The Finish

The final days are upon us and I can see the light at the en of the tunnel. But this week is definitely a huge road block. I have an 8-10 page paper due Thursday, our Edis test Thursday, a group presentation Thursday, an assignment in another class due Friday as well as a composition due Friday. This week is, to say the least, hectic. I feel like I'm struggling right about now. I made sure to start my paper Sunday. I haven't made as much progress on it as I wanted to by last night, but it's a start and will make my Wednesday afternoon/night that much easier. The paper is for my Mass Media and American Politics class. For my paper, I am going to focus on several ads from the 2012 political campaign and I must relate the ads to the readings and information we have learned throughout the semester. I always knew things went into ads but I didn't really Know until this class. Literally everything goes into each ad, figuring out what demographic you want it to target, what part of the nation it targets, who you want presented in the ad, whether it being the president or a surrogate that will help voters vote for the candidate due to their association with them. Needless to say, I have a lot of work ahead of me. Linking readings and articles to my paper, but it could be worse. At least it's interesting. If I can knock out most of the paper tonight, formulating my ideas onto paper and at least start finding readings to correlate I should be in good shape and on progress to save me a ton of stress Wednesday night since I still have so much else I need to work on. But I hope everyone else doesn't have too much work these next few days, and if you do just make sure to manage your time correctly so we can get through it all. Realize how close we are to being done so lets just get it over with. 

Mastery

The idea of mastery is weird to me. Ever since our class on Tuesday I've been thinking about it. You can never completely reach mastery, perfection is impossible. When the asymptote was explain in class, saying how the line will never cross the X axis, it just gets closer and closer it made perfect sense. It also made me think, why try to work for mastery if you can never truly master something? You work your whole life on something and to never master it is frustrating. This reminds me of the movie Black Swan. Black Swan is about a girl that has the lead role in the Black Swan ballet. She was bent on perfect to the point that she started going crazy. In the end, she reached the perfection she wanted in the show, but it drove her to killing herself. I guess perfection comes with a price. It's frustrating to think we can't master something but you can always look at it like there is just more we can learn at all times. You more you know, the more you realize that you don't really know everything. There is always room for improvement.

Much needed rest

This break is exactly what I needed. I wish it was a little longer, but I cant complain too much. I had no obligations for a whole week and it felt amazing. No practice, no waking up at 6am and no class. I was extra lazy this break and I didn't care at all. I woke up late, went on the couch and watched netflix all day. It's a little funny that that's all I did but it was the break I needed. I feel so much better than I did a week ago. My battery is nowhere fully charged, but it definitely is charged much more than it was before. Being able to catch up on my tv shows, hanging with friends and seeing family was amazing. Thanksgiving was great, great food and greater company. It was a little different this year compared to previous ones due to my uncle passing, but I feel like his passing was a blessing in disguise. It brought me closer to my family and individuals I would have never met/talk to if it wasnt for his death. Moving on, I should've done more homework over the break, gather my notes together to get ready for my finals but I couldn't get myself to do it. My want to not do anything overpowered my want to get ahead. I mean, I'm not behind by any means, but it would've been nice to get ahead. What I do know is that this gave me the energy to get through these last few weeks of school. It gave me more motivation to finish strong, and that's what I plan to do. I cannot afford to let all this work I've done this semester go to naught in these three weeks so I will keep pushing towards the finish line. I hope everyone had an amazing thanksgiving!

Be Smart

Tonight is going to be an exciting night. Everyone that went to the concert at JPJ last night will still be on a mini high for this football game tonight against UNC. That being said, drinking will occur, especially amongst the fourth years. This is the time of year they do the "Fourth Year Fifth." That means they drink a fifth of alcohol before the game, and this is extremely dangerous. To consume that much alcohol can be harmful to not just yourself, but to others around you as well. Fights occur and other crazy things may happen due to people blacking out. It is a scary time around the university for individuals will sometimes get alcohol poisoning and end up in the hospital, while others may pass out by themselves and nobody may be around to help them. It is or almost as bad as Foxfields in the spring. That being said, please be careful. I am going to the game tonight and I do not want to see anyone I know drunk to the point where they cannot function. Or anybody else actually. Even though this blog post is very short, I feel like the subject matter on hand was more worth it than the length of it. Please do not participate in the fourth year fifth tonight, and if you do, I pray that you be safe and make good decisions tonight.

Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving is coming up very soon, and I cannot wait. I need a break from UVA so badly. These past few weeks have been horrible. It's like I'm in that phase where I want to say "forget school." Classes seem less interesting, and I am easily bored now. The work seems to be more daunting, and easier to not do. I wake up sometimes like, "I'm going to not go to this class." Its been a struggle, but Thanksgiving is only around the corner. Even though the break it short, it is worth it. To get away from here can be nice. Just the change in scenery, and I get to see family and my friends that I've missed so much. I haven't seen one of my best friends in about 7 months. My closest friends are like brothers to me; we've been through it all and I would never change our experiences for anything. Just to be able to see them again will just change my mood and outlook on life instantly. Also, to go to my aunt's on Thanksgiving day will be great as well. To see my cousins again will be amazing. We dont really get to see each other that much, but when we do we always have fun and at the end of the day they know I have their backs and vice versa. I also like to just joke with my aunt's and uncle's. They seem to take life too seriously sometimes (it's probably because their old lol) but I end up messing with them the whole day and it makes them laugh and smile. Lastly, the fact that we wont have class for almost a week is amazing. I dont have to wake up 6 in the morning, I wont have any commitments. I can sit down and watch tv and play video games all day if I wanted to, which I might do actually. That being said, I still need to do some work. I cannot let the whole break pass and not get anything accomplished. I need to at least begin making study guides to stay on top of everything so when finals come around I wont be swamped with work. I can also start on my papers that will be due at the end of the month, and the beginning of next month. I'm not saying I will write the whole paper over break, but at least make an outline, and formulating my thoughts. Doing that will put me in a much better position coming back after this break. The break is almost here, and it's pretty much all I can think about at this point. We just have to buckle down for another week and we're all out of here. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Get Enough Rest

Rest is such an essential part of life. No matter what anyone says, you cannot function without getting an adequate amount of rest. The doctor prescribes 7-8 hours of sleep a night to be at your top, and usually I get about 3-4. This is partly my fault, for I dont do my homework until late at night. I feel like I get my work done better/faster when 11:00 hits. I will then be up until at least 2, and then I'll have to wake up for practice at 6:30 in the morning. Needless to say, I am exhausted that next day, struggling to stay awake in all my classes. Other times I'll just be up for no reason. I'll have everything done but I'll be up just because. Maybe its because I don't ever really get time to see and talk to my friends so I'll stay up late with them even though I should be in bed. This isn't a good strategy if I want to be alert in class and ready for practice the next day. I will take naps during the day when I have a chance to, but I end up sleeping for 2-3 hours, and that will make me go to bed even later at night since I wont be tired. The most effective naps are supposed to be between 20-60 minutes, and anything else isn't truly beneficial. A 2-3 hour nap is pretty much a mini sleep and this just messes up your natural sleep cycle.I need to change my habits indefinitely.

This week I have made it a priority to go to bed earlier. I've forced myself to stop what I'm doing and get in the bed before or by 1. Even though that will be 5 hours of sleep tops, it is at least a start. At the beginning of the week I was going to sleep at 1 and that extra hour of sleep made a noticeable difference. Throughout the week I've been getting in the bed earlier and when I wake up in the morning I feel refreshed and ready to take on the day. Sleep is so important for it helps with the functions of many things in your everyday life. This is why I don't understand how one can pull all nighters. In my opinion, it doesnt work. You won't be able to retain all the information you tried to cram earlier that night. In the end, go to bed earlier. It will make your day go by so much better.

