Lessons Learned, Final Blog Post

     All that crosses my mind when I think about the beginning of college is completely dreading both of the orientations. The one in May with our parents, and the one right before school started. It was partially because I was nervous and partially because I just didn’t want to start school again. I have never been good with change and starting a whole new school for 4 more years is a drastic change. I had my mind set before I even applied to colleges that I was going to commute. I knew I wanted to go to an in state school, but Southern was my last choice. I guess it worked out for the better that I ended up going here. Coming into college I already knew what I wanted to major in, so I put it on all of my college applications. I was already a step ahead by knowing and actually being interested in what I wanted to do. Working with kids was always one of my passions so I decided to be a speech therapist in an elementary school.

     I remember one of the first emails I got was for this class. I read it and literally started crying. I was so overwhelmed by what it said and felt like I wasn’t prepared to start college, never mind start homework before I even stepped foot in the classroom.  But I calmed down and anticipated for the first day. I only had two classes so it wasn’t that bad. I got to know my professors and adjusted to the classes fairly well. I ended up dropping my communications class within the first week, and I don’t regret that decision even though I ended up taking a class I had absolutely no interest in.

      I learned a lot about myself in the last 4 months than I did in the last 4 years of my life in high school. Socially, mentally, and work wise I figured out a lot that I never knew.  I’ve made friends, and lost old ones, gained knowledge, and expanded what I already knew. One of my greatest successes is passing 4 math tests that I NEVER passed in high school. Sounds silly, but I was never the best at math, Now in college, I have almost an A+. That is totally shocking to me and I could not be more proud of myself.  I’ve always been good on the homework and class work aspect of school; I think that’s what always kept my grades up. As much as I study, I do not do well at all on tests. That is what always jeopardizes me in all my classes.

            Since I knew what I wanted to do before entering college, I had person goals that I set for myself. In order for me to get into the CMD program, I need to keep a B in all my classes, and get a 3.0 gpa by the end of the semester. So that was one of my biggest goals. After we took midterms I reached that goal in almost all of my classes, since then I feel like I achieved those goals. But we will see after finals come around.  Till this day one of my favorite things we learned in this class that has stuck with me is the 10,000 hours theory. You need to work at something for more than a day, more than 24 hours to become a master at it and I couldn’t agree more.  This can also go along with what we learned about Twyla Tharp. In order to be creative you have to work at things to improve yourself. Even though these are two little things we learned in class I connected with them more than I thought. I will definitely take these two discussions into my next 4 years because I can use them with anything I do.

“ I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets record of successful experience behind him”

          -Eleanor Roosevelt



My family is what keeps me motivated. They are the only ones that I can truly count on, and the ones who I know will always will be there. My family expects so much from me, and they believe in me. When my whole family is together and they ask me how college is going they give me nothing but encouraging words to finish these next three years.  I don't think I could have started college without them and hope every single one of them is still here to finish this long journey with me.