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.