And This Is It !

This semester definitely didn't end the way I had wanted it to and that’s all my fault. Of course I know that old habits die hard but I feel like I really let myself slide to the bottom during the end of the semester and because of that my grades have suffered and I didn't reach the  initial goal I set for myself at the beginning of the semester.  So you might be asking yourself what happened to make me fall so off track, and that is, a college student’s worst enemy, PROCRASTINATION!

I have always been bad at pacing myself and stretching projects. In high school it worked for me, I got the good grade and I did it all in the same night, but my luck ran out.  One of my biggest issues was just getting my assignments done on time. All the deadlines were outlined on the course syllabus and I always just felt like I had a lot of time to do it and then before I knew it the due date had gone by and I had forgotten to do it. Once the due date had gone by I just felt like “what’s the point, it’s already late?” As the semester flew by I started to notice that once I gave myself that excuse, I started to use it again and again. At one point procrastination turned to lazy and then I just couldn't get out of it. It’s not that I didn't realize that what I was doing was bad and stupid but I could not get myself motivated enough to do it. Now motivation was indeed another issue I had this semester. My goal was to do well my first semester, which is pretty general, simple, and superficial and that’s because I’m not really working towards anything. I have no clue what I want to major in or what I want to do in the future, and so I wanted to do well because I knew I should and not because I was working towards something better or a long time goal. Being surrounded by people who knew what they wanted and were striving for a future job or to get into a program and here I was clueless to what I want and it just took a toll on me and my work habit.

The fact is, to surpass this and overcome this obstacle I have to learn to be okay with not knowing right now.  I have to accept that it’s okay to be undecided, but also realize that even if there is no further goal in front of me right now, at one point there will be, and if I don’t do well now I could be jeopardizing that future goal for myself. The second step to surpass this obstacle in my college career is to just get up and do what I need to do. The hardest part everyone says is just starting, so if I could get myself to start then everything else will just happen. Well I mean not happen because I still would have to make it happen but it would be easier for me do and finish the assignments if I could just get myself started on them.  

Looking at the future, for next semester I do hope that I come closer to figuring out what I want to do in the future, but if not I want to feel like I’m doing something useful with my time here, and that I’m not just being a leave left to the mercy of the wind. If I can do that than I know that I can kick my procrastination problem in the butt and do as well as I wanted to. I want to have a successful academic career here at Southern Connecticut State University and I’m going to make it happen this semester. 

The Final Count Down Begins !

For my final self-assessment assignment I have decided to do the blog post since videos are definitely not my strong point in this class. The brainstorming process was easy enough to do. It was really hard bringing up the areas that I still need to work on such as procrastination because I can’t believe that a whole semester just flew by and I am still holding on to high school habits that aren’t going to let me succeed in college.  Sometimes I feel like because I am a procrastinator people think I am not serious and that I don’t care about my education, which is false, so I think I want to address that problem a lot for my self-assessment blog. I also decided that I would like to include how I did not meet my goals this semester, and I know that it sounds like a very negative blog about myself but it’s definitely  something that I feel I need to see written out, kind of like a wakeup call.  I’ve spent most of this semester stressed over picking a major and I am still undecided and it still freaks me out. It seems that everyone has a plan, a path they want to take and I feel like I am just wasting time. That has made a huge impact on this semester because I felt like I didn’t have a certain end goal to kind of keep me going and it’s been a real struggle for me to accept that not having a clue about the future is really okay, so I also want to include that. At the end I want to discuss my future goals and my new plan to try and achieve those goals. 

What Makes SCSU Great Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQwcgmU4z2w&feature=player_embedded

Campus Safari #5 SCSU vs. UNH

 VS.

  This Saturday I attended the football game between the Southern Owls and the UNH Chargers. Unfortunately we were completely man handled and lost 9 to 38. Although we did not win I did enjoy my time there. There was a lot of school pride from both schools, but nothing to the extreme. They were both good sports, not only the players but the viewers as well. I had a very good time because there was so much enthusiasm in the crowd and the atmosphere was so positive that it would have taken a lot of work to not get pumped up or riled up.  I have to say though it was a little embarrassing that we lost by such a large margin especially because I went with my friend who is a student at UNH, but since this week has been so focused on school spirit, I stood by and showed pride in Southern even though we suffered a humiliating defeat.

