What Every New Student Should Know

Looking back on this semester, my experiences have taught me a lot of things. The good ones have guided me in the right direction, while the negative ones have also helped turn me away from the wrong direction. Good experiences such as making new friends have helped me to learn more social skills. Bad experiences such as poor time management, especially with the Math Emporium, have shown me problem areas that I need to fix. With my experiences I have been able to develop a list of things that every student entering college (no matter what college) should know.

Top 10 Things that Every College Student Should Know


1.) Get to class on time (or early)
Getting to class on time can save you from the awkwardness of walking in while the professor has already started their lecture. Also, you won't miss anything important that could be announced the first few minutes of class.


2.) Don't fall behind in classes
Keeping up with things such as reading assignments will keep you from having an overload of studying to do for a test or finals.


3.) Get enough sleep
Getting enough sleep will keep you from getting sick, falling asleep in classes, and it gives you energy to get through the day.


4.) Get involved
Whether it be joining a club, playing on an intramural sports team, or pledging a fraternity/sorority, creating a social life for yourself will help you all throughout college.

5.) Don't be shy
All Freshmen are in the same position at the beginning of the year. Simply introducing yourself to the people beside you in class is a way to start. Who knows, those might become some of your closest friends in college.


6.) Take advantage of Office Hours and Review Sessions
Both of these are held for students by professors. Office hours are a professor's way of allowing students to take the initiative to ask for help. Review sessions are held for clarification purposes and they are usually very informative.


7.) Know the Bus Schedules
At least have a bus schedule. Having a bus schedule helps out more than you'd know. Unless you're lucky and have a car, constant money for gas, and know your way around campus, the bus is your basic means of transportation at college. (I keep my bus schedule in my book bag so that I've always got it with me.)



8.) Bring practical clothing
While girls will remember cute dresses and sandals for the beginning of the year, they won't be the best outfit for rainy or cold days. Rain boots, jackets and long johns (although they aren't always cute) are definitely needed for the ever changing weather.


9.) Take advantage of jobs offered around campus
Let's face it, most college students leave financial dents in their parent's pockets. Getting a job on campus will help lighten the financial stress on students and parents. Plus, they don't pay too bad!


10.) Meet with your Academic Advisor
Your Academic Advisor is going to be your advisor all throughout college. Meeting with them your first semester will show them that you are a motivated student and are serious about college. Also, meeting with your advisor will help you develop a relationship with them. Having some sort of relationship with your advisor will make it much easier to turn to them when having a problem with classes.

This list is made from my experiences this past semester. Even I have a few on the list that I need to learn from. I did not get very involved in extra-curricular activities this semester because I was too worried about crowding my schedule. I soon realized that not getting involved dwindled my social life. While I did take advantage of review sessions (which are more helpful than words can explain), I did not take advantage of professors office hours. Granted I did not see the need to go to office hours, I realized that taking the time to make an extra effort to fully understand the material would have made an impact on my professors. Finally, I did bring a good amount of practical clothing, but forgot one important item: rain boots. I had regular cowboy boots, but rain boots would have definitely helped walking through the mud and on the ice.

Break's Over

As break nears to an end, reality sets back in. Finals are two weeks away and approaching rapidly.

With finals approaching, I need to step up my game and focus on studying and doing well on my exams. I'll have to make sure to study for all exams a little everyday. In order to do my best on exams, I'll also need to keep my motivation up. It's going to be hard trying to focus on studying when I know winter break is right around the corner also. In order to keep from getting distracted by winter break I plan on using it as my motivation that every exam will be a step closer to winter break. Also, I am the kind of person who has to do my best on tests and I can use that to my advantage for finals. As long as I study everyday and make sure I am prepared for finals, I will do as well as I possibly can on each exam.

Although I have two weeks until most of my finals, my biology lab final is coming this Wednesday. It definitely came a lot quicker than expected. Luckily, there is a review session taught by our TA for the final exam this Monday from 7-9 p.m. Hopefully with a little extra studying and the review session I will be able to do well on my biology lab exam. Also, I'm hoping that the biology lab final will help me to transition into "finals mode" and help me to know what I will be expecting in my other final exams.

Granted these will be my first college exams ever taken, I hope to do very well and be as prepared as possible. These exams will also help me to know what to expect for future exams.

Gobble, Gobble!

Thanksgiving is almost here and we all know what that means...FOOD!! Actually, the best food of the season! It's crazy to think that Thanksgiving has come so soon. Although I must admit, I'm definitely ready for the week-long break!

The break will be a nice relaxing time off from focusing on school. Granted, I'm sure I'll still be studying over the holiday, but it won't be my number one priority. Sometimes it's nice to take a break from school and come back feeling rejuvenated and ready to tackle the rest of the semester! It's always exciting to go back and visit friends and family as well!

