The journal of a Girl's Journey through her First Semester of College

        August 26^th 2012

I woke up as a shy young girl ready to take the next big step in her life; college. My things were packed in boxes for months and everything was set to go except me. Why was I still so scared to make this next step in my life when everyone else seemed so happy to leave? Southern I knew was not my first choice, and I was scared of what would happen.  But sooner or later it was time to go so I got in the car and we were off. 20 minutes later we arrived at my new not so permanent home, Southern Connecticut State University. Unpacking all my things with my parents felt unreal. The hardest part would probably be when my mom hysterically cried in the parking lot after I repeatedly told her I’m only 20 minutes away and even just a phone call. After my parents left it was time to start my new journey. Of course with my luck it would have to start off alone. My roommate would not be moving in for a few more days and I had no friends yet. To the right is a picture of a compass bracelet my parents gave me when I moved in to help guide me in the right direction through college.

August 28^th 2012

Being alone is never fun unless you plan to self-reflect on your life and which in my case I had done enough of. Today I met one of my best friends named Jess Hoffer. We were both in the same position; well in her case she hated her roommate. We became best of friends and college seemed to get the tiniest bit better for me. I was so proud of myself; I came out of my shell and introduced myself. I’m always afraid to talk to people, I feel like they won’t answer or just don’t want to talk to me. But enough was enough and if I was starting a new journey I needed to change some things about myself. That was definitely one of the many accomplishments I have made my first semester. Now I am a much friendlier person and have no problem making new friends. The picture to the right is my friend Jess.

August 29^th 2012

The first day of college classes! My first class just so happened to be botany. Walking into the classroom I felt like I didn't belong already. Everyone around me was in their 20’s at the least and already experienced in these types of lecture classes. Then their sat little Gabby in the front eager and nervous and just a stomach full of feelings and emotions; which continued through my botany lab class, my math class, and my computer class. I already had so much homework to do and it was time to see how well I could do. For the first few weeks of college I was doing really well. I studied every night for my classes, reviewed my notes. My homework was also done on time and my grades were amazing. And then it took a turn for the worse.

September 6^th 2012

My best friend dies. College was going so well for me and then in a few days span my world came crashing down around me. My boyfriend’s mom and I have been close for years always talking giving advice she was like a mom to me. She suffered from a stroke and died. This point in my life was probably one of my biggest challenges. I didn't eat I didn't sleep I did nothing. I would go sit on a bench outside of Earl Hall and just watch everyone for hours just sitting on this one bench. On top of it my roommate was being incredibly rude and would come in at 3 in the morning with her friends being very loud when she knew what I was going through. My grades started to slip. As it turned out my friend Jess moved back home, I stopped doing my homework or I would do half of it and just never finish, I didn't even study for tests anymore which if you know me you would know something is very wrong if I don’t study anymore.

October 2^nd 2012

I meet Natalie and Amber. We met in inquiry and from that day forward we became best friends. They brought happiness into my life again and things started to get better. But with new friends I learned that also means having to balance your school work and friends. I’ll admit, I was having so much fun with them that I started to slack off on my work or barley do it. But I saw I was falling into the same pattern as before and it was time to change. I learned a few tips

1.       You can go have fun with friends after you finish your homework

2.       Find a time during the day where you and your friends can all go to a quiet place like the library and study and do your work together for a few hours

3.       Procrastination is like a bug that keeps buzzing around you, but you have to not let it get you and keep working

4.       Once you see your hard work gets you better grades you won’t want to stop; hard work will pay off

5.       Make sure you stay organized so as when midterms and finals come around you can look back at these organized notes and study

November- December 17^th 2012

                I continued to manage my time well and get decent grades on midterms, which only made me want to work harder for finals. I studied, did my work, and had extra time to hang out with friends and finally fit some sleep into my busy schedule. One struggle thought I noticed was with my botany class. It was a very challenging lecture class for me throughout the whole semester, but I never gave in and dropped it or gave up. I worked as hard as I could throughout the whole semester not only in that class but in all my classes, and now it is just a waiting game to see my final grades.

