INQ FINAL PROJECT

My Video

10I- Pumpkin Me Happy!

Last weekend, I attended a pumpkin decorating assembly in the basement of Farnam. The event was put on by the D.A.R.C. program.  A girl on my floor in my residence hall works for this program and gave me an invite. There was fried dough, fried oreos, candy, and other delicious treats.  When walking into the basement you could find lights and music.  This made it very hard to focus on decorating a pumpkin, but everyone made it work. There was a very good turnout in my opinion.  I am happy with my pumpkin and it is now on display in my room. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays!

10V- Word of the Week

http://www.littletikes.com/kids-toys/pink-double-easel

The vocabulary word of the week is creativity.  This word is uniquely important to me because of the fact that I was raised in a house that focused on art and music.  Although I was also focused on school, a big part of my down time was spent at art school. The definition on creativity means the use of your imagination, in my words. Any activity that requires you to think out of your box of comfortability.

 Two other words that came up during this week were, connotations and demographic.  Both words came up while I was reading a book.  The word connotations means an idea or feeling that a word or phrase evokes.  I also had learned about this word in my critical thinking class. When it popped up in reading, I decided to reexamine its meaning.  The word demographic means something that is related tot he structure of populations. Although I do not completely understand this word yet I hope to learn more about it.  

10B- Creating Me

Ever since I was in first grade, I've known what I wanted to be when I grew up. I sat in my room, watching movie after movie.  From watching media I started developing a sense of style.  I began noticing that people give off a certain aura.  This is when I decided that I wanted to be a fashion designer.

Ever since I was little, I wasn't afraid to look different than everyone else.  I wasn't afraid to try new things and push the limit when it came to what I wore.  Some of this came from my brother.  He taught me that it is okay to be out of the box.  On weekends, we would go to New York City. We would sit on a bench for hours at a time and simply look at the people who passed by.  Some people dressed safe, while others pushed their limits. I slowly learned what worked and what did not from my "people-watching" hobby.

Ever since my brother discovered my interest in design, he buys me a fashion book on every occasion he can. Every Birthday and Christmas, I waited to see what new things I could learn about it.  One year I got a book filled with Valentino dresses through out the years.  To this day, this book is still the place I turn when I run out of ideas.  It is my inspiration to continue in this field of work.

My greatest dream is to become a fashion designer.  I want to style for broadway plays.  I would also be interested in designing formal dresses or other avant garde garments. I had once designed my own prom dress, but never executed it.  Maybe one day I'll be able to achieve this goal. 

10A-

I would write my blog critiquing my midterm video, but I was never able to post one.  As many of you might have noticed, I have failed to post many of my blogs recently. Although I am not proud of this and do not excuse it, I have not been in the best place recently.

 Almost every weekend, I have spent at home.  Most people would assume that I would have more free time, but this is not the case.  My weekends were spent packing, and if I was not packing I was thinking about moving. My mom couldn't of picked a more inconvenient time to decide to leave my childhood house.  With college just starting, I have been very homesick. Lately even when I am home, I don't feel like it.  My house no longer smells of incense and home cooked food. It now smells of cardboard boxes.

On top of being preoccupied with house arrangements, I have also been dealing with computer issues.  My computers camera and audio features have completely stopped working. This is why my midterm project did not get finished.  

My problem when facing a difficult situation, is that I freak out and in turn tend to give up more easily.  I give up and become so stressed that nothing can seem to get me out my "phunk." Although it does not excuse what happened, I believe that now that I am more aware of my actions, I can take control of the situation before it is too late. 

This photo shows what is left of one of the rooms in my house.

Video Rough Draft

Although I only have a minute finished, I intend on interviewing my RA and many other influential Greek Life participants. I intend to first show the stereotypes that are made about greek life and then explain how it truly is. I am going to show how people can get involved with this part of southern. This is what I have to start off with:

6V-Keep on Going

http://cloudyco.com/2005/01/the-honorary-title/

Persistence is when you continue on in the direction of your goal, no matter the road blocks or dilemmas that arise.  This was a very prevalent word this week because of my anxiety.  In many ways it hindered me from doing my work and keeping focused on school, but I continued to focus on school.  Although I may not have put in as much effort as I have in previous weeks, I continued to stay fairly caught up with the rest of my work.

A word that came up this week that I did not recognize was damping.  I read it in a definition in one of my textbooks. The definition I found for damping is a decrease in the amplitude of an oscillation as a result of energy being drained from the system to overcome frictional or other resistive forces.  Although I do not completely understand the definition of this word completely, I found it interesting.  It seemed like it might have a simple definition, so when I found out that it wasn't I was surprised.