What I Think About Tharp

After reading the first three chapters of “The Creative Habit” my initial thoughts were that it really was an interesting, fun, and easy read. The actual set up of the book with different fonts and sizes makes it hard to get bored or drift off and the actual content is interesting to read as well. I found this book to be interesting because a lot of what she mentions is very conflicting with what I have grown to believe. Her idea that creativity is a habit and is trained through a routine was a very different idea to me. Like Tharp mentions most of us do believe that creativity means on the spot and spontaneous, and that it just comes naturally. I am not a dancer but I do draw and paint, and now that I have been introduced to this idea, I really started thinking of what I do and how I create my artwork. For me, I realized that everything is very much planned. I sit there and I think of what color I want to put where and from there I have to think of all the other colors that I am going to use and where I want to put them so that they go together, your basically trying to think three steps ahead. I never realized I did that, I always just imagined that I had that picture in my subconscious and it all just flowed unto the canvas in a strike of creativity. I also realized that I do have a routine when I am trying to create art. First off I always do everything on the floor, so I set all my materials in front of me and I blast my music. From there it’s easy to see all my materials and visualized what would go together and what I can create. Another idea that I think Tharp was right about it, is that we fear creativity. I feel that fear all the time when I first start off. The first line is always the hardest because you’re so afraid of ruining the canvas or of not creating something good enough that you do become paralyzed by that fear and a couple of time I did end up just putting everything away because I just didn't “feel’ creative at that moment. I am interested in learning more about Tharp’s ideas and suggestions of how to be creative in the readings up ahead, I can tell that this book is not only fun to read but it really does make you think out of the box and or out of the normal for you, and I am excited to read more. 

Reflection: Video #2

This video project, I thought was a lot easier and more enjoyable than the previous. Having already experimented with the iMovie process of actually putting the video together and having an idea of how to navigate through the maze that is iMovie, the process of putting it together was easy and for me it went quite smoothly. I liked this video project better mainly because I did not have to get interviews. Last time this was one of my biggest problems because the audio from the recordings I took would not play and it was complicated to make the video run smoothly, so that it would look like it flowed. For this assignment we were able to be more creative. We picked our own topics and really didn't have many criteria that we had to meet. This video I think I did a lot better than my other one, mainly because I already had practice with the iMovie program, and secondly because I planned better. I left myself enough time so that if a problem would arise I had enough time to fix it, I spaced the work out, and I didn't procrastinate. As far as how good I feel about the final product, I would say that I am pleased, I mean there is always room for improvement and more that one could have done, but I’m pretty content with it. I think that one of my video’s strength is in the pictures and the set up of it. I feel like I did a good job distinguishing the intro, the middle (informational part), and the conclusion. I feel like my video lacked in the audio department. I did my video in the Mac Lab at school and I wasn't quite sure of how to get my music to the computer to be able to use it. So that is something I should look into for the next project.  Even though this time around I had a much more pleasant encounter with the video assignment, I still wish we didn't have to them. 

Midterm Grades

So after what seemed like weeks of being stressed out over midterms, I finally know where I stand academically. I am actually pretty content with my grades except for my grade in my online communication class. I feel like the first semester probably and hopefully is the hardest, just because you’re trying to get accustomed to the “way” of college and basically you’re developing your habits a little more.  I also like to think of the first semester as a test trial, you see what does and doesn't work for you and you improve the second semester. My grades do and don’t represent the effort I put into a class, for example in my math class I don’t put any effort into it because it is very basic but I still received an A. But in my Online Communication class because I don’t like it I don’t put in as much effort as I should and I received  a C so that did reflect the amount of effort I put in. As far as how content I would be if my midterm grades were my final grades, I am torn. On one hand I receive three As and I’m completely satisfied but on the other hand I received a B and a C and though some might say that that’s good I don’t want them I want the A.  To get that A I know that I have to step up and do more, I now also have confidence in myself to get the top grade, to know that it is achievable as long as I do what I am suppose to do.