporting skills. My dad and siblings have pushed me to becoming better and better and to push my limits, which keeps me motivated. Because to get better at this sport, you need to constantly practice to better and keep up everything you have learned.
                Yet, I was never allowed to leave the house until my schoolwork had been done, and if I hadn't finished by the time everyone was leaving, I would have to stay home (though I constantly thought this was a bluff, I've
been left home too many times to count) and with this, it doesn't affect anyone but me, so this is one incentive my parents used to make me get my work done.

                But there is one thing in life that, no matter what, you will do anything to go do. Like I would suffer through hours of homework just to go to the mountain with my friends or family. And if I want to continue skiing in college I am going to have to be caught up with my homework way in advance to leave early and head up to up state or Massachusetts. And if really means a lot to me, it will motivate me to get all my stuff done. 

3A: He Said, She Said

We all struggled through reading the large and confusing words of Shakespeare. The first time you pick up a book from him, maybe freshman year of high school and it was probably the infamous Romeo and Juliet (the only part which was enjoyed in reading that book was later watching the beautiful Leonardo DeCaprio play RomeoJ). You probably read the first page and felt as if you were reading some foreign language. Trust me, I felt the same way, and if you didn’t feel this way at first, please tell me your secrets. But overtime we grew used to it and it just became a second language.
Sadly, it’s been a while since I’ve read Shakespeare so my interpreting skills are a little rusty but I can try my best to interpret this:
“There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so” –Shakespeare
The first thing that pops into my head when I hear this quote is over analysis. Basically I think that everything is an action and it is sort or neutral to begin with, yet each person has a way of interpreting it, which they decide whether it good or bad; there is no exclusive good or bad, it is all a matter of opinion.
                Though people have their own voices and opinions I believe that people (such as parents) have a little say or persuasion to what we feel. Throughout our lives we receive incentives that play as extrinsic motivation or intrinsic motivation. When we get trophies or metals or even a good old pat on the back (though I’d much rather have the material incentives haha), we know what we are doing is good, so we continue to do it. But when we are punished; put in timeout as kids, or even sent to jail as adults, we know what we are doing is considered wrong in our society and should stop.
                But think about this: what may seem bad to some, may not be so bad to another. For example, a man steals from a convenience store. The law sees him as “bad.” But he says he stole for his children, so they could eat. His children, and maybe some observers of the situation, see this as “good” behavior or at least behavior that had to be done.

                With all this being said, some people are stuck in their ways, or have ha fixed mindset on how things should be. So their opinions are those in which they think is right or good. Yet there are the few that realize that there are multiple ways to look at a situation, and what may seem wrong to some, may not be to another.


Photo link: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Foneonethreeeight.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F11%2F23%2Fromeo-and-juliet-poster-campaign%2F&h=0&w=0&sz=1&tbnid=pd5dmNAAdTdccM&tbnh=267&tbnw=189&zoom=1&docid=KUSUcN7KwHSiiM&hl=en&ei=scwzUry_HbO84AOXpoHoCg&ved=0CAEQsCU

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Suicide Awareness Day

Today I'm blogging just to raise awareness, not for a grade. It is sort of a tradition to write "love" on your wrist, and as a "mainstream" kind of girl I obviously did. In my opinion it silently shows support to those who cant speak out. So show your support.

My "Love":

Saturday, September 7, 2013

2V: Innovative

                Innovative. The first words the pop into my head when I hear this word is, progress, new and efficient. Now I have no idea what this word could actually mean but that’s what I think of it. But since vocab isn’t really my thing, I decided it would be a smart idea to look it up.
                Dictionary.com describes it to me as, “to invent or begin to apply (methods, ideas, etc)” (I WAS kind of RIGHT, SCORE!!) But what does this have to do with my college path or college experience. Could it have to do with creating new study, eating, sleeping habits? Could it have to do with the way you have to think and apply yourself in your new classes?

                What I think this word means in reference to me is that I will have to create new methods then I previously have used, like throughout high school, to make my way and succeed in college. Things here are different than they once were, like the teachers warned us, and I have to recreate everything I already know. For example, in high school I didn’t start my school work till the night before it was due but in college, the work is going to be much more, so I might have to start a few days before. I need new methods of learning.

