Majors Expo

I’ve completely looked passed the fact that I went to the Majors Expo on October 10, and that it was on the list for a campus safari option. I went there just to see what other majors have to offer, being a nursing major you have to be prepared for the competition and how much effort you have to put into it. But, then again you can put in endless amounts of work, have a high GPA and you could still be disappointed in the end. I guess what I’m getting at is that I want to keep my options open. I learned a lot about a lot of majors and all the different pre requisites you have to do, to even qualify. Another major I’ve been interested in after visiting the majors expo is psychology. I feel like it gave a lot of good information and help for those who are undecided.  

Halfway done

Although I did study for midterms, I guess I really have to get out of the high school mindset when it comes to tests. I’ve always had a problem telling myself that I don’t need to study that if I don’t already know all the material than I just won’t within the next day or two. And again, that got the best of me. After seeing my midterm grades, I was a little upset with my math grade but I know that I can bring my grade up by the end of the semester if I just continue to get help with what I’m struggling on. I also was really disappointed in my French grade, but I also realized that I need to ask for help with another language because that’s something that just doesn’t come easily. I actually have a meeting set up with my French teacher to improve my grade. All in all I wasn’t completely disappointed in my grades because I realized that I had a B in my anthropology class which I didn’t think was at all possible. I noticed that when I’m not as much interested in a class I just don’t work as hard in it, but I guess with what I am studying it paid off. But I’m going to continue to do the work and study to show that I can be successful in that class if I just set my mind to it. I’m choosing to not share my GPA right now because I know it would be greatly affected by my French grade and that’ll just set me back. I could also say that my grades do represent how much time and effort I’ve put into my work because honestly, I haven’t put that much time into actually studying for each class and taking the time to do all the homework. But I know now how I performed this half of the semester and plan on improving for the second half.

Failure to Complete Monday's Blog

This past weekend I spent most of my time in and out of the doctor’s office and hospital, between giving blood and getting all these tests done. I didn’t come back to school until Monday morning, and then after my last class I had to go home for another doctor’s appointment to inform me of the results from all the tests that I had to take. My doctor wrote me a note and excused me from all my classes on Monday so I didn’t get a time to really walk around campus and find a sculpture or piece of artwork because of how shitty I was feeling. And on my way to class Tuesday afternoon one of my close friends from home called me and told me that one of our friends was found dead. That was probably the worst thing I could have ever heard, I immediately drove straight home and was surrounded by all the people that I love as we asked ourselves why this had to happen to someone we all loved so much. I ended up driving back to school late Tuesday night, and haven’t left my room all day today. Although this isn’t an excuse to not get my blog done, I just don’t have the energy to walk around campus right now. So there goes assignment number one for this week.

Campus Safari; Office of Study Skills Enrichment

Once again, I fell back on assignments and forgot my last week’s campus safari so here it goes. Last week I stopped by The Office of Study Skills Enrichment, and I learned about all the things that they have to offer. This office can really help everyone here at Southern. They provide you with tips to help you deal with things we all deal with, my main challenge time management. I asked them how they thought I could improve my time management and they explained that I should work on scheduling everything in my assignment book. Plan out what days and what times I’m going to do my homework, other times when I’m going to study, and when I just want to relax. They also told me that once I work on follow this set schedule I will eventually get used to it, and it’s a great way to really manage your time efficiently. They also provide tips on better note taking skills and strategies for taking tests.

A Little Less Stress

There’s probably nothing I stress out about than taking tests. Whenever I study for tests and then I get the actual test in front of me, anxiety takes over and I just blank and forget everything I study, so me and tests don’t really get along. And I stress out even more when it comes to taking midterm and finals. Me and my roommate decided to relax we would get some food at Conn, and then just walk around. We usually always eat in our room, Easy Mac or Ramen but we thought to help relax we’d actually eat a real meal. After we ate, we just walked around campus, down to Davis and then back around past Morrill and the Student Center and then back to our room. Walking is something that really relaxes me and doing it with someone else also really helps me. When we came back to our room I found that I was actually ready to study for my tests and it was easier to concentrate when I had an open mind. Something I also found that helped relieve stress was just hanging out with some friends and talking about stuff that wasn’t school related. Stress is something that I deal with on a day to day basis with my back so I’m used to finding things that can help me relieve stress, but having to relieve stress at school, because of school isn’t really something that I found easy to do. Using my tens unit is also actually very relaxing, so I used it while we walked around again the other night. I never realized that just talking a stroll around campus would actually prepare me more for studying and to help relieve some stress. I took my Geography midterm today and after walking around last night and then studying, I felt really good about taking the test and new all of the information. I think that’s something I’m going to take into consideration when I prepare for finals as well.