                December 18^th 2012

                I am officially done with my finals; I have successfully finished my first semester here at college! I would say that this semester has been an adventure and quite the journey. I was shy at first, but stepped out of my comfort zone and made friends. My life took a turn for the worse but it got better in time and I finished off my semester with success and could not be more proud of myself.  Here are some of the things I learned

1.       Moving into college is hard but trust me in time your parents will run out of tears and accept it

2.       Don’t be afraid to get out there and make friends! Step out of your comfort zone!

3.       Sometimes life flat out sucks and when you reach rock bottom there is nowhere to go but up

4.       When your roommate is incredibly rude and not respectful talk to your residential hall director and make the switch

5.       Always do your homework before you hang out with friends

6.       To not procrastinate go into a quiet place like the library and turn off your phone

7.       You need time management skills to ever succeed in college

8.       Don’t eat too much Cafeteria food

9.       Stay organized with your notes, make sure you have notebooks, folders and binders for each class

10.   Never give up because this new journey in your life is all about making mistakes and learning from them

              My journey has only just begun but yet I have grown up so much. I've succeeded, I've failed, I've made mistakes, but most importantly I have learned. I have a long way to go but with fingers crossed I can only pray my journey continues in the positive direction. I know along this journey I have much more to learn and experience, but I will take it all in through my college experience and only make it make myself a better person and succeed; and with what I have already learned so far I can only learn to not make those same mistakes. What I see in my future right now is a woman with a degree in her hands, who knows majoring in what but she is happy and so proud of herself.

I lied, this is my last Campus Safari!

        For this week's campus safari I decided to visit the office of Study Skills Enrichment. They are located in Engleman C 106. They offer workshops on learning methods  self improvement skills, and education. These workshops are provided to everyone to help enrich  their educational experience here at SCSU. They also offer something called the Campus Outreach which are workshops as well that they present for any clubs at SCSU. Overall the office of Study Skills Enrichment cover the groundwork to help students with time management  test taking strategies, and note taking and study skills. It is a great place to go if you need any help with the listed topics above or just want to learn more about the topics and enhance your ways as a student. Below is a questionnaire the office offers to help show you if you need help with your study skills.         

Sink or Float

Throughout this semester I have times where I have succeeded and times when I failed. I would say one of my successes would have to be in my botany class. I am the youngest person in that class as of most of the students has already taken it before since they did not pass it the first time. Not only have students told me this professor was hard but even other professors as well. Another thing I learned was that many of the students already took bio 102 so they had some background knowledge to this class where as I had none. When I first started this class I could tell it would not be easy and require a lot of hard work. The tests were very hard and my lab was okay. I had a quiz every Monday and Wednesday as well which I pretty much got 100’s on. Towards the end of the semester though the class got even harder and it was very hard to keep up with. I thought I was failing because the professor started to make the tests even harder. But I kept trying my hardest and pushing through and now I have a B in the class and I could not be prouder. I knew if I tried my hardest and did not give up then I could do it.

                One of my failures I would have to say was in my math class. I was doing well but then we recently moved onto a new chapter and I did not understand it. I had no time to go to the tutoring center and I ended up doing badly on the test. I was disappointed in myself because I know that if I just sat down for an hour and just focused on that then I would have finally understood it. 

Time for the Finished Product

                For my final project, I am not completely finished but am in the process of it. So far what I have done is write some bullet points to support some of the paragraphs that the Professor gave us to help organize our thoughts. I have been trying to support these ideas with specific evidence from my life here at Southern and my own personal experience. For some ideas I found it hard to relate it to my life here but for others I found it rather simple. I found that by providing this list it helped me not only organize my thoughts but it showed me my life through my first experience here at Southern. I was able to see how far I really have come with a lot of things some including my procrastination, my grades, and even achievements I have made and places where I have fallen and not done my best. This list I have made to help support those ideas has given my final project a direction.  I am going to focus on what I have accomplished and achieved but also what I still need some help with. I have not yet figured out a way to put it into an interesting format but I am still working on that.  Right now I am just trying to organize my ideas and create reflections that mean more than what they state, I that makes sense. I want my reflections to affect people in some way in either they relate or have had the same experience. I think where I should really start though is to organize all this into a clear and distinct beginning middle and end. I think the finished product will be a success and truly provide am honest evaluation of myself. 

 My last and final Campus Safari

      For this week's campus safari I attended Day of Peace. The event started at 3pm on Thursday at the Lyman Center and ended at 10pm. I performed at the event with SPDC and we did a lyrical dance. Although the event started an hour late it was a lot of fun. I didn't stay the whole time but I saw a few acts and they were good. I thought it was nice how all of Southern's clubs and teams all came together to create one performance together in a Day of Peace. It was really a wonderful event with an even more incredible meaning behind it. Below is an image of a band that performed.