Dorm Life.

My easiest decision when going through colleges was whether i wanted to commute or not. Everyone told me to go away, where ever I go. Recently someone asked me how far away I lived and when I said 20 minutes they asked me why I lived here. I suppose it is silly that I live here when I could just commute for much less money. I wanted the entire experience and I have to say living here was the best decision I every made. I wonder if commuters only commute because they have to not because they want to so that's why I chose commuting verses living on campus as my topic for my video. I am genuinely interested in other peoples points of view on the subject. I chose this as a topic because its something I'm oblivious to, the option of commuting was never even given to me not that I'd take the opportunity. I know a lot of people who have commuted and then lived on campus and vise-versa and I'm interested to see who feels as if they made the right decision and why. I know my decision to stay here was the right one for me so I'm excited to share what I've learned with others.
I know going away from home seems like a hard thing to do but for me it was what i looked forward to all summer.i wanted to branch out and live in my own world surrounded by my friends. living alone is hard, yes, but its so exciting. It's a building full of kids just eating and studying and yelling and laughing and playing and its honestly the most fun I've ever had. I'm grateful for my opportunity to stay here and I wouldn't trade it for the world. So maybe this video project will change m mind and show me the advantage of commuting and why so many choose that road.

Miscellaneous=procrastination

When the assignment was given to record every hour of our days I have to say I was nervous. I knew there would be a lot of sleeping and eating but I didn't realize just how much time i spent on miscellaneous. Most nights are spent in the upstairs lobby doing homework yet i really don't get much work done in the end. I technically am doing homework but It's probably a sentence every half hour if I really focus. It wasn't so much the map of my time that opened my eyes but the result. I saw how many hours I spend "doing homework" and if i really spent all that time applying myself I would have finished every single blog for this class by now. Its a disappointing realization that I have terrible study skills. I've always been an average student but seeing it written down on paper that all my time Ins't adding up is disheartening. As corny as this sounds I think this assignment really made a difference in my life. I kind of see now that I need to completely remove myself from the world and get done what I came here to do or else my parents are paying for nothing. Not everyone has this opportunity and I feel as if I'm squandering it when I spend all my time just hanging around stressing out about all the work I have to do. We read in an article this week about how trying to change everything at once doesn't work and I think that's why I have had such a hard time managing my time here. Ive tried to do everything at once and make it all perfect when I need to take one step at a time. The first step being not thinking of all the work I have to do as motivation. Negative motivation doesn't work I recently found out so maybe I should spend more time actually doing things than talking about how unpleasant they will be.

Size doesn't matter.

Although high school I didn't really believe in being graded on my writing I was really excited about this assignment. the thing about writing is it isn't like math where you're either right or wrong. There's a lot of grey area because its basically opinion. I've given duplicate papers to different professorial and gotten drastically different critiques. So why are we given the task of judging others when its all just a matter of opinion? I do have a moral issue with this I do like judging, so I accept the challenge. 

I chose Weston's blog as my example of A work because it was refreshing after reading the same thing over and over again. I like individuality and I enjoy change so it was nice to see how he interprets things. I love how he embraces his differences of opinion. Most people would get discouraged but he keeps on going with what he feels is right. Even in class he does this. He may have a different pinion than me but as I've stated in previous entries I admire bravery. Popular opinion is that length is what makes a good entry but I disagree. When given a required length An entry can consist of ramblings and nonsense. I feel about Weston's blog how I feel about mini skirts, they're long enough to cover the important parts but short enough to keep me interested.

We're going to miss this.

When you graduate from high school everyone has an opinion or some words of wisdom. For some of reason everyone thinks they know the secret. Teachers, family, friends, everyone has their two cents that we absolutely have to hear. I've been told it all from 'stay safe' to 'enjoy the moment' to 'study hard'. Its hard to see whats right and whose just talking for the sake of talking. I'm quite the individual so anyone that gives me advice really has to know me. I don't need to be told how to cherish the moment and I don't need anyone looking over my shoulder pushing me to do my work. I have impeccable balance, and I don't mean that in a cocky way. My parents are polar opposites as are my sisters so I think that helps me know when its time to worry and when its time to savor the time I have here. I know I make it seem like I think I'm perfect but that's not the case. If I applied myself I could have straight A's but I've become comfortable with average. Maybe I enjoy the fun side of college a little too much but if I had one piece of advice to give to my peers its to enjoy every second of every moment. 30 years from now we'll all be sitting in out living rooms with out 3 kids and white picket fence looking forward to the PTA meeting next Tuesday and we'll wish we had back the Monday morning 8 AM lecture. These are without a doubt the best years of our lives and maybe its hard to see that now but we will always have these memories. Not necessarily of the Friday nights at the club but the Monday nights spent in the sixth floor lobby sharing a pizza listening to Taylor Swift and swapping stories about our awkward middle school days. That's what I'll cherish, that's what we all need to learn to enjoy to have a successful college experience, all the small things.

Convocation

While attending the new student convention I saw the president of Southern along with almost all of the most important people at the school.  Including almost all the deans of the different departments and the President of the Senior class here at Southern.  I also witnessed the introduction of the class of 2016 and the resolution of it too.  The messages that the speakers had portrayed to us was to do our best at Southern, try our hardest, and to put school first.  Also, that Southern truly is a great school, and that it has so much to offer.  The speakers messages really stuck to me and it made me think twice about how great Southern really is already to me.