The second word I did not recognize this week was, honoraries.  This word was not brought up in a class, but in a conversation between a friend and I.  We were talking about the advantages to being involved on campus.  She talked about how she wanted to know the campus honoraries better.  Although you can infer the definition from the context of the word, I wanted to get the exact definition.  As expected it was an elite member of a group of people. 

6I-My Spot

If you had a private studying spot would you want to tell the entire world wide web about it? It would get too crowded. There aren't many positives to telling someone where you get away from everyone else.  But if you are like me, you may not want to be in a place with a pretty view, or somewhere that you are completely alone. My place to study is at Conn Hall.

http://ascribehq.com/larosa-building-group/portfolio/3568

Most people would think that this is a horrible place to study, but for me it is perfect. Any week day there is a good chance that you will find me sitting alone, with homework strewn across the table in front of me from about nine to eleven in the morning.  Most of the time I will be sitting at one of the tall tables behind the booths.  I like these seats better because if I sit in the seat with my back against the rest of Conn, I am able to block out everyone else. I simply put my headphones in and blast whatever music I feel like listening to.  I  do not know how I am able to do this but I am the most productive while in this spot.  

Although this may not be the same spot that works for you, it is always an option. Everyone's studying habits differ, but if you try different things, you will be able to find out what works for you.

6A- The Climb

When it comes to hardships, we all are facing something.  When reading this weeks assignments I had to decide again how much I want to inform everyone.  It became apparent after a few days what I had no choice what to write about.  

Fears.  Everyone is afraid of something. But what happens when that fear is diagnosed as a phobia. The girl who lives across the hall from me texted me and informed me that she had thrown up Monday morning.  My heart sunk at this information. Ever since I was a child, I have had a fear of getting sick in this way.  I had avoided it at all costs.  Anytime someone I knew would get sick, I would avoid contact with anyone for a week if not more.  Someone got sick in my house, did not walk in that part of my house for two years.  Not until this week did I come to the realization that this was not a fear.  It was a phobia.

I am very vigilant with washing my hands and rarely miss taking vitamins.  I always attempt to get the correct amount of sleep and do everything to avoid this.  That Monday, all I could think about was the possibility of ways that I could have been exposed to the bacteria or virus.  This thought process is what lead me into my week from hell. 

Have you ever convinced yourself that you were sick? So much that you also convinced your body that you were.  Every symptom associated with the sickness rushes over your body at once.  Your throat begins to close up, not allowing you to breathe.  Your whole body begins to shake and you feel as if your worst fear is coming true. Have you ever had it happen more than 10 times in one week?

Neither had I.

In the past week, I have had this exact process happen to me multiple times.  Some during classes, some while trying to fall asleep, some in the middle of the night. When talking to my counselor about it she explained to me that I was having a panic attack.  We worked together in order to find things that would possibly work in order to get me through these attacks. Although there is no way for me to know if any of you have suffered similar anxiety related attacks, and I hope that none of you have, I thought I would explain the things that got me through it.

http://www.medicalook.com/Mental_health/Anxiety.html

• Start taking deep breaths.
• Get a glass of water
• Distract yourself with something that you enjoy(ex. music, socializing, watching television, etc.)
• Assure yourself that you will be okay no matter what happens.
• Talk to someone (ex. counselor, family member, friend)
• Think about the things that make you the happiest.

Although I still struggle with anxiety and panic attacks, I am hoping that I will be able to better control them.  It will not be easy, but with the help of the people who care about me, I hope to improve.  This is something that I have been struggling with for many years, and will most likely still be fighting for years to come.  My only option is to not give up.  I know that in order to overcome this, I will need to face it head on and never let it take over my life. 

5V- Confused Definitions

http://www.snorgtees.com/can-t-touch-this-equation

Many people, including myself had trouble finding the correct definition for the word, agency.  Many common definitions dealt with a group of people established to provide a particular service.  I started writing my blog and finished most of my thought, only to the surprise that it was not the correct usage of the word.  When looking on the blog later in the week, I found out the definition in which we were supposed to use.  "Agency is related to action, power, movement, initiative." Although I could not find any other information with this definition, this closely relates to this weeks articles. 

The focus of this weeks article's, in my perspective, were mostly focused on how not to procrastinate.  By taking agency, students can avoid cramming sessions.  There actions that are thought of ahead of time are very effective.  I have used such agency a few times before when dealing with school work, and plan on working harder in order to make it more of a regular tool. I hope that taking the initiative in my work will make my college experience very positive.

Another word that appeared this week was ambiguity. It arose in my Critical Thinking class. It means a something that has two meanings.  It can make a statement vague because of the two definitions that can be used for the same word.  I was able to apply a word I had heard a few times, into a real life context in this class.