West Hall, Our Dorm

Midterm Madness

When I first started college I had high hopes for myself based on getting work done and being able to get good grades. Then once school started I realized that I anticipated little work, and a lot of time, when actually it’s a lot of work and a little bit of time. I think that was the hardest thing getting used too. Once I was adjusted to school and the work load I was able to get a better control on all of my homework. Now that it’s midterms, looking back I realize that I didn’t really accomplish all of my set goals, but I did accomplish a good amount of them. My successes would have to be just being able to get the work done, no matter what. You have to set your time based on how well you’re going to get it done. I used to just do my homework the day before it was due, but I ran into some difficulties with that because there were always other things that I wanted to be doing than homework. Sometimes, I did pick anything except homework and other nights I would stay in my room and get my work done. Now that it’s midterms I started doing my homework in advance. When I go home on the weekends, I always try to do my blog assignment early, and whatever homework I’d have due the next Monday morning I would get done too so that I wouldn’t have to take any homework home with me. I started realizing that I learned the material more when I would do the homework early and then study it more a couple days before it was due. The tests became easier to take, and the material became easier to understand. When midterms are over I do plan on still doing my homework in advance because it really helps me. But, I’m also going to work on studying quite a bit more and putting more effort into that.

 

 

"Failure is Success, if we learn from it." -Malcom S. Forbes

In Mindset by Carol S. Dweck we learned about the two different mindsets, a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. A growth mindset being the basic belief that basic qualities are things you can achieve through effort, and a fixed mindset being the belief that you have only a fixed amount of intelligence and cannot change that. In my opinion I think that you’re only setting yourself up to fail if you don’t have an open mind about working towards something that might take hard work, but you don’t give up and you can achieve it. Also I think that having a fixed mindset won’t let you grow as a person, and you won’t find the need to work as hard as you possibly can on something. Throughout high school I would say that I had a growth mindset up until my senior year. My junior year I told myself that at the end of the year I would have been on the honor roll all three terms, with nothing lower than an 85, and I did just that. I pushed myself as hard as I possibly could and even when I was going to physical therapy twice a week and that took up a lot of time, I was determined to find time to do my homework and study for tests and quizzes and I did achieve that. But, once I started my senior year my mindset changed completely. I was struggling in my math class, and because it’s been hard for all four years in high school, I just gave up. Even when I worked really hard in math and stayed after school to get extra help, my test scores just showed that I truly didn’t understand the material I decided that it wasn’t worth all the work I put into it to just continuously fail the tests. At the beginning of May, my principal sat me down and told me I wasn’t going to graduate if I didn’t pass my math class. I tried explaining to him that no matter what I did, I was still going to fail anyway. Finally, once I realized that I was on the fence for graduation I started making up all the homework that I chose to never hand in, and worked harder than I have ever possibly worked I ended up passing my math class. That right there just shows me that you’re setting yourself up to fail if you have a fixed mindset, and if you don’t believe that you can accomplish great things with dedication.  

"Success is on the other side of your comfort zone"

