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!