The final word that came up this week was in my Pre-Calculus class.  The word was asymptote.  It came up in class my junior year of high school, but I did not remember the exact definition. When it came up in class this week, I decided to go further into investigation of it.  It is a function that  continually approaches a given curve but does not meet it at any finite distance. I thought that it was very interesting to find out that a function could steadily get closer to an asymptote, but never actually touch it.  You learn things every week!

5I-On My Way To 5K

http://www.5ktrainingschedules.com/?attachment_id=1130

With the homecoming 5k quickly approaching, I figured that I should try to prepare for it.  When I found out that the school was running a free five week program that prepares you for the race, I jumped at the opportunity.  This program started on September 13, and I am now approaching the third group running session.  

Every week we increase the distance that we run by half of a mile.  The first week session consisted of running one and a half miles. After we finished cooling down, we were handed slips of paper with a recommended workout regime for the rest of the week. Seeing that one and a half miles was not extremely hard, I figured that I did not need to follow it.

When I went back for the second group run, I realized that it was much more difficult than I thought it would be.  After experiencing this, I decided to follow the regime more closely for the following week. This Friday, I participated in the third session of the training.  Although two and a half miles was difficult, I felt refreshed and not as tired as I did the previous week. My hard work during the week had paid off. 

  As time progresses the group of people continuing on with the group gets smaller.  We started with approximately 15 people in the first session and are now down to eight.  With only two sessions left to go, I hope that I will be prepared to finish the 5k Homecoming race without stopping once.  The training has definitely helped with this preparation.  I have also met many people who share my love of exercise.  No matter what makes you happy, there are things on campus that you can get involved with.  Go out there and find what interests you!

5B- So Much to Do, So Little Time

http://voices.yahoo.com/cramming-tips-help-survive-all-nighter-468233.html?cat=72
We've all been there, paper due the next day.  You're sitting up at two in the morning, struggling to stay awake.  You know you have no other choice but to stay up and do the paper.  Time management is not something that everyone is just born with.  It is something that you have to work toward.  It has not always been easy, but those late night paper crams make us learn to not get in that situation again.  Some people enter college with these skills of time management, but us less fortunate people might have to learn it now.  

I'll be honest. Up until this very post, I was the person who waited until Saturday to start my posts.  I am the definition of a procrastinator.  I do not feel any inspiration to do work until I know I have no other choice, but to do it. This is one of my biggest flaws, but I'm working on it.  This weeks made me realize that doing things ahead of time, will actually reduce my stress levels. What college student doesn't want that?
This week, since having to record how much time I was spending doing each activity, I felt obliged to spend my time wisely.  As odd as it seemed, I was getting in all of my requirements and not feeling overwhelmed.  By budgeting my time, I was able to be more productive. I spent enough time sleeping, doing homework, and also fitting in a good amount of socialization time.  I realized that my strength is in my ability to multitask.  I was able to get my social time in with my work out, my homework in with my eating.  I realized that my old ways of procrastination weren't effective at all.

This is my turning point.  I am hoping I can keep up with this positive attitude toward time management.  I may have slip ups, but I will continue on with trying.  If I start doubting myself, or feeling as if I don't want to continue with these habits, I plan on reflecting back at this blog post to give me inspiration to keep going.

5A- My Roller Coaster Life

"You have twenty-five minutes to finish the quiz, and if your paper isn't in the pile when I collect it, you get a zero." This wasn't exactly the best way to start of a quiz, although my Micro-Economics teacher thought it was.  Seeing that I have testing anxiety, it also didn't help.  Twenty- five minutes flew by, and I finished the last question as the buzzer went off.  I knew I did not get every question correct, but I also didn't think I did horribly.  When I later found out that my final score on that quiz was a 40, I was heartbroken.  My first grade I received in college was a 40? Not exactly the best start to this four year process I was about to begin.  But instead of freaking out and giving up, I knew that I instead just needed to reevaluate.  I needed to see what I did wrong, and make sure that I did not do the same thing again. 

EVOLVE. 

https://www.cmich.edu/ess/studentaffairs/SDS/Pages/10-Habits-10-Traps.aspx

In high school, I was used to studying for an hour or two and grasping the concepts.  This time was different. I knew that I needed to do more than hand in all of the homework and participate in class. I need to go home and review everything I had learned in class and then practice.  Practice was something that everyone is familiar with growing up. "Practice makes perfect." But what if it doesn't make perfect.  They never told you how much you might have to practice just in order to grasp a concept a small amount more than you did originally.  This was a new concept to me. I am still working on this, but I am hoping that when the next quiz is given next week, I am better prepared than I was for the first one.

