Inquiry Final

         College is a struggle; I've learned this later than sooner. I've had more challenges than successes in my first semester of college. I've learned a lot through my classes that helped me in my social life and my academic life.  Actions that I once thought were okay to do were now questioned. Through these past months I've stumbled upon the motto that if you don’t go through struggles in life then you won’t reach the goals that you set for yourself. I've learned to accept failure and embrace it to the point where it will lead me to my success. My class etiquette was the demise of me learning to my full potential. My social life put a damper on my academic life, to the point where my priorities were not in the right order. My grades were at a point where it was enough to just get me by, instead of to show my true intelligence. My mental state of mind was also in that of a high school student instead of a college student. As Twyla Tharp said in her book The Creative Habit, “When you're in a rut, you have to question everything except your ability to get out of it,” and that’s exactly what I want to do next semester.

My first semester college experience has been a very interesting experience for me. One of my improvements has been the fact that I have managed to create a better study habit than I did when I first started my semester. Even though there is no doubt in my mind that improvement is well needed I am being very optimistic that I will reach my goal to having the perfect study routine for myself which will make me a better student. Class participation is very important in college and my lack of participation has hurt me more than aid me. This semester I should of took a more hands on approach in most of my classes and contributed in some of the discussions or at least made some type of indication to show that I was paying attention in class. I’m not the type of person that likes everyone looking at them and criticizing their views. I can see how one’s review might see me as someone who cannot accept other people’s opinions, but I like to do my own critiquing when no one’s around. This may have affected my ability to fully benefit from my classes, but that is something I will work on for my second semester. I will become more attentive to my teachers lessons and engage in more intellectual conversation with my peers about what we are being taught.   

A very valuable lesson that I had to learn the hard way was that you have to pick and choose your friends wisely. There are a lot of friends that I have lost since I started to attend college. Some I've lost because they were more into the party scene instead of the educational; some thought that since they were now in college they could drop their true identity only to make a new one to better fit their peers, and others just seem to have a different set of priorities than I, which is fine with me. I had to realize that school is my first priority and my social life is my second priority. Seriously, what college student doesn't like the party life? So for me to say that I don’t like the party life would be a lie. I love college and the party scene, but I feel as if it can be very overwhelming and kind of have students get lost in it. This was a huge struggle for me at first, I wanted to go to all the parties and balance my academic life, but I didn't think about getting ahead on some of the readings for my classes or to go over the syllabus that my teachers sent to me. When I first started my classes I was very excited but after the first week of partying and waking up at 8 am every morning to go to class my body started to get very tired.  I guess it’s true when they say that lack of sleep can put a lot of stress on someone’s body because mine was definitely stressed out. A lot of students think that they can have those college experiences on TV and I’m not saying that someone can’t but it’s harder to maintain that image then most college students think.  I've come to realize that just because I was a freshman in college I thought my teachers would go easy on me but that was definitely not the case. I would often come late to class and that is not a good thing. I figured that doing my assignment the night before or the day of would be good enough. Easy to say I was wrong, and my partying life had to come to an end until the semester was over.

                In my second semester of college I know I am going to do better because I kind of know what to expect. I have a set routine now of how to balance my social life and my academic life in college. I feel like if I didn't go wild like most college students do their first year then I wouldn't have gotten it all out of my system. I feel as if my Inquiry class also helped me because a lot of the stuff that my classmates and I were taught became useful to me. Some of the discussions would really make me think twice about how I was handling my first semester in college.  The exercises that we did in class about high school vs. college really made me think about how I've been approaching this whole idea of being on my own. I was still in that mindset of no parental guidance or authorities telling you what to do and that felt great to me and I felt like I was ready for the responsibility, but in reality I wasn't  It sucks that I had to wait a whole semester and do the things I did to finally come to the realization that I need to step up and actually grow up. Once Again as Twyla Tharp said, “When you're in a rut, you have to question everything except your ability to get out of it.” I have not made the best choices this first semester but I HAVE learned from my mistakes, so my biggest success this semester IS embracing failure and I’m going to continue to motivate myself and surround myself with actions and people that can aid me instead of detour me from my goals in life, which is to succeed to point where I feel satisfied with myself and can say that I did it.