Election Day

Today is Tuesday November 6, 2012. This is probably the most important day of this month (next to Thanksgiving). Today is election day, and we are in control of choosing who will run our country for the next four years. Whether you want to pick Romney or Obama, just go out and vote. Just earlier today actually I was having a conversation with an individual about the election and whether I was going to vote or not. We began to talk about policies and the pros and cons of each individual. We didn't go into who we are both going to vote for, but we did meet on one common ground. We need to do what's best for the people. We went into a discussion about health care, jobs, and even the fact that each candidate spent 1 billion dollars each on their campaigns. A billion dollars each?!? Are you serious? All of that money they spent could've been used to help those poor individuals without a home, or a warm meal to eat. That 2 billion could've went to help fund underperforming schools, where they have been using the same textbooks since the early 90s. Some of that money could've even gone to me! (Just kidding.. but not really) Point is, as a country, we are hung up on the wrong things. Of course everyone wants to get ahead in life, who wouldn't? But at a certain point we need to stop, look around, and see whats really going on. We are not on the right path as a nation. As of right now, we care more about the individual rather than the people. We need to begin to help one another because in the end we would want someone to help us. Privatizing economy sounds great especially for me because it means there will be more jobs out there, and coming out of college in a year I definitely need one. But at the same time, we need government to help those in need. It upsets me when people say "they are poor because they are lazy." Those individuals are ignorant of what is truly going on. Nobody wants to be dependent on the government, its embarrassing and ruins your whole mindset on life. People begin to not believe in the system and that's when children end up running with the wrong crowd, because they feel as though they aren't cared about. I feel like I'm just rambling right now, but the point of this blog post was to say just get out there a vote. Every vote counts, regardless if you think yours counts or not. Go out there today and make a difference.

Hurricane Sandy

The effects of Hurricane Sandy around this area were minimal, but were great towards my academic success. Everyone was waiting around all day on Sunday waiting to hear whether school would be cancelled or not. We all wanted to know whether or not we had to do or homework or if we could take a break for once. When the email finally came out it was a relief. Finally, a day off of school! It felt like high school all over again when we would get off for snow. Needless to say, I did not do my work Sunday night because I had all of Monday to do it. Monday came, I went to practice, came home and ended up playing video games with my friends for the rest on the night. Luckily, we got Tuesday off as well for precautionary reason so I still had time to do my homework. Tuesday came around and the same thing happened. Practice, came home, and played video games all day. I did no homework for two days. I convinced myself that it was okay because I had no major assignments or tests coming up in the next week so I can slack off. I don't know what got into me this weekend. I guess it just felt like a big fall break to me, and I can finally do what I wanted. I should've done some work because now I will be behind going into next week, and will be struggling to catch up. I was so lazy this weekend it was terrible. I even debated not going to my Wednesday classes/ just not going to class for the rest of the week just because I wanted a full week off, but this was a terrible idea. If I were to have done this I would've felt terrible. I'd be wasting my time, and my parents money by doing this. And I would've done nothing all week, furthering my hole. I feel like my academic success project just took a huge hold this weekend, but now I am getting back on track. I'm buckling down again, making sure I get my work done and I am going to my classes because this was unacceptable. I am making a lot of progress this semester with the help of this class, and I need to continue to make progress in order to cement these new strategies into my routine.

Procrastination

It's so easy to not do your homework. You are swamped with homework, and have over 200 pages of reading. Doing all of this is hard sometimes, it would be so much easier to not do it. It happens to all of us. When a paper comes around you say "ill just do it tomorrow." Then tomorrow turns into the last day and now you are up till 4am trying to finish it. Why do we do this to ourselves? I used to do it all of the time, and I'm trying to make a change now. You put so much more work on yourself, and make the work so much harder than it really has to be. Why not start a little earlier in the week? Why not just start studying a week before instead of cramming. We are not productive when we do this. Just a few weeks ago I had a paper and I didnt start it until the night before it was due. I dont know why I did that to myself. I just kept saying I'll do it tomorrow until there wasnt another tomorrow. I was stuck and I had to stay up till 3:30am trying to write the paper, and then woke up the next day and had to finish it. It's stupid to do this. If you worked a little bit everyday there would be no issues. You can still do what you want to do, as well as get your work out the way. As my next couple of papers come up next month I am going to make sure I will start my paper at least a week early so when the last day to work on the paper comes around I can just focus on editing. Starting early also puts you in a position to see your TA, which will give advice to make your paper even better.