Thankfully I feel I have done very well in handing in all of the homework that is due.  I never have much trouble making sure that all of the assigned work is in when it needs to be.  My goal is to receive a gpa of higher than a 2.75 in my first semester.  In order to do this I will need to keep up my homework like I have been doing.  My scores in exams and quizzes is hopefully going to increase.  In my other classes, I seem to be getting good grades.  Micro- Economics will be the challenge of my semester.  Since I know that this is my challenge, it will only make it easier for me to improve.

I will become the student that I want to be.  I know that I am capable of achieving everything that I want.  I will not stop until I am happy with my goals.  My advice to you, is to strive for your biggest goals in life.  You may be having trouble in some classes, but if you just step back and realize what you are good at, you will find it easier to do the things you need to improve on. 

YOU CAN DO THIS. 

4V- Word Game

This week when we started talking about delayed gratification, I had known what we were talking about.  This is a topic I had seen many times before, but I had never been so in depth with the meaning of it. Another phrase used to describe this would be self- control.  It is the ability to see that if you wait and stick something out, the rewards will be much greater than an initial reward.  I had never thought about the fact that this was a foreign concept to me growing up, but it was.  It was not something I was familiar with until I started focusing in more on school.

Words that I saw this week that caught my eye were equilibrium and complements.  These are both words that I have seen and used before, but I had never seen them used in the context that I had this week.  I heard both of these words used during my Micro-Economics class.  Equilibrium is the perfect price and quantity of an item should be.  This is decided based on the supply and demand of this product.  It is where both supply and demand meet at an equal point. 

http://www.investopedia.com/university/economics/economics3.asp

The word complement meant something completely different to me before this week. I used them in the instances of two people in a relationship complimenting each other.  In Micro-Economics it means two items that are needed to be used together.  They are commonly bought together. 

4B- Can you change?

http://chrisnothling.com/2013/05/14/the-marshmallow-in-the-room/

Many questions arose in my mind while reading this weeks assigned articles.  The study that we read about seemed to be very incomplete and did not seem like it was as accurate as people made it out to be.  Sitting there, I asked myself some questions.  If you were not a kid who had self-control when you were young, how can you change the fact that you still are lacking this skill now? I also wondered how accurate this study really was.

When I was younger, I would have liked to say that I would have passed the marshmallow test, but chances are I would not have. I have self- control but I rarely used to think about the long term effects of what I was doing.  When applying for colleges, I realized that I should have tried harder in all of my subjects in high school.  I wish I had realized how much easier the transition would have been if I had changed my academic strategies back then.  I would not have as much difficulty in doing homework, and studying for tests.

I wish I had realized this earlier in life, but I didn't.  So what do I do to fix it now? I am trying very hard to keep up good habits this year, but I realize that if I had tried harder, this transition would not have been as hard.  As I look back, I would take back my slacking in earlier years, to have more of a break now.  I can only now push myself harder now than I have ever pushed myself before.

What if the test was not accurate though? Maybe the kids consciously chose to eat the marshmallow to save themselves the fifteen minutes of waiting.  The children who ate the marshmallow immediately, could have been very proactive children who did not want to waste time.  They realized that they could either of gained one marshmallow, or 15 minutes. Maybe one was more important than the other.  Some children may have known that wasting time was just taking away the time that they needed to do other things.  The marshmallow was not enough of an award to waste their time for.  Has anyone asked this before?

What kind of kid would you have been? Do you think you've changed since then?

4I- Next Steps

http://healthcare.utah.edu/uni/services/whole_therapy.html

Therapy. When most people here this word it gives a feeling of unease.  People feel as if it is something that makes you weak. This was an opinion that a was very familiar while I was growing up.  My parents grew up in family's that felt that they needed to deal with all of their problems by themselves.  They were too proud to admit that they ever needed help.  Why should I be any different?

This week, when looking through the options for this section in the blogs, I came across the option to visit the Counseling Services office.  I realized that by doing this, I would be opening up to everyone on the internet much more than I had intending on doing.  I sat and debated on whether or not this was a topic I wanted to touch and I decided that in order for all of you to get a better picture of me, I needed to do this. 

While walking to class, I noticed the sign that said "Counseling Services" with a big arrow pointing toward the door.  Later that day, I decided that I would at least check it out.  I walked in, paranoid that everyone was looking at me. I had no idea what it entailed, but I continued in.  The receptionist handed me forms to fill out, in which I was very honest while answering.  They gave me an appointment for the next week.