Link to Definition: 

2I: Musical Quad

                If I had to have only two things in my life, all I ever need in my life is music and food. Ive loved listening and singing music; writing and preforming songs since I was very young. Though in the recent months I figured, in college, my singing would become more or a hobby or a talent, that would slowly diminish in activity overtime. In some aspects it has but there was one day that did not show these signs.

                There were four of us that were sitting in the quad; myself, Brianna, Darcie, and Elle. We were all talking about ourselves and found out that we all loved to sing. Elle quickly ran up to her dorm and grabbed he guitar and we ran to a rock over in the quad. We didn’t care if anyone stared, we sang songs like, Fix you, Safe and Sound, and I Will Follow You into the Dark. It was relaxing and serine after a long day of classes and homework. Now this reminds me of so many cliché college moments that you hear about and watch in movies but it was nice to do something so familiar with people who had the same interests as me. 
Bri and Elle in the Quad

My favorite song currently:

2B: Going Greek

“Oh the places you will go, the people you will meet, the woman you will become, when you go Greek.” So sororities… when I think of it, I think of the legally blonde; A bunch of popular blondes living under a big house having big parties at the frat house and “dating” the popular, attractive frat boys. I think of a bunch of young girls being harassed, mentally and physically, by her “sisters” just so they could belong. I think of the news stories you hear of young girls being found dead because they were hazed so badly.  Maybe to some sororities or sorority sisters do fit this stereotype but I get a different vibe from the ones at SCSU.
                I went to Omega Zeta Pi’s first rush event. For those who don’t know what a rush is, it’s an event that gives you a taste of the sorority life and the sorority a taste of you so they can decide if they want to invite you I or not. I was skeptical of going but I decided it would be nice to put myself out there and maybe make some friends.  This first one was a “mock”tale mixer. We got to ask questions, mingle around, all while having a classy nonalcoholic drink. It was totally cliché, yet I kind of loved acting a little girly.

                One thing struck me is how many of the girls compared it to a family. They said that no matter where they are or they’re doing, one of their sisters will always be there if you need them. And thinking about that, made me really want to be a part of that. I want to have the family, away from my family. So this made me serious about becoming a part of Omega Zeta Pi. It seems like a great way to make friends/sisters that will last throughout my life. It will be a way for me to step outside my comfort zone and be more social and create a new and outgoing version of myself.


Friday, September 6, 2013

2A: What Makes You Happy

So my first week of college was a success J I did all of my work and got grades that we all in the “A” range and I’m pumped! I don’t know if people know this about me but I’m majoring in Elementary Education. I’ve wanted to be a teacher, or work with kids for as long as I could remember and after what happened in my town of Newtown, it only reinforced what teaching means to me.
                It came as no surprise to anyone that I would go to college to become an elementary teacher. I’ve worked with kids extensively throughout middle school and high school so I know what it takes, and I enjoy it. But what if my parents wanted me to make more money in the future and made me major in something else?
The reasons people attend college are what people or teacher have engraved into out head since the beginning of time; you have to go to college, you get more money of you have a college education. We might have gotten the occasional person saying, “Follow your dreams!” but if this dream is what people call unreachable, then the chances are that people crushed those dreams. But this quote from a reading I read for my INQ class says, “…think about the whole of your life, not just your job.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/opinion/06nussbaum.htmlgwh=77B60C910BDD618FB678E5D6142C5B56&_r=0) This reminds me that you really need to do what you love in college so you will love what you are doing in the future. You are going to have to attend this job every day till you retire. If it’s just a job that “pays the bills” it will get old fast. You will be dying to just make it through the day. But if you do something you are passionate about you will, be more committed to your work and will probably do better, and it will show to other people.
So do what you love, because you’re going to be doing it for the rest of your life, not anyone else, so why should they have a say? Do what makes you happy because you’re going to be there for a while.



This link is a career test you can take online to help you possibly decide what you want to do if you haven't figured out already
http://www.careerpath.com/career-tests/