Greatest Successes & Failures

My first year of college has been a struggle for me, between working two jobs, taking five classes that werent anywhere near easy, having a boyfriend that went to school like an hour away and juggling friends that wanted to just party all the time was hard. I would definitly say that one of my successes was that i stayed above the influence. There were many times that I could of ditched going to class and doing my work to go out, but i didnt. Now im not saying that I always got my work done, but the majority of it did get done. Another one of my successes is that i didnt let my temper or ego get the best of me. Yes I did stop participating in class and campus safari's but in my defense, most of the students in the class didnt care about my opinion or view on anything that we have learned. I feel as those who felt the need to argue every side and disregard anyone else's was more than welcome to have the floor. I am not one to want to draw more attention than neccessary to myself. I also am not a social person so doing campus safari's were just not for me. I like to keep to myself and stay in my room unless its absolutely necessary for me to leave. I  can see how some can think that what i just said can be a weakness or failure and their probably right, but i feel as if i've learned a lot of things in my classes whether i participated or seemed like i wasnt paying attention. One of my failure's might be that I didnt participate as much to show that i actually read the material or did my homework. Dont get me wrong 1/4 of the time i didnt do it but the other 3/4th i just didnt want to say my peace. I've learned that you tend to learn more when you listen instead of talking and in Inquiry i have learned A LOT about different types of people, and they way they see life. That is another one of my successes, through my Inquiry class i have learned a lot about life. After reading the Twyla Tharp book it made me see things a little bit differently like my whole approach on college, but ill save that for my essay. At the end of the day i have realized that what i take from college and life itself depends on how i approach every situation or experience that i go through.

My Video Project

For my final project i have all ready written the 600 word page paper. I finished it about a week ago because I was under the impression that instead of the third video we were to do this but i was recently informed that  what i thought was the assignment actually was not. so since i already wrote my paper i decided that in this blog i should talk about the video that i didn't do but had to do. So i did my third video on Drug Exposure and addiction. I did this because i have a lot of friends and people that i know that do drugs, some are addicted some are not and then i also have friends who have been exposed to drugs but are dead set on not going anywhere near them. I feel as if a lot of students in college are exposed to drugs and since I have been on this campus i have seen a lot of drug use. Some are drugs that i wouldn't even think of to  be a drug that people can even use to get high or enhance their performances but it does. I feel as if more students were aware of it and learned how to seek help if they have a problem or something with it.

EXERCISE 6

In Twyla Tharps' book one of her exercises is to pick a new name for yourself and i feel as if i would change my name to Bre-Shalese. I would do this because my first name is Breona and an aunt i dnt like named me so i dnt really like my name and then Shalese is my middle name and its ok but the combonation with my nickname and middle name is something that i like. Its different and i like to be different. My name is so common, it may be spelled different from other but it is still so basic and i hate being basic. I like to be outside the box and do things that people dont usually do. So that is why i would choose Bre-Shalese as my name instead of my own name.

Facing Fears

I have a fear of planes and it is very serious. I cannot be anywhere close to an airport or ill start to have panic attacks and a breakdown. This has caused many problems in my life. There were colleges that i really wanted to go to that was out of state but could not go to because i needed to take a plane there. Vacation that my family went on like to Disney World or Jamaica. Many people tell me that a plane is safer than a car but i feel as if i can control a car but not a plane so i have more control over the situation better than i would with a plane. Never in my life have i ever tried to overcome this fear. I break out in hives just dreaming about being on a plane. I cant breath if I'm anywhere near one and if i see one in the sky i automatically flinch because i believe it is going to crash right into me. I also have a fear of saying something that didn't come out as well as it was created in my mind. I feel like when i speak about something it shows my intelligence and when i say something that doesn't come out the way i want it to i feel as if i have failed miserably and my whole presentation has been ruined.

I like this Twyla Tharp book about creativity. I feel as if she takes her own life experiences and techniques and relate it to being creative. She also shows how everyone is creative even if you think your not creative. I like how she shows how someone who likes to be structured and have everything in place and map out their day is being creative. I feel as if everyone can be creative and she does too. She refers to Mozart in her reading and i thought that it was very interesting. Everyone thinks that Mozart is this self profound genius and that he didnt have to work at all for his success when in reality he did. She also explained how he had this routine that he did everyday before he worked on his music. She states how creativity involves a skill and a skill involves exercises and without this you cannot be creative. She also talks about how people get scared of the idea of having to be creative. they usually feel like they cannot be creative or that it just too hard. I feel as if this is true because there are a lot of people who like things to be outlined for them and structured so that they know what to do and when to do it. This is just how the world works.