Tying in with my next topic, there are so many things to remember besides the food on Thanksgiving such as, what I am thankful for. Thanksgiving is simply a self-explanatory holiday, the time of giving thanks. Yes, cheesy as it may sound, it is important to remember what the holiday is actually about (even if the food is great). So, everyone take the time on the holiday to remember what it's about and be thankful. I know I am very thankful to be able to see my family as well as my boyfriend and his family over the holiday! Also, I am thankful for the much needed week-long break we have for Thanksgiving! There are plenty of other things I could name off, but then this would get too mushy.

Finally, Thanksgiving break also means food! I admit the food is great here at Tech, but there is nothing like a home-cooked thanksgiving meal! Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and the list goes on! I am always thankful for the food on Thanksgiving!

Careers

As my career opportunities begin to approach, I have plenty of options to explore. However, there are very few which suit my passions. I want to be able to work with animals (but not as a vet), be surrounded by farmland and nature, and be self-employed. The reason I have sided with a career as a farmer is mostly because I have grown up on a farm and it has become my passion.

Although a career as a farmer doesn't technically fit under the category of all my strengths, I am able to find different ways in which I may incorporate them into my future career.

My restorative strength will always help me better the business because I will push myself to solve all problems. Even though I'm sure some problems will be much easier to solve than others, the drive I have to find answers will help me to challenge myself with the harder problems in order to fix them.

Adaptability is actually a strength I have acquired from growing up on the farm. I learned that it is necessary to have a flexible schedule in order to run a farm. My adaptability strength will enable me to change my schedule according to the unforeseen happenings on the farm.

I will be able to use my developer strength with employees. By being able to identify people's strengths and helping them to apply them to the best of their ability, I will better my relationship with my employees while teaching them important skills.

Empathy will also help me in dealing with employees. I will be able to sense their emotions and do my best to make sure they are enjoying working on the farm.

Finally with my futuristic views I will have many ideas for the future. The ideas dreamt up could be very helpful when in a rut. Also, with different views I will be able to have a unique farm, not like the conventional ones.

In order to follow on my career path, I will need figure out my two minors for my Agricultural Sciences degree as well as take plenty of other agricultural classes that pertain to what I need to learn.

The biggest challenges I will be faced with is making sure I take enough classes and learn enough information needed to run my own farm. Although it seems as though making sure I apply my strengths to my career in order to be successful would be more challenging, I feel as though my strengths will come naturally. On the other hand, learning the information will not come naturally, it will be something I will need to put all my focus into.

Halloween

Halloween weekend is coming up and I couldn't be more excited! No, no parties for me. I'm just ecstatic about carving pumpkins this weekend with family and friends! Even though it is "family weekend" here at Tech, I'm going home instead because it's only a 30 minute drive.

As Halloween approaches, it's an eye opener for how fast the semester is flying by. We only have about one more month of classes before exams, and it's scary yet exciting.

Thinking about this makes me realize that I have about one month to keep my grades up, and improve them. While I don't have any grades that need a significant improvement, I would like to strive to raise my B's to higher B's or A's, and to even raise my A's higher if possible. Although I'm not quite sure exactly what my math grade is, I know that that class is probably my weakest at the moment. I need to put in more effort in that class without losing my effort in the other classes.
Final exams are getting close and I need to start focusing on studying. I'm not sure exactly what to expect, so I'll have to try and be prepared for anything. I know my cumulative final exams are definitely going to require more time than the others. Although finals still seem like a long way away, I know that they will approach sooner than expected so, I hope to be prepared by planning way ahead.

Infinite Potential

This week was definitely busier than any week so far! Instead of school though, I was in Indianapolis, Indiana for National FFA Convention. Our FFA dairy judging team had won the state competition and we would be competing at the national level! We left for National Convention on Tuesday Oct. 19th on an Abbott charter bus.

The bus ride was terrible, as always. Not that it wasn't fun being with everyone, it's just your typical 'stuck on a bus for 10 hours' scenario that no one truly enjoys. However, once we finally made it to the hotel everyone was in awe. The hotel was different, nothing like we'd stayed in before. The middle was completely open and the rooms had an "outside feel" to them, although everything was inside.
Then, the fun began. Studying for the contest. Although our coach said that she was not going to make us cram for the competition, most of the members of the team still studied making sure we knew as much as we could before the competition.

Team pictures were at 2:30 on Wednesday, and team orientation started at 3:30. Shortly after team orientation, our written part of the contest was to begin. This written part included an exam, sire selection and pedigree classes, and a team problem. While our team was as prepared as we could be, the staff running the contest definitely wasn't. We realized soon after that this was one of the most disorganized competitions we had ever seen.

The next morning we had hoped it would be better, but it was not. We were supposed to begin judging cattle at 8:30, we did not start until at least 9. After judging 6 classes, we went on to our 5 cows for linear  evaluation. As soon as linear ended, we had a short snack/lunch break and started to study our oral reasons. Eventually oral reasons began and then the contest was over. Unfortunately, we did not end the contest that day until 3:30.
Luckily, we were able to fill out comment sheets and our displeased team made sure to inform them of how unorganized they were.

