Monday, September 3, 2012

Thank Goodness for Wrong Assumptions


  A year or two back if you had asked me what I thought about Southern I probably would have said that it was a slacker school. A place where anyone who did absolutely nothing went to, a place where no one could get denied, a place that I didn't want to go to. But if you ask me now I would tell you that a slacker wouldn't last one semester here, a person who never tries and has no ambition wouldn't get far in any college.  On top of everything Southern makes a higher education more accessible, and the quality of the education is as good as any other. I expect to be challenged here, to be pushed to the best of my capabilities. I expect to rise and succeed with the help of my professors and fellow classmates. After reading my classes’ entire syllabus that had been uploaded or emailed to me I felt confident that I could expect to academically succeed. I knew my classes were going to be difficult but I was excited for the first day of school to arrive.  
When I pulled into the Farnham parking lot on Wednesday at 10:00 I couldn’t believe how many people were there. The parking lot was full with only a few parking spaces in the farthest corner. I started to feel both nervous and excited. So many personalities and opinions to encounter, so many new people to meet. When I walked onto campus I met up with an old friend and we just examined everyone walking by. To me it felt like a city vibe, everyone is so busy getting to where they need to be, the only difference is no one is rude. I had to ask a couple of times where certain buildings are, especially the Davis building and not once did anyone seem aggravated with me. Most of the time everyone on campus is walking around with a smile on their face and they seem approachable. Everyone just wants to be a part of the Southern community and just have the full college experience.
My professors all seem to be very interesting people. They are all vastly different too though. My math professor has a very thick Russian accent and it is hard to try and decipher what he is saying sometimes, but he is also very willing to help you and accommodate you. For example last Wednesday he told us that if we ever feel like we are not being challenged enough he is more than willing to give that person extra and harder problems to work on. My history professor is tough but on the first day she did everything possible to try to get to know us and memorize our names, which I thought was very cool. All through high school you have your teachers saying that college is different because a professor will not take the time to get to know you personally or even care about you because they have too many kids, but I found that to be a wrong assumption. Of course they probably will not get to know me as well as my high school teachers but they make an effort to at least.
Anyway, for college my goals are to not only pass and do okay academically but to surpass in everything. I don’t want to be just good, I want to be excellent. I want to be socially more open, as some of you might know I am very quiet and reserved but I want to be able to put myself out there more. Overall my expectations for this school year are set high and I know that Southern and the southern community will help me reach those expectations of a great college year.    

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