Video Project 2

I feel as if my second video is better than my first video. I didn't have to worry about trying to make it funny or to keep my viewers drawn in. For my second video i let the information i was sharing make the viewers want to keep watching so that they can learn more about Southern. It took me more time to do this video project than the other one because i actually started it earlier and planned it out better than i did my last one. My strength in this video is the fact that i did it on Sororities and Arts here at Southern, which is what i feel a lot of students look for in a college. I also tried to show that Southern was more family oriented and close together unlike the really big schools.I feel as if students want to fit in and that a big concern for a lot of them so i wanted my viewers to feel as if there is a place for them here at Southern no matter what their interest is. My weakness in this video might be that i didn't do a lot of things to make it more interesting like my last. I tried to come with a more calmer approach than my last video, but overall I think that i did pretty good :)

http://youtu.be/HhGWn1T7Q5M

Midterms

I feel like most of the grades i have now i am ok with. I always want to do good in my classes but i feel like the grades i get are the grades i deserve and if i want to get better grades then i have to put in more effort and time.There are two classes that i know that i can do better in and its not the fact that i cannot do the work or the work is too hard for me, its the fact that i like to procrastinate and i felt like since those were easy classes i could easily get away with it , but that was not the case. It was a misjudgment on my part but i know that i will eventually get those two grades up to where i feel comfortable with them. I also let other obstacles get in the way of my work and i sometimes get distracted. I let other people sometimes sway my mood which therefore sways the effort that i put in  my work which is not good. I still end up with okay grades but i should be getting great grades.Overall my GPA really isn't that bad, there is need for improvement since i set high goals for myself but i feel as if that improvement wont be hard as long as i stay focus and keep my priorities straight. I love school so getting good grades when i worked hard and stayed focused has never really been a problem for me. I intend to do better and keep my grades up so that i can succeed in school and life in the future.

Sculptures

This sculpture is on the side of Englemen Hall and it was created by Mikyoung Kim. It has a large sleek frame with many curves that accentuate this sculpture.To me it kind of looks like birds about to take lift off together. I take this sculpture as symbolizing unity , sleekness and strength within the university. Southern is usually seen as having a bad reputation but i dont believe that it should. After coming here i've realized that the University of Southern is like a big educational family with the exception of thoses ignorant individuals that we all have to meet. Also there are a lot of gifted students here at Southern and they have a lot more to prove then people at Harvard and Yale, so thats where the strength comes in at. I also believe that Southern staff and students are well organized and things just seem to come together, which is where the sleekness comes in at.

Relieving stress

I was suppose to do something fun to relieve stress from the midterms, but i don't get stressed. I feel as if the grades i get is the grades i deserve.  Just by doing my work i know what grade i have in my classes, but since this was an assignment that we had to do, i went to this gathering that my hall was having. It was a pumpkin/ Halloween get together. I was able to  decorate a pumpkin for my nephew which was really fun for me seeing as i love to do anything artistic. I was also able to make candy apples, which in my opinion is just fun to make but not to eat. There were dance games and picture taking. I also attended this like coffee hour on campus and i really enjoyed that. There were people who came and performed, some sang, read a story they wrote, or even rapped. I thought that the diversity in everyone's talent was very interesting. I love music and to be able to see how many talented musicians there are at southern was really cool for me. Even though is was about 10 degrees outside. Even though i didn't have a lot of stress for midterms this did help me mellow out a lot and relax about other things so, i particularly enjoyed this post.