Although this might not be what someone looks at as “stepping out of you comfort zone,” for me I just wasn’t used to it. I think college in general is a big step away from something you’re used to for something new just because you got used to going to high school every day, relying on your parents, and just being able to see your best friends every day. Now, in college it’s a whole new ball game. You’re responsible for you, making sure to get all your work done on time, cleaning up after yourself in your dorm room, and just going to class in general. And now that I’m finally getting completely adjusted to being away from home I realized I started doing other things that I’m just not used too. When I was in high school, I could simply careless about homework. I didn’t see there to be any point because half of my teachers didn’t even look at it, I saw it as a complete waste of time. Well as senior year was flying by, so was I. I never did my homework, and the only reason I passed quizzes and tests was because I knew I had to really pay attention in class the day before. But other than that, I didn’t even put in any actual effort. That Kayla is gone. I would do homework when college first started but I would always procrastinate and put it off until the last minute. I now finally started doing my homework the exact day I got it, and I also started looking at the syllabus more and more and getting work that’s due next week done as well. I realized that being more responsible has really helped me, it relieved a lot of stress. Now when I’m home working on the weekends I don’t have to worry about where I’m going to fit in time to do my blog for INQ or any other classes I have homework for. Stepping outside of what I’m used to and actually doing my work in advance seems to have really helped myself as well because I’m seeing my grades improve. So I’m actually pretty glad that I pushed myself to start getting work done earlier and I plan on keeping that going the rest my time here at Southern.

You're not alone

For this week’s campus safari I decided to look into the counseling services so I visited the counseling department. They are located in Engleman B-219, you can contact them by phone or fax, the phone number is 1-(203)-392-475. They’re open Monday through Friday from 8:30am-4:30pm. I learned that there is always a counselor available every day for walk-ins and are also on call for phone consultations. The counseling services also provide a good amount of support groups to remind you that you’re not alone. The group topics are Grief, Women’s General Concerns, Healthy Relationships, Eating Disorders, Men’s General Concerns, and Graduation/Transition Stress. I personally think the Transition Stress is something that can help everyone because getting used to college isn’t easy and it’s definitely a long process and it just shows that there are other people who feel the way you feel even if you think you’re alone. I think this is something everyone should check out.

"Everyone should own this book." -Chip Heath & Dan Heath

I completely agree with the argument in Mindset about the two mindsets, growth mindset and a fixed mindset. Everyone has their own mindset some people do have a growth mindset and are open to new ideas and learning new things. I personally have a fixed mindset when it comes to school because I tell myself that I’m bad at math I always prepare to fail in that class. The other day I had a test and I said “oh why even really try because I’m just going to fail it anyways.” But I feel like that right there is just setting yourself up to fail. If you tell yourself that you’ll ace the test, you definitely have an open mind and you probably will ace that test. I think the 10,000 hours really relates to a growth mindset because people who have a growth mindset know that they’re going to have to work really hard to achieve something. And no matter how long or how hard they have to work that they’re going to be happy with the outcome. They’re responsible for how much time and effort they put into something knowing that you won’t really become a “master” at something until you really work those 10,000 hours. But, at the same time I think it also ties into a fixed mindset because you tell yourself, if you work 10,000 hours for something you will become a master at something. So once you put in the 10,000 hours and maybe at first you don’t succeed because you’ll give up because you told yourself “I only needed 10,000 hours, if I’m not good at it now I won’t be good at it at all.” Then you won’t put in maybe the extra couple hours that you needed and then you think you failed. I think mindsets also have a lot to do with motivation because if you’re not motivated to really work for something then you have a fixed mindset, and someone who has a growth mindset and strives for accomplishing things, they have a lot more motivation to get that accomplished.

 

 

Video Project

The reason I chose the topic Commuting vs. Living on Campus is because when I got accepted into Southern that was something I really debated whether I wanted to stay at home and go to school 2-3 times a week or live here, going to class pretty much everyday. I asked a lot of people what they thought I should do and with every single one of these responses were answers that I got. The whole living on campus was based off of being able to get used to the college life somewhat quicker with living here, and being able to get involved and not fully going into college alone because you'll have your roommates as well. Also I'd be saving myself a lot of money for gas by driving back and forth. But, then again some people also told me that I should commute, to start off my first year without the whole peer pressure atmosphere with the partying and being able to get a grip on your work life and school life. I finally thought long and hard and I did decide to live on campus. I decided based on knowing that when things got rough I'd always have my roommates shoulder to lean on and I'd never actually be alone. I also wanted to be able to get used to it for when I knew I absolutely wanted to live here my next few years in college. I also wanted to be somewhat prepared for the real world for once I do graduate college, I want to be able to get an apartment and live on my own and living on campus really teaches you that. It teaches you to be independent, and to take on your own responsibilites because no matter how close you and your roommate or roommates are, they're not going to pick up after you so you learn a sense of how to take care of yourself as well.