The receptionists were helpful and pointed me to talk to someone they felt would be beneficial in my situation. Seeing that I had never gone to talk to anyone before, I had no idea what to expect.  I was nervous and was worried that someone would judge me because of the fact that I could not deal with my problems on my own.  

I arrived that day with knots in my stomach.  I sat down next to the first person I felt that would not judge me for my past experiences and mistakes.  As I told her my life story I realized that not only did talking to someone release much of the tension that had built up inside of me, but it also allowed me to look at my situation in a third person perspective and think logically for once. By the end of my session, I felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.  

I would strongly recommend people to go visit the counseling services.  They are located in Engleman Room B219.  Don't be afraid to just walk in and ask for an appointment.  It doesn't matter what your reasons behind going are, they can help you achieve whatever you may be having trouble with.  Just know that they are there for you if you ever need them.

Take advantage of the free services that Southern provides!

4A-Slow Down

Many people that I have encountered, have trouble with patience.  Instead of thinking about how things will be influenced down the line, they think about the present moment.  But there comes a point in people's lives when they realize that their previous ways of thinking may not be the best.  Different situations arise in which people realize that some things are worth waiting for. Whether it is involved with work, eating habits, or the grades you get in school, everyone has something.  What is worth the wait for you?

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/18/090518fa_fact_lehrer

I would love to say that I enjoy school work.  Unfortunately that would be a lie.  I have never been exceptional at school.  I have always been an average kid when it came to intelligence. For this reason I felt that I had to work harder in order to achieve desirable grades. When college started I saw the crowds of people who were going out every night. I knew that I wanted to enjoy the social aspects that came with college.  There were academic aspects that were holding me back.

As the semester progressed, I noticed that I was hearing about more people staying in, instead of having eventful nights, because they were not doing well in school.  I feel as if I gained something by not going out every night.  I realized at the beginning of school that although I may have been missing out on the fun at first, I gained a better start at the academic year then I would have gotten if I had followed the crowd, like most people expected me to do.  It is a very common thought that American college students are expected to do this.  We have built quite a reputation for ourselves.

I personally feel as if us, as Americans as a whole are very lazy.  We have expected everything to handed to us, just because a large part of our lives, they have been.  Although there are many exceptions of this rule, there are also many people who live up to the characteristics that society gives to them. Unfortunately I do not believe that this problem can be fixed because it all starts from the way that children are brought up.  If parents give their child whatever they want, they will not realize how to wait for things they find important or work towards this goal.

As technology improves we become a more self centered society.  We are selfish and find it harder to wait for delayed gratification. Can you deviate from the crowd?

3B-Empire State of Mind

People constantly strive to feel an elevated state of mind, but not everyone gets this feeling the same way.  You can get this altered state of consciousness from playing music, watching a scary movie, and in some instances people resort to drugs and alcohol.  Everyone's methods differ based on their own feelings.  My "high"comes from exercise.

http://rollingthunderfitness.com/exercise/

Most people I have spoken with talk about how hard it is to work out and stay dedicated.  People think that regularly exercising is strenuous and hard to keep up.  For me it's hard for me to stay away.  

Growing up I way always very involved in sports.  Being athletic, I was involved in basketball until eighth grade. My addiction to such activity continued into high school.  Although I did not join the basketball team, I joined track and field and found out what made me truly happy.

Ever since my freshman year, I have continued to use the gym as an outlet.  When 

3A-What are you capable of?

Whether we know it or not, the brain is our most vital organ in our body.  It controls everything we do and everything we feel.  Not only is it responsible for our most crucial functions, but it is also powerful enough to control our emotions.  The only problem to this is we need to learn how to control it.  We have the power to control more things than we can imagine.  

"There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so" -- Shakespeare

If someone were to tell you that you could change a situation by simply thinking positively, you would call them crazy.  But are they really? Many studies have found that positive thinking leads to less stress, decreased depression, along with many other things.  This doesn't mean that you see the word as perfect.  We all know that there are circumstances in life that are unfair and cannot be changed.  There are ways, though, that we can look at the unfortunate dilemmas that arise, and see them in a more positive light then we would other times.  This will make the situation easier to deal with more times than not.

 There are many other ways in which the power of thinking comes into play.  In this weeks discussions, we talked about different types of motivation. In intrinsic motivation,  you are examining the short-term goals that you are trying to reach. This is more focused on the physical motivation that people receive such as praise, trophies, and sometimes even punishments.  This quote, in my opinion, has more to deal with extrinsic motivation.  This is when you are thinking about the longer term goals you set for yourself, in which you have to find motivation within yourself.  It is sometimes difficult to find this type because of outlying forces that you have no control over.