For the past week i have personally been dreading my teachers posting my midterms grades. Seeing as I've been sick for the past two weeks and really haven't been that engaged in my classes. I feel as i have not fulfilled my expectations for myself for my first two months of college. My grades are no where near where they should be and i am kinda feeling as if it is too late to bring them up. I feel as if i have wasted two months of college didly daddling, and that is not good. For the second half of the semester I am going to try and work my behind off to get my grades up and not let my feelings or being too late to bring up my grades , get in my way. I also am going to try and attend every class no matter how sick i feel. Instead of waiting to the last minute to do my assignments i am going to do them right away. I also cut down a lot of my social time which  is good and i am going to continue to keep that to a minimum.College isn't easy and i learned that the hard way, but its not suppose to be and i have to start stepping up to the plate and taking on responsibilities like a college freshman should.

This week i went to a Jubilee Choir with my CC Ebony. At first i was kind of second guessing going cause I'm not really big on getting involved and joining clubs and stuff. I originally decided to go to this Jubilee Choir because i wanted to show that i was involved in something, so i could apply to be a CC, i also wanted to be able to say that i participated in something other than party's my freshman year in college. Before i even got into the choir room i was very anxious, thoughts of not being a good enough singer or that these students were not going to like me kept running through my head. After about the first ten minutes, i started to ease up a little bit. We went over a couple of songs that i didn't know but seemed to catch on pretty quick. This whole time i was beyond nervous about singing to my full potential so i was kinda lip singing for a while, and praying that no one  noticed it. A couple of times i hit the wrong notes and felt like everyone was staring at me but when i looked around, it seemed like i was the only one that caught it . Overall i think that it was a great experience for me to go through, and i actually feel like i will continue to go to this Jubilee Choir.

Failure

I feel as if everyone has a fear of failing, but not everyone uses failure or takes failure the same way. Some people might look at failure as a way to work harder and others might look at failure as the end of the world. In the book MINDSET, the author explains how parents would reward their children with praises and gifts if they were to get good grades or make a goal in their soccer game, and their kids would get use to it. This can be beneficial to the kids self-esteem but also hurtful, because when their kids do not make that goal or do bad on a test their going to feel as if they are less than what they should be because they wont be getting that praise that they are so use to . This goes back to the idea of a fixed mindset and a growth mindset those with a fixed mindset will do as i previously stated and look at that failure in a negative way, but those with a growth mindset might just look at as if its a step back but not the end of the world. I feel as if i have a fixed mindset because when i do bad, i beat ,myself up for it and give up , i feel as if there is no coming back from that bad grade and that it is the end of the world. Sometimes i just have to realize that i am in the only one who is standing in the way of me succeed instead of failing and the more i drown in my emotions about failing the longer its going to take for me to better in my classes.

Fixed Mindset vs Growth Mindset

There are two types of people in this world, people with a fixed mindset, which take almost every situation and look at it as if it’s a determinate of how much their worth. Where people with a growth mindset look at situations in their life and see it as a way to improve their life or raise their worth. Personally I am someone with a fixed mindset, I almost always take situations in my life and make myself feel as if because of them, I am somewhat at less of an opportunity than others. I feel as if a lot of people in college or around my age have a fixed mindset. We look at failure and see it as were never going to get better or we can’t, while people with a growth mindset look at failure as a way to improve themselves. I believe this has a lot to do with the idea of 10,000 hours. People with a growth mindset tend to apply the 10,000 hours to their work because they let failure motivate them, but people with a fixed mindset tend to not apply the 10,000 hours because once they fail they feel as if there is no improvement needed. People with a fixed mindset feel as if they always have o prove that they are naturally smart, without actually having to put any effort into it, while people with a growth mindset nurture their intelligence and let their hard work speak for itself.

Roommates!!

http://youtu.be/SjZAvrRQeoU

The topic i chose for my video was first-year roommates. I chose this because when i was about to go to college, this is the first thing i worried about. I was scared that my roommate might be, mean,scary, weird, or insane. I was convinced she would turn out like the girl in the movie "The Roommate". My parent suggested that i'd move into a single so I don't have to worry about it but i didn't want to miss out on that experience. When i cam to Southern a lot of the students and staff from Reslife talked about the support that is here on campus if you were to have a problem. I felt like it was very useful and if everyone knew about the help provided they wouldn't worry as much. Which is what i tried to incorporate into my video. I only put two interviews into there because I didn't want to make it a boring video. I used a lot of visual examples to show what is a good roommate and a bad one. I feel as if my visuals will entertain my viewers as well inform them.

