It's The End As We Know It

Since coming to Southern, I’ve definitely learned a lot about myself as an individual. I’ve continued to work hard like I did in high school and have been successful thus far in my college career. I have had a lot to deal with in my first semester from juggling athletics, athletic study hall, time management, and rehabbing from an injury I incurred this past spring. I think the thing that has made me most successful managing all these things is the fact that I don’t complain about having to do everything. There are a lot of people on my team who complain about having to go to study hall, but the fact of the matter is that I understand it makes me a better student. I know that if I didn’t have the study hall, I would still do all the work because I understand from Millbrook what kind of time it actually takes to get a college workload done. I like the fact that though that after a long day, I have a place to go where it is quiet and can get some work done.

            Managing athletics has been difficult since coming to Southern. The fact of the matter is that I’m going to be consumed by athletics once my classes end at roughly twelve every day and won’t end until five in the afternoon. That is a lot of time to dedicate towards something every day of your life. I love the competitive atmosphere though and everything that it has to offer. It is so much fun every day to go and blow of some steam hitting baseballs and fielding. Not only that but there is great camaraderie on the team which makes every hour I spend after classes worthwhile. After talking with the team for a little bit one evening, everyone came to the conclusion that even though we spend so much time playing and would like a break every now and then… playing a college sport makes the days go by so much faster and keep us busy so we aren’t bored.

            I think that my time management skills have been my biggest achievement since coming to Southern. I honestly don’t fear any workload that I’ve gotten so far. I haven’t procrastinated on anything that’s been too far over my head. I have done a good job of knuckling down and understanding that if I get done what I need to, I will have extra time to do things that I would like such as just chilling out and watching a show or playing Xbox with people on my team in the suite. I have to admit that I’ve definitely come to appreciate getting my work done ahead of time so I have time for myself every now and then to just decompress.

            My biggest goal at the beginning of the semester was to start off strong in college. I didn’t want to start off with bad grades and have to work myself out of a rut that I could have easily prevented for myself. I think for athletes to there is a lot more pressure because we have to meet a certain academic standard in order to maintain our eligibility with the NCAA. If we don’t get the grades and work hard in the classroom, the offseason will be the closest you get to play an actual game. I know for some players on my team this academic semester has been a stressful one, but everyone has managed to get by. I am honestly just happy that this first semester didn’t have to be full of stress and I could go to class everyday knowing that I didn’t have to worry about doing bad in the course.

            I tried to go over some things that I’ve enjoyed about Southern thus far and how they’ve affected me. I don’t want to focus on the negatives because I’d rather dwell on the positive things on my final note in the course. I expect to have a lot more success while I’m at Southern and at the same time some difficulties. I understand that everything won’t be so clear cut every time, but with the way I handle things, I can figure out just about anything.

The Final Assessment

When it comes to evaluating how I’ve done this past semester I can think of several things that I’ve excelled at and some areas I lacked in. On a positive note, I have gotten very good grades through this first semester. I am fairly sure that I have all A’s and one B so far (not including finals…). Regardless, I am very proud of that. When I first walked in the door this semester I had heard countless people say that your first semester/year is always going to be the hardest in your college career. I’d like to think I’ve taken that preconceived notion of college and put it rest even though I’m sure there are other people out there who might say something completely different with reference to first year academics in college.

            I think the second thing I did well this semester was balancing schoolwork, my athletics, and personal well-being. I have been extremely busy this semester with academics, athletics, and taking care of an injury I incurred this past spring. For me this meant a lot of running around and very little down time. Personally I like moving around and getting things done because it makes me feel like I’ve accomplished a lot throughout the day. Going to school though, straight to athletics, then physical therapy, and study hall at night, I’m just absolutely exhausted. I think the thing I’m most proud of regarding all this is that I never once complained about my daily schedule or even questioned it. I merely went to everything that needed to be done and put my best effort forward.

            This last paragraph should be about something negative that happened this semester or something that I need to work at. I think though for once in my life I’m going to give myself a break on this section and say that I did a pretty good job. I can be my own worst critic at times and fail to give myself credit for the good things I do. For once I just want to leave something on a positive note.

Lets break it down

            For the final project, I’ve decided to do the six hundred-word essay about how I’ve done as a student in my first semester in college and where I plan to go from here. I think the first thing that needs to be done is answer all the questions first listed on the blog for the essay. Once I’ve answered all the all the questions, I think the essay itself will be fairly easy to construct.

            The way I want to construct the essay is to begin with an introduction that lists several things I’ve done that are positive since coming to Southern, but also go through some things that I’ve struggled with. Once I have those basic ideas down in the introduction, I can use the body to explain each premise and how it has affected my college experience so far. What I want to incorporate though is the questions subtly in the text so it doesn’t seem like I’m just answering the questions one after another or to have an appearance like each paragraph is just based on a specific question.

            Even though this seems like a lot of work at first glance, I don’t feel as if it will take very long at all. I think the reason it won’t take long is because It’s all personal. It doesn’t require any research; the information is merely drawn from an analysis of you.

            I can already think of a lot of things that I’ve done well since coming to Southern, but at the same time I can think of some things that I need to work on. Not major things, but very simple things that require simple fixes. There is no worse critic though when it comes to evaluating yourself than you. You need to give yourself credit where credit is due, but at the same time understand what needs to be done to get better.