2V- The Reasons Why

http://nesrineren.edublogs.org/tag/teaching-vocabulary/

There are times in life in which you have to stand up and take control of a certain situation.  It may not always be easy for us, but there are certain instances in life in which we have no other choice but to do so.  This is where the vocabulary word of the week comes into play.  The word is initiative.  In the dictionary you would find that this word means, "the power or opportunity to act or take charge before others do."  This word is important in college because in order to stick out from the rest of your peers you need to do this.  This is what your teachers, employers, and other influential people will notice.  You also use this in instances in which you need to take control of your life.  Personally I have based many of my previous decisions on other people. In late summer I decided this was no longer going to be the case because these people would not be living the rest of my life for me, so I had to do what made me happy.

Since last week I had a difficult time in finding words in which I struggled with, I decided to take a new approach.  My new strategy involves making a list on the top on my notes of words that came up that I did not recognize.

The first word I did not recognize came up during my critical thinking class.  This word was implicit.  This means that something is implied although it may not be plainly expressed.  It is something that is to be assumed about a certain situation or statement.  I like this word because  it is a common occurrence in daily life although up until this week, I did not know the true meaning of this word.

Another word that arose in this class was relativism.  It means the view that truth is a matter of opinion.  There are many sub topics to this word such as subjectivism and cultural relativism, but I will focus more broadly on this word.  This is also a commonly used situation that most people in the world would not be able to identify.  It is just a theory and cannot be proven because it is a matter of opinion, but I found this word very interesting.

2I- New Haven Experience

Every freshman who attempts to go into Downtown New Haven has their own traumatic experience at some point.  This is a common thing to happen when entering a foreign territory.  The schedules are strenuous to figure out.  This was my experience with downtown.

My new piercing

On Thursday, September 5th I decided to venture downtown to make a very big decision.  One of my closest friends agreed to get her nose pierced with me.  The most reliable place that we could find was on State Street.  We scheduled an appointment for that night at 7:30.  It was now time to find our way down there.  We checked all of the bus schedules and looked on our maps to try and find the most efficient way to get to the destination.  We found a bus that left from the bus stop at 6:44.  We arrived at the bus stop and waited for what seemed to be forever.  We were later informed that we found the wrong schedule and the bus did not arrive until approximately 7:20.  We called the piercing studio to tell them that they were running late. They informed us that the studio was closing at 8 and that if we wanted to get our piercings, that we had to arrive before that time.

We stepped off the bus near the green by 7:40.  We had twenty minutes to get to the studio.  We figured that this would be enough time to get there.  That was if we could get the GPS to lead us to the correct place.  We were left walking around in circles for what must have been fifteen minutes.  We asked anyone we could find how we could get there, and no one was of any help.  We had no hope left.  I called my close friend who lived nearby to pick us up.  We had completely given up on this search.  When my ride arrived, he rushed us to the door of the studio.  There we found a closed sign.  We called in hopes to reschedule and try again the next day.  Upon telling them that we were outside, the owners invited us inside and to our relief, we got our piercings.  This was the longest expedition I ever imagined I would have to go through in order to get something so simple done.  After this we got back in my friends car and were driven home.  Our disaster night was over and we had some new jewelry to prove it.  This was by far the most interesting night since getting here.

2B- Who Will You Become?

Most people would assume that they know themselves very well, but after time we realize that there are many things that we have yet to learn.  We may not know our hearts deepest desires, but eventually we will come closer to having what we truly want. College is a time in which we can uncover what we want to be and transform into the person that we would like to be perceived as. This is your chance to shine.

http://architects2zebras.com/2010/08/19/become-a-life-change-architect/

 I recently discovered many things about myself when anticipating college.  I realized that this could be my time to be everything I've ever wanted to be, but never felt like I had the ability to do, because of my former reputation in high school. For most of high school I was in a committed relationship. Because of this I spent most of my time separated from the rest of my classmates. I never attended school events, and was rarely invited to after-school activities.  My social and academic life was suffering severely. My goal going into college was to improve on these aspects of my life. For this reason I decided to attempt to join a sorority and focus on getting involved in many on-campus opportunities.  I am excited to see what college turns out to be. I am expecting the best experience out of it.  So far the "rushing" for Omega Zeta Phi has been very positive so far.  I cannot say how well it is going until the sorority chooses their new members.  I can only hope for the best.  Hopefully my college experience will conclude the way that I have planned for it to go.  If not I will stay positive and keep continuing on the process of self learning that occurs during college.

Left to Right: Me, Ali, and Kourtney on sorority fair night.

