"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." -St. Augustine

This week my friend, Rachel, and I went to my friends’ college, Bryant University, to visit. This was a new experience for me because I am not use to going away for the weekend with just a friend. My parents are pretty strict and would never usually let me go anywhere without them or knowing exactly what I am doing. I am the youngest in my family so they are they still think I am just a little girl. My father is a police officer and only thinks of the negative things that can happen. Since my dad tells me all the things that go on, I have always been a “worry wart”. So I was a little nervous for us to drive two and a half hours on our own to get there. Neither of us knew where we were going exactly, although we had our GPS, we were not familiar with the area. I was also a little nervous because I have never driven with Rachel before and one of my biggest fears is being in a car accident.

All my nerves were subsided when we finally got there. We had no problems getting there and I was completely comfortable with Rachel’s driving. The weekend was a lot of fun! We were reunited with a few of our high school friends that we have not seen in a while. We also made many more new friends, and had the best time ever! My parents saw how responsible I was that weekend and now this weekend they are letting me go to Uconn. I am very responsible and know I will be fine I am really into competitive dancing, so during February to April most weekends I would have a dance competition and would be with my family. Going to different places each weekend has really opened me socially. I feel like I have more freedom and finally feel like an adult. I am glad I had this experience and know I will have a lot more like this. 

"Education is... hanging around until you've caught on" -Robert Frost

I was lucky enough to only have two midterms, including our Inquiry video project. My other midterm was in my western civilization class, although I did not do too well on that. Since my grade on my exam was not as good as I wanted it to be my grade in the class is not up to my expectations. I have a C+, which is passing, but I am not satisfied with this. My grades on my quizzes are excellent, but the exam messed everything up. I understand that I did not study as much as I should have and my grade is the result of that. However, I have A’s in English and Inquiry, which I am very happy with. I know I have been working hard with all the assignments in these classes and my grade reflects my efforts.

I am not good at taking tests and that is definitely a downfall I have. When I have to write a paper or do some type of project I get more into my work and put more effort into the work. I get very nervous when I have to take tests and quizzes, and I freeze and forget some of the material. What I need to work on is studying harder and longer. I get bored easily and get distracted during the time I set for studying. Since I know my grades I know what classes I really need to work harder in. I am now willing to set aside more time for studying rather than socializing. By doing this I will get the grades that I want.

Getting the Grade

 

The grade inflation that is going on in different school is unjust. If there are students from different schools who have the same grades without inflation, it is not fair to the student who is working just as hard but does not go to a school with grade inflation.

I believe that high school and college students are studying less, because having a high school or a college diploma means nothing today. Since it is like that, I feel students aren’t applying themselves because it has become a necessity to finish high school and college. When you go beyond getting a bachelors degree and going to get your masters or doctorate, is what jobs really look at. I think that is one reason that students’ grades have been decreasing in American education.

I know from my own experience I am putting the same amount of effort into my college work as I did for my high school work. I took mostly honors classes in high school and now I feel that my classes now are just a little bit more complicated than that. I know that when it comes down to it I will apply myself and get the grades I want.

"The first and best victory is to conquer self." — Plato

For my video I focused on self-discipline. I wanted to research this topic because I do not have self-discipline, and I wanted to see if other college students are really buckling down or if they are not being completely focused. I have learned that if you have self-discipline you are able to focus better and you can achieve your goals faster.

"We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create the dreams." -Unknown

In one of my older posts I talked about the dance club, the Symphonic Pulse Dance Company. This dance company interested me because I have danced my entire life and not dancing for the majority of the week was devastating. When I found out I missed the Southern Connecticut State University Dance Team, I was upset, but then I saw the signs for this new dance club. I decided to go to the auditions to see if it was something I would be interested in; well I knew I would be, I was going to be dancing! I made it onto the company and started about two weeks ago.

At first I was worried because my sister has always been my dance teacher and she has a very unique style of teaching. I was worried that I would not be able to catch on to the choreography as I normally do. We started learning a dance to Thriller; it was different for me at first because the dance is inspired by African dancing. I have never taken any classes in this subject before, so I was a little bit intimidated. We still have not finished learning that dance yet but I feel comfortable with the choreography and am willing to work hard on things I do not get right away.

For the homecoming parade this weekend we are performing to Fame. This dance is more my style of dancing, it is a jazz piece that is a lot of fun! We are starting off the dance with a little bit of acting and free style. I was super excited when I they explained this to us because I can put a little of my own personal style into the dance. I am excited to perform this at the parade because it will be our first performance with everyone on the SPDC team! 