            

A little help can't hurt

For this weeks campus safari I decided to make a visit to the writing center. For our anthropology class we will have to write an essay for our final based on a point of view we have towards whether Black American English exists as a separate language or is it just apart Standard American English. I have a pretty good grade in the class and would like to keep it that way so I thought I would ask the writing center about something that I struggle with. I write thesis statements well, but I struggle with placing the thesis statement at the end of my introductory paragraph where it should lie. Instead I always begin with my thesis statement, which you really shouldn’t do, but is acceptable. The tips that I received were actually very helpful. I think the one that stuck out to me most was taking all my premises and describing them in brief detail to give the reader a general idea about what my stance is on the subject and where the paper is actually going. Once I have done that, I can express my position on the topic at hand. My introductory paragraph actually looks very good and is in basically the reverse order or what I would normally do.

The LAST video

For my last video project in INQ, I’m pretty happy with it. The assignment was to take something that college students have difficulty with and make a video that addresses the problem and then come up with a solution. Instead of doing a skit though I decided to make several comics and explain what they portray. The four problems I chose were healthy eating, money management, making friends, and exams. To me those seem like problems that first year students may have in college.           

            I had fun making the comics, but at the same time when I scanned them onto my computer, they didn’t come out perfect when I added them into the video. The text is somewhat difficult to read, but I think I explain the problems well enough in the video that a viewer can follow along. I always want to try something different than the norm so I thought this would be a good way to go about it. The last video I tried something different by hiking up West Rock and videoing it and that didn’t turn out the way I was necessarily hoping, but nonetheless, the thought was there.

            I think I did a pretty good job with this video by have a clear beginning and a clear ending. I know for the past videos, I was lacking in those two areas and for this video wanted to try and address that more. I also took out having music in the background with the narration because I thought it got a little overwhelming in the last two videos. Overall though I’m pretty happy with how the assignment came out. Even though I’m not a huge fan of sitting in front of a webcam and explaining the comics, It really didn’t come out that bad.

Criticism At Its Best

After finishing the Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp, I’m happy to say that I’ve actually learned a lot. The book itself to me doesn’t really delve into creativity or maybe I just don’t see creativity the way Tharp does. On the other hand, I see endless life lessons that are addressed in the book which are extremely important when trying to accomplish things in life. I have to admit that I wasn’t a big fan of some parts of the book more towards the beginning. I didn’t like the idea of Tharp blathering on about a “box” which I really couldn’t relate to.

             As the book went on though she talked about things like having skill in your field. Tharp says, “What all these people have in common is that they have mastered the underlying skills of their creative domain, and built their creativity on the solid foundation of those skills” (162). I thought this idea of skill which seems trivial at first glance is actually essential to even getting and idea of the ground.  You need resources that stem from some type of prior knowledge you have in your field of interest.

            I also liked how Tharp talked about the “Spine” of an idea. She defines it as the roots of the idea or the foundation from which creativity begins. The spine of the idea is what keeps you on track and able to ultimately accomplish whatever endeavor you may have. I also liked the fact of how Tharp includes ideas from earlier chapters related to how they affect the “Spine” of your idea. I thought that was important because at times I was having trouble figuring out how some of her ideas from earlier on in the book related to idea introduced later in the book.

            The final part of the book that spoke most to me was troubles you have along the way. Tharp makes it very clear that not every idea you have is going to be ‘fool proof’. There are going to be times when you fail. I think this is the hardest part of the book to address because most people in the world see failure as a negative extremity of creativity or as I would call it being goal driven. Tharp does a very good job of pretty much saying that just because something doesn’t go off the way you expected it that you were a failure. There are always going to be positive aspects with the negative aspects, it is on you to separate the two and analyze each.

            Even though I think Tharp’s and I idea of creativity differs, I feel we have a similar view in the way we approach each of our definitions. What she calls creativity, I see as book to help people with accomplishing goals they have in life. She delves into life lessons and where to start with becoming a more goal oriented person in life. This whole process is essential to people because without goals, we really have nothing to push us to greatness.            

The Buley Safari

The trip to the library was actually very informative. I had never been in the library until that point. I am sure I’ll be there more often though next semester because I won’t have mandatory academic study hall through the athletic department. It will lie solely on me to make the right decisions and fit in my own study time. I think the most interesting thing I found out about the library is that it has librarians dedicated to each graduate program. I personally think that is essential to the success of students because it makes the process of finding books you need for your major that much easier.

            The library also has a vast amount of resources for finding information that has been pure reviewed. Pure reviewed articles are extremely important when it comes to writing papers. I learned that firsthand while at Millbrook because I had to write a lot of research papers that required sources to be cited properly. If you look up articles on Google, you aren’t guaranteed every time to get the author for the article because the article either has multiple authors, or was written by an individual who writes for the website itself. When you go through a libraries peer reviewed search engine, most of the time they already have the article cited for referencing purposes which makes your job just that much easier.  Plus from personal experience, search engines that bring up pure reviewed literature is a lot more reliable that your standard Google search.

            The article I found at the library had to do with finding correlations between group and individual autonomy. The author wanted to know if people portray more positive behavior when demonstrating autonomy in a group activity or working individually. The article more or less came to the conclusion that autonomy is more self driven because of the fact that self reliance is driven more by what you have to offer. When you are in a group setting, you are more likely to put off on others when you could easily accomplish.

Works Cited- Jønsson, T., & Jeppesen, H. (2013). Under the influence of the team? An investigation of the relationships between team autonomy, individual autonomy and social influence within teams. International Journal Of Human Resource Management, 24(1), 78-93. doi:10.1080/09585192.2012.672448