2A-Work The Plan

Ever since we were young, people were constantly asking us "What do you want to be when you grow up."  When we were young, most girls wanted to be a princess or a singer.  Most boys strove to become firemen, policemen, and race car drivers.  As we aged we learned our talents and interests, leading to the expansion of career possibilities.  By the time we applied for colleges, society expected us to have narrowed down the possibilities to a minimal amount of options. College is our opportunity to decide our occupations and gain contacts in order to get there. My question to you is, 

What do you want to be and how do you plan on getting there?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/celinenyc/5784231694/

During this weeks readings, I was intrigued by an article called Work Hard or Work Smart. 

(View Article Here) 

The author, Tom Weber, made many points that are crucial to successfulness.  His main ideas talked about making a plan for your life, and then working your ass off until you get there.  Although I had always had a general idea of where my life was headed, I never made it definitive.  This week I was motivated to set goals for myself and my future.  I sat down, and imagined where I wanted to be in ten years.  The possibilities were innumerable and the endless opportunities excited me.  But how could I achieve these goals?  I've never been incredibly smart or above average in any other way.  I always seemed to blend in with the rest of the crowd.

"You have way more in you than you can imagine."  This quote caught my attention.  It opened up my eyes and made me realize that I was capable of whatever my heart wanted to.  In life I was always convinced that there were restrictions that life puts on everyone and that some things, like my study habits and my attention span, would hinder my ability to carry out the grandiose plans I had made. I now realize that the only thing that was restricting me from doing so, was myself.  I challenge you to look deep inside of yourself and see that you are capable of great things.  You are an amazing human being.  You've made it this far haven't you? So go out there and be the best you.  

Realize that your dreams can come true if you push yourself!

1V- Knowledge Expansion

       Although I had little insight on what the word "inquiry" meant, I decided when I received my schedule to look it up on the internet.  From what I could remember the word dealt with the investigation and gaining of knowledge about a certain situation.  I did not think much of this, since that was mainly the goal for any class, to gain an understanding of a foreign subject.  After arriving to the class I found out many other things about the basis of what new information I would be retaining from such a class.

      When learning that it was a freshman experience class, I was relieved.  I do not do as well retaining facts as I do life experiences and general knowledge in which I would be using much more in life.  Inquiry will be the basis of all that we know about college, and how to make college work for each individual student.  We have not had much time to discuss the true importance of this class, but as time progresses it will become more apparent.

      It was difficult for me to attempt to find words in which I had never seen before.  Instead I decided to investigate further into words that I may have seen, but not known the true meaning behind it. The words scarcity and incentive were brought up during my microeconomics class. Both words play a huge role in any single person's life.

      Scarcity occurs when there is an unlimited amount of wants, but a limited amount of resources.  This definition can not be found in your average dictionary or text book.  My professor gave this definition while lecturing and it seemed like the most accurate description I could think of.  We all want the best for ourself and if we could, we would all have the most expensive possessions we could find.  Unfortunately , as you already know, we need the funds in order to support this. This word is an important aspect of every human being's life.

     Incentive is a thing that motivates someone to do something.  We all have incentives behind the things that we do.  If it is either the fact that we work in order to earn wages, or work out in order to stay in shape.  We have to set goals for ourselves in order to stay committed to doing a certain activity.  This word is very relevant to first year students.  College is hard but if we remember what our final goal out of the situation is and keep motivated, we will make it through.

     

1I- Listen Intently, I Beg of you.

As students, we are forced to sit through tedious lectures.  We hear the same messages about drugs, sex, discrimination, along with many other topics.  Although I never took these talks as a joke, I never left a talk feeling changed.  I continued on with my life, without thinking much about what I had heard.  I would not sit and ponder the complexities of the situations.  This is what teachers had always hoped you would do.  But lets be real. Most of these lectures seemed to have no relevance in our lives at the time.  Going into the lectures provided during welcome weekend, I had already prepared myself for the same situation to reoccur.  The second Chris Herren was introduced, I was hooked.

From a young age we are taught to not drink and not do drugs.  Growing up in a strictly Catholic family, this never seemed to apply to me since I had no intentions to do so.  As a grew my own sense of self, I also established my own beliefs that varied from the rest of my family.  Freshman year of high school I decided I was going to declare myself an Agnostic instead of Roman Catholic.  People expected that my morals would falter.  I stayed strong and did not drink or smoke as a graduated from one year to the next.

 By the time my senior year had rolled around my life had completely changed.  I had lost all of the people who had formerly been my friends, I was rarely home, and I began evolving into a girl who occasionally partied and smoked.  I never did these things because I wanted to, but simply because it was my safe haven.  It was my place to go when I was tired of feeling the way I did.  It was my escape.