"Every kid needs a mentor. Everybody needs a mentor." -Donovan Bailey

Our class has just recently got a peer mentor, Lee. Lee is a very real person, she tells it like it is, and that’s what I like most about her. She is an inspiration to me; she has gone through so much in her life but turned her life around and is now going to graduate college. Shows us that we can do whatever we want if we have determination. She has definitely brought a positive outlook to our class. One class we did a laughing exercise that made us give off positive energy by laughing.

Lee wants us to learn about ourselves and gives us activities to do that help us with that such as writing our priorities and an ‘I am” poem. Some of us had a hard time with these activities because we do not know ourselves that much. We are still searching for who we really are.

It is nice to have a peer mentor because we are able to relate to them, because they are students here at Southern Connecticut State University just like us. Having Lee in our class adds more college level thinking and responses. She is always willing to give her opinion and express herself. I have learned a lot from Lee. She has taught that I should use more creative thinking rather than having such an original answer. That I should think outside the box. 

"Speech-Language Pathology- because silence isn't always golden." -Unknown

I am majoring in communication disorders. I have wanted to do this for a while. One day I sat down with my sister and we had a talk about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I told her that I wanted to work with children and help them in some way, but I did not want to be a teacher. I knew I wanted to work with kids because at my sister’s dance studio, I help her with the little kids and their enthusiasm is outrageous. They have so much energy and are so funny and great to be around. So knowing that I am able to help a little kid is just a great feeling! My sister introduced me to the idea of becoming a speech pathologist, and instantly I was hooked. She had majored in it when she went to Southern Connecticut State University, but ended up changing her major to psychology. She told me that she regrets her decision and wishes she had stuck to communication disorders.

What made me most interested in being a speech pathologist is being able to help people. I want to work in an elementary school and work with little kids. There is a lot of need for speech pathologists, and would be easy to get a job right out of college. A friend of my family’s is a speech pathologist at our junior high school, and she told me that I am in the right field and that she loves what she does, and knows I will love it too.

I am excited to start taking classes that I have to for this major, and I can not wait to start what I will hopefully be doing for the rest of my life! 

"A blog is merely a tool that lets you do anything from change the world to share your shopping list." -Unknown

To me a good blog post is about being creative and being able to connect with the reader. By being creative the writer should include things that can help us know them as a person. They can do this by their choice of words, pictures they use, or the title of the post. They should also be creative by the pictures they choose and where they place them throughout their post. When I see an interesting picture in the beginning of a post I become intrigued and want to read to see what this has to do with their post, or after I read a post it is nice to see a picture to wrap up the post. Another thing that can grab my attention is the title of the post. A good title is always a good way to attract people, if you have an interesting title, that will make the reader think, they are more willing to read what you have to say. I try to use pictures that wrap up my post and show a little something that I wrote about. I also like to title my post with a quote that has to do with the topic I am writing about. It is fun for me to look around and find all the different quotes that have to do with one topic, it is interesting to me so I feel others would be interested too.

I feel the most important aspect to a good blog post is connecting with the reader. If you can write about something that someone else has gone through, they can relate to you and feel comfortable. I enjoy dancing so right away Kaitlyn’s blog grabbed my attention. I felt a connection with her because of our similar interests. A good blog post is what you make of it; you should have fun writing it and put a little bit of yourself in each post. 

"There are no short cuts to any place worth going." — Beverly Sills

My inquiry topic I am doing my digital storytelling project is on self-discipline. I am focusing my project on the question ‘are students willing to work hard for the great reward of graduation and getting any job they want, or are they okay with just getting by and having fun now?’

The marshmallow video showed that most of the kids wanted the marshmallow right away and would not wait to get two marshmallows. This is a experiment that was done with children and if college students where asked to not eat a marshmallow and if they waited long enough they would get two, most would wait however long it took. This is why I wanted to explore this idea. I want to ask students if they are at Southern Connecticut State University to get that “college experience” or are they here to work hard for their future.

I understand life is too short and you should live in the moment, and I am wondering if this is what some students believe during their time here. If they are doing the minimum so they can graduate and have their bachelors degree to get a good job, that they might not enjoy doing. But if they are having the time of their life, is it worth it now?

                                        

On the other hand those who are always studying and giving a hundred and ten percent for all their school work. They are thinking of their future and have a great sense of self- discipline. They are not ok with just getting by and want to work hard now so they can get a good paying job that they are happy with. But if they spend all their time on school work are they really missing out on their “college experience”?