Reslife!!

For my Campus Safari I interviewed my CC Ebony. She explained how being a CC has it's perks but also its downfalls. In order to become a CC you have to fill out the proper paperwork to even be considered. Then you have a group interview and after the group interview you have your individual interview. They have a 2 week seminar before school starts to learn how to deal with a variety of situations, involving students and their roommates. You get to have your own room,free housing, and a weekly pay check. The job consist of monitoring your floor and getting your floor to mingle a little.

Roommates :)

For my video project, i am choosing to do it on residential life. I am going to concentrate more on roommate issues and how to solve them. For example if someone's roommate is being loud and inconsiderate at 2 am in the morning  to the other persons request for silence, then they need to get that resolved. Some students might not like the idea of confronting their roommate so they might want someone else to do this for them. That's what i want to help people with. I want to show students how they can handle certain situations when their faced with uncomfortable situations with their roommates. I also want first-year students to be mindful of their roommates and respect any rules or beliefs that they may have. Also first- year students should  be able to go to someone if they are having any type of disagreement. I believe that these type of issues are important to first year students because a lot of them, are not use to living with someone they don't know, let alone someone who might be express different beliefs from them. Hopefully this will allow first year students to be able to handle roommate situation the correct way instead of the wrong way. This might also make them mindful of how to be more considerate of their roommates  How to respect their boundaries as well as creating their own. When people watch this video /I want them to be able to somewhat relate to it. I don't want to make it boring to where as student won't want to watch it. Everyone loves a good laugh so I am going to try and make my video more of a comedy so that when people watch it , they will be informed but also entertained.

Agenda

While doing the assignment for the inquiry class i realized that i make a lot of time for socializing and very little time for my homework. I usually wake up at the last minute for class and try to squeeze in time for an ice coffee, so i will be able to stay awake during class. I am so tired from the night before that my brain is barely functioning for my classes in the morning.I usually go asleep around two in the morning every night, and wake up a 7:30. My homework is usually started around 11 o clock at night and i finish around 1 in the morning. When i finish my classes, i usually end up going to a friends room for a while, or i'm on Skype for hours. I usually wait until the last minute to even think about doing my homework, and sometimes i'm so tired, i don't  reach my full potential in my work. I spend about over 40 hours a week socializing and about 12 hours a week doing homework. I feel as if i should make more time for my homework, since that's whats more important. I should have a set time everyday for homework, so that i wont be side tracked during that time. I also should cut down some of my socializing, because that's what most of my days consist of.  I socialize so much that i probably eat once or twice a day. I often forget to do a lot of my homework or i miscalculate how long it will take me to do it. I know that time-management is very important in college so the schedule that i am on now is not going to help me in the end. After doing this assignment it really made me realize how much i need to get my priorities together.

"This I Believe"

I went to the "This I Believe" lecture by this man named Dave Guettamen. He was on a public radio station called NPR and he is the editor of the "This I Believe" book.It was at the Lyman Center at SCSU at 8 o clock. He was there to tell us the back story of the "This I believe" book. One thing that I thought was really interesting was the fact that this book originated from a radio show that talked about problems in World War 1 and 2, and how people were not sticking to their own beliefs. It was also cool to find out that Albert Einstein, Jackie Robinsonand so many others were apart of this whole genre. I never thought that this book would have such a great back story to it but it did, the fact that people came out and spoke up about what they believed in to people they knew was not accepting of their beliefs.

I feel As if the blog The Next Generation deserves and “A” because they have lots of pictures, well written thoughts, and interesting topics to read. I feel as if they really draw their readers into what they are trying to talk about. For example when this person was talking about their experience with the fair, they gave quotes from people they talked to and even expressed how they felt about who they me. I also feel as if you could actually tell that this person enjoys blogging. The tones of her post are mostly positive and well written. Instead of doing the minimum she goes above and beyond. Another blog that I thought deserved and “A” was called “A New Beginning”, I believed that this person deserved a “A” because they made their blog more personal and professional at the same time. When she wrote about an obstacle she had to overcome, I felt as if she was letting us get to know her better but also taught us that we should not pull away from our teachers but towards them. There were a lot of other good blogs by students in our class, but I just felt like these blogs stood out the most to me.