I became more accustomed to casually seeing people I know doing drugs.  I never thought much of it because I was so immersed in this life style.  I never realized until that day how quickly things could escalate.  Freshman year of high school I completely despised the thought of people smoking, yet here I was, smoking up to 5 times a day.  I knew I didn't want to be that person, but I could not stop myself from acting like the person I had become.  Chris Herren's speech is what smacked me back into reality.

You never think it could be you.  You will never become those people you hear about in the news.  Rehab? That's for addicts. The next thing you know, you're sticking needles in your arm.

I may have been imagining it, but I felt as if through out his speech, he had been looking straight into my eyes.  He knew my secret.  He knew that I could have easily been the person to follow in his footsteps.  I was the girl who constantly denied that something this negative could happen to me. Once I admitted to myself this, I felt a shift.  My life was about to change.

When you are left speechless, with tears ready to breach the outer most rim of your eye, you know.  This is your time to change.  If a heroin addict of 18 years can be happy just being him, I could do the same.  I will follow the words of one of the most inspirational speakers I had ever witnessed.  I was finally going to happy "just being me."

1B- Web Voice

While browsing through diverse blogs, I saw definite differences in the ways in which they were written.  Some were recipes, others included personal accounts.  One thing I noticed about every blog though, was that everyone expressed who they were in a clear way.  There was a clear distinction in attitudes and personalities in each one.  I feel as if blogs are an amazing way to express who you are to people who do not know you.
 
As much as I enjoyed reading fun recipes and tips, I enjoyed the personal blogs more.  I love understanding the inner most chambers of people's minds.  It allows me to connect with the author on the other side of the computer.  While reading recipes, I do not think much about the person who wrote it.  These observations inspired the blog that you are on right now.

I decided that instead of writing a blog in which anyone could have written, and said cliché catch phrases, I would write a blog that allows you to get to know me a little better.  I will no longer blend in with every other person on the internet.  I will put a personality behind these posts in the hope that I can leave an impression.  Being an opinionated person, I have much to say about almost any topic.  Therefore, I will share my thoughts with little filter.  The audience does not always have to agree to be interested.  I found that it doesn't matter if people agree on every topic because that is what makes us interesting.  If everyone thought the same about every topic, we would have no arguments or discussions.  In that case we would have nothing to talk about.

My goal is not to interest people who have the same opinion as me, but to make readers feel free to express their opinions. Only my closest friends know the inner machinations of my mind.  As I become more comfortable with blogging, I hope to share more of that with the people of the Internet.  We all have an inner voice, but we have to learn how to express it through words.  This is my goal.

1A- Same Place, Different Perspective

In life people get very preoccupied with their own circumstances.  They become unaware of the fact that the people around them may not have the same opinions.  They may not see situations in the same light as them.  But if everyone were to slow down and actually gain an understanding of this, the gap would close.  People would be able to better understand and empathize with the community around them.  An important time to do this is while entering college.  What might be a time of independence for some, may also be a time of anxiety and fear for others.  For me, college will be both.

In high school, I would like to say I was the smart student who always did her work, but I was not. I was the girl who did not seem to care much about her grades, although I was always in advanced classes.  I hated this reputation that I had built for myself.  When college was beginning, I pledged to myself that I was not going to allow that to happen again. College for me means a new start.

In every aspect of my life I want to change something.  Since many people do not know me at Southern Connecticut State University, it is my chance to make the name for myself that I want.  I know that I can be the person I envision.  This is my chance.  Although I may not get the best grades, I will try my best to work to my full potential instead of slacking off like I had in my past.  I am willing to take every opportunity to better myself and further myself into being the person I know I am able to be.

Does this mean I am going to slack on the social aspects of college? NO! In high school, I was not a "popular" kid.  Then again, I also was not one of the kids who had no friends.  Growing up, I was known as the social butterfly of my family.  In high school, when my friend group consisted of two people, my family was surprised.  I hope to expand this group by rushing in college.  I hope to make connections with people who will be beneficial to my college experience. I learned many things while at the lectures during welcome weekend, but the thing that impacted me the most was to see how people in the audience were reacting.  While some seemed to truly listen, others took it as a joke.  The people who spoke made me realize that college is what you make of it.

I have many personal goals in college, but only time can tell how this four- year journey will turn out.  I may change my mind.  I will undergo good times and bad. College isn't supposed to be easy for anyone, but our only choice is to cross our fingers and hope for the best.  My challenge for you, whoever you are reading this, is to think about the person you want to be.  If you cannot think of that, think of the person you would be proud to say you know.  Make college the experience for you.  It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks because although they are in the same place as you, they may not have the same perspective.  Do what makes you happy and make college a positive experience for you. Just stay true to you.