Hard Work Vs. Talent

Yesterday we discussed hard work verses talent. An interesting point was brought up, weather or not students at Yale were smarter than us here at Southern. My definition of 'smarter' wasn't necessarily the same as everyone else's. I find intelligence to be exemplified when you look at your life and you are satisfied. Maybe even more than just satisfied, I think intelligence is happiness in a nutshell. Just because you've memorized a bunch of math equations it doesn't mean you're "smarter" than me it just means you are either better at retaining knowledge or have more motivation than I do. If you are happy in your little apartment down town flipping burgers for a living and you have you're health and that's all you need then more power to you. That may not be my idea of perfect but if you are exactly where you want to be doing exactly what you want to do then you must have made some pretty smart decisions to get to that place of perfect bliss. I do not think the girl who stays up until 3 AM studying at Yale to please her parents is smarter than me, a girl who goes to a state school taking on the exact amount of course work she can handle and still be able to maintain a social life. So that's my idea of 'smart', being happy. It takes hard work to be happy sometimes when you live by the american definition of the word. I for one do live in the real world where success in my career will equal happiness. I know that's not everyone feeling on the subject but I whole-heartily believe money can bring you happiness. With money you don't have to worry about much and a worry free life sounds good to me. Hard work will get me to where I want to be, not talent. and I believe intelligence comes from your own personal definition of the word happy. I don't think you are born with talent I think you cultivate it with hard work. There are extenuating factors that can cheat the system but lets assume we're not the exception, like Brian Clark Howard said ''Of course, privilege and luck can greatly ease the way, but there’s little substitute for 10,000 hours of work.''

Circumstance

When I was about five years old I received some news that would change my life forever. My sister was 16 and pregnant. I am the youngest of to sisters and we're 12 and 10 years apart. Its great to be the baby especially when there's no one even in the same vicinity to compete with for attention. This news was a major shock to my family but we adapt. Kayla was born and my life changed drastically. Now I know this doesn't sound like a hardship but for a fie year old its hard to understand. none of my friends had sisters or brothers that were having baby's and why wasn't she married? Isn't that how its supposed to go? I didn't understand the teen single mother situation that my sister was in. It's not anyone's  fault but I was left alone to deal with this. My parents had to take care of Jessica and her newborn and my other sister, Jennifer was only 15, she didn't want to deal with it either. So as time went on Jenny went away to college in California and  I was left alone in a house with a screaming three year old who was very stubborn and almost motherless. The thing about my sister is she didn't know what being a mother was so she was just my nieces friend for the most part. and when my mother was forced to take over that motherly roll I was put on a back burner. I'm not saying this is a traumatic event and I'm not saying it messed me up in any way but on the contrary. I think it taught me to be selfless, to put others first even when its so hard and I don't understand. Putting others before myself is something I hold as one of my best qualities that will carry me through college as someone everyone can count on no matter what.

Study Skills Enrichment.

I went to the office of the Study Skills Enrichment program and asked them what their main goal was for the fall semester. I recieved a few answers but one stood out in my mind. I was told about how they want to stress the importance of being a place anyone, freshman to senior, could go for help in any area. They value their position of being one of the most diverse programs on campus and hope to draw in those who need help. Self-improvement is their objective.
Here is a link to their webpage.

structure.

Beginnings are awfully important things. first impressions mean the world to some people these days. job interviews can drastically change your life and everyone remembers the first date so a blog should be no different. I feel as if you don't absolutely fall in love within the first page there isn't much promise for the future. I take first impressions very seriously. From the blogs I read I saw that there were a lot of different directions I could take mine. I could be emotional and make connections to my everyday life and pull at my readers heart  strings. on the other hand I could work it as an advice column and tell people what they should do to improve their lives. The second blog goes the way to be positive reinforcement for the reader. Then I was beginning to see that neither of those were ways I could go. they just weren't me. they weren't my style and I wasn't interested in writing about those things at this point in my life.Then I clicked on the third link. Kinda a Goldie Locks syndrome. One was too mushy one was too hard and one was just right. Rebeccablood.net is the blog i was most interested in. It was more of a free write. I believe the best ideas come from free thinking when you just let everything flow out of you all at once. That's what I want my blog to be. I want to be free to let everything come out with no reservations. Although, there is a downside to that. When I see blogs that are 'free' they can sometimes become disjointed or choppy. I've always struggled with letting my thoughts get away from me and flow into these little unconnected sentences that make no sense when put together. I'm hoping a routine writing project like this will give me some more structure in my life and writing until its Just right.

The great escape.

What does college mean to me? I guess I could rewrite my essay from freshman year when they asked me what high school meant to me. "Well, it's a great opportunity for a higher form of learning where I'll have more room to grow as an individual". While that is the cookie cutter B+ answer that's expected of me it's simply not how I feel anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the opportunity but for me college means I don't have to give those silly girl next door answers anymore. This place means freedom, freedom from my parents, a dress code, and all those other rules that I never really understood. I can be myself here, college is where I don't need anyone's approval, college is where I can speak my mind, college is where I'll wish I am when I'm 40 with three kids and a white picket fence. Everyone says these are the best years of our lives so who am I to disagree? Yes, school does come first but my own happiness is second to none. Academically that was a contradiction but I'm happy with the previous sentence so that's how it will stay. I hope that clears up any confusion about my priorities. I agree that getting good grades here is very important but I will say what I want to say here, I will stay true to myself. So here I am, with happiness and academics on an almost level playing field so where does my social life come in? I'd like to sit here and write about how it's all business in this dorm but unfortunately this is the real world and book worms don't grow on trees. I have a life, and i intend on keeping that life through hell and high water. This may make me sound ignorant but I've never met a soul who's had it all. Social acceptance happiness and good grades? It just doesn't happen and if you meet someone who says they have all those things in spades, they're lying. I certainly don't know everyone in the world and hey, I could be wrong, there could be such a thing as having it all but that's just too easy for my liking. so what does college mean to me? It's a balancing act, my friends my books and a smile, and I'm not frightened in the least to see which wavers first. That's the fun part after all.