I'm Tired

I'm tired. I'm tired of waking up and going to class. I'm tired of doing work and studying for test, and I'm tired of going to practice. Sometimes you're just like "I hate school." You go to school for four years, just to go Back to school since people are not getting jobs. Sometimes it's like why bother? I know people with law degrees that cannot find a job, what will be different for me? Unemployment is still high, and nobody is giving out jobs unless you have a Master's or more. Yeah getting a high degree would be amazing, but who has the money to go to grad school? The system is just messed up to me that's all. I would never drop out, that would be foolish, but it is nice to envision a world without going to classes though. To just be able to do what you want, and when you want, but then you definitely would never get a job. I know many people have felt the same way I have, but the key is to persevere. Just keep going. You will be so much better off in the long run. I know people that actually dropped out of college and their lives are not ideal whatsoever. I especially feel bad for their parents who took all their time and effort to send their children to great high schools and great colleges just for them to drop out. Unless you are going to be drafted into the NBA and guaranteed 50 million, there is no excuse. You diminish your chances of success exponentially all because you didn't feel like doing your homework? Homework isn't that bad if it's going to get me a great job later in life. I guess what I am trying to say is don't live in the here and now all the time. You have to look into the future, and see what kind of life you want for you and your family. I know it can be easy to get caught up in what is happening today, but if you put it in perspective, what is bothering you now probably isn't even that important. It's hard to not be tunnel visioned, it happens to all of us. We just need to focus on looking at the big picture, and to not make decisions that can truly affect what happens later on. You go to a great school, and we are all going to have successful careers at whatever we decide to do. Just keep pushing, because the finish line is already in sight.

Office Hours

I saw no point in going to office hours, nor did I have the energy to go. I went once and it was terrible. There were at least twenty other individuals waiting to get the professor's attention, and I was getting extremely irritated. Most seemed like they were just trying to impress the professor instead of actually coming to learn something, but this is beside the point. Sometimes I feel that there is no point in going because I think I will do bad on a test anyways, and I hate trying my hardest and still not do well. I cannot think like this. Reading Dweck made me realize I have more of a fixed mindset when it comes to these things. This is no conducive to academic improvement; I need to do everything in my power to do well instead of counting myself out. But this is not the real reason I don't go to office hours. I usually just don't have the time.

Athletics on the college level is a JOB. You have a schedule and you are expected to stick to that schedule. They tell us when to wake up, when we can go to class, and many more things. We don't control ourselves, the coaches pretty much control us. Most semesters I am not able to go to office hours because they will be during times I have track practice, or when Im in another class. We have a certain few times we have to take classes because of afternoon practice. There is just not enough time in the day. Other times I will actually be able to go to office hours but I just wont feel like it. I will just be too tired, and it will be a waste if I cant stay alert and ask intelligent questions about the work. It is already hard enough to do homework after practice, why would I want to go to office hours on top of that?

I am going to try to do better though. I'm going to attempt to go to office hours when I can, regardless of how I feel. My grades are too important to not try. The least I can do is go see my TA's when I have a paper due. My friends told me that they can be extremely helpful and set you up to receive an A on the assignment. Another person told me that one professor pretty much told them what will be on the test and what to study when they went to their office hours. There are obviously some plus sides to going to office hours, and if the teachers are helping you in these ways then I need to start going as well. I wont say I will go once a week, but I will at least try to go to their hours when papers and exams are coming up. Im doing myself a disservice by not going, why not do something that will help me get a better grade?

Blog Assignment #1

Time For a Change

School has always been fairly easy for me in the past. From elementary to high school my grades were always good. I never really had to study. I could just go in the test without any preparation and do well. Everything just seemed to click for the most part, except a few instances (math). I never had any real struggles with doing my homework or writing papers; I really didn’t have to try hard. I came to the University of Virginia straight out of high school and it was my first choice. I am a third year politics major with a focus in government.

I took EDIS 2890 because I want to excel in college. The transition from high school to college for me was fairly difficult for me. It was not because I was away from home, and missed my family and friends. It was difficult because I played a sport while trying to balance my workload. I run track here, and I am always so exhausted. I am not able to stay up long enough to do my work, and even if I was able to I just did not want to do anything else after pushing myself to my limit day after day. My grades have suffered because of this. It is hard for me to focus on my work, and when I begin to read my books I tend to just fall asleep. Another reason why my grades are not so good is because I never really had study habits. I never had to really take notes, especially ones where they are not written on the board. Luckily this class has been helpful. I am much more organized now. I’m improving my study habits and my grades have already improved.  I’m not going to accept another sub-par academic performance this year, and I feel like this class can help me achieve my goal. I’m excited to take this class because I already know it will help give me the tools I need to study efficiently and get the grades I want.