While the competition wasn't what we were hoping for, we ended up with a silver team rating and we were pleased with that. Three team members got silver individual ratings and one received a gold individual rating. Our team still managed to have a blast at National Convention! Half of our chapter went ice skating one night, while the other half went to see Secretariat (which was an amazing movie). Everyone got along and we had a late night competition of Bananagrams!
While it was my last year, I'm very happy that it was a mostly overall positive experience for the others who will be returning next year!

A big sigh of relief

Well, the week of midterms is finally over! That was a hectic week, but I'm glad to get it over with!

Midterms definitely weren't what I was expecting. They were about like all the other tests I've had so far, just all at once. The thing that killed me the most was dealing with my time management to make sure I had studied for everything as much as I could. I admit, I would get stuck on one thing and forget to study for something else and then have to try to make up for the time missed.

My philosophy exam was first on the list. Luckily, my philosophy teacher from high school had taught our class just as he taught his college students at Virginia Western Community College. So, when the time came for our test the layout was almost exactly the same as my high school teacher's tests. I breathed a big sigh of relief upon seeing that and started my test. The only thing I had to worry about was, again, time management. In my high school philosophy class I was always the last to finish the tests, taking advantage of the fact that the teacher would let us stay after class to finish the test. Yet, in college it wasn't like that anymore. I had 50, and only 50 minutes to finish my test which consisted of: identifying whether or not arguments were valid, four short answer questions, and an essay. Luckily, I finished with 8 minutes to spare!!

Next on my busy Wednesday, was my biology exam that was at 8 p.m. I was the most worried about this exam because we had started getting in to the hard chapters and I didn't fully understand everything in the chapters. A few of my friends and I decided to go to the biology review session the previous night though, so I had definitely understood more than what I would have just on my own. My friend Summer and I also met up after my biology lab and studied our iClicker questions. Thank goodness for that, because there were a lot of those on the test that night! Well, the time came and the tests were passed out, I flipped mine over and began. Starting from the beginning I was getting a little stuck, so I did what I normally do when I get stuck on tests and flipped it over and began from the back. The questions on the back were mainly about the things we had gone over in the review session, so I flew through them and eventually made my way back to the beginning. Once I got back to the few questions I had gotten stuck on my mind was deep into the material, so they weren't as hard as when I had started the test.

After my biology exam on Wednesday, I felt so relieved! I was done for the week!
I did realize I had some time management issues I needed to work on and hope to fix them before finals!

Midterm Season

Midterm season is approaching quickly and I'm not as prepared as I was hoping!

As "coach" of myself, I have to keep my motivation up! I have to be prepared for the unexpected (like tests that are nothing like the material I've studied), just like a coach of a football team has to be prepared for unexpected plays from the opposing team. Also, I have to "practice", or study, in order to make sure I do my best. To be sure I do as well as I can, I will go in with my head held up high telling myself, "I CAN do this!"

I'm most anxious about the level of difficulty of the midterms. The way everyone has played them out to be, they sound like they're going to be very hard. I have been doing my best to keep up with the material I am learning, and I am not putting it off until the last second to learn. By not putting things off until the last second, I'm putting myself ahead of the game because I will have less weight on my shoulders when studying for midterms and when taking the tests.

I will have to focus on my strengths in order to do well on my midterms, and "win the season." In order to do well, I will also have to be sure I know and understand the material. I need to ask questions when needed and find new creative ways to study and keep myself interested, instead of just reading from the book or notes. Lately, I've been sidetracked very easily when studying because I've just been going over notes and reading from the book. Adding new study habits into the mix might help me stay on track. By changing up my study habits, I won't become bored with the material and might actually discover something that works best for me.

After midterm season, I will have to look at my overall grades in the class, and my grades on the midterm. Looking at my grades in my classes will help me to see how I could raise them, and it will show me if I've been doing well in class or not. By looking at my grades on the midterm I will be able to see just how well I know the material in the class. Midterm grades can also help me to prepare for finals when they come around. Although finals will not be for a while, I can get a head start on being prepared by viewing over my midterms in classes and getting an idea of what the finals will be like.

Time Flies at College

Wow! It's been over 6 weeks at college already!

I would love to know where the time has gone!? To me it still feels like college is just starting, but once I think about it I realize that I really have been here that long! I never realized that people were actually telling the truth when they say that, "Time flies by at college."

I remember when I started out my Math 1015 class at the beginning of the year. I explained to my friends and family that it was a "self-taught" class and that we just have to take the quizzes and tests by the deadline, but we could take them anytime before then as well. Along with explaining the class, I had told myself as well as friends and family that I would probably try to take most of the stuff ahead of time so that I could finish the class early and not have to worry about it throughout the semester.

Well, as time goes on I realize that it is much harder to keep the plan that I had originally intended. While trying to balance out homework, tests, and assignments in other classes, I don't have as much time to study my math and go to the emporium for tests as I had expected. The worst obstacle keeping me from getting to the emporium more often is my motivation for going to the bus stop! It's not bad once I've gotten on the bus, it's just the unwanted walking to the bus.

Now I know in order to follow through with my intended plan, I will have to figure out a way to work up my motivation to go to the emporium and bus stop more often! I have told myself that I want to get ahead this week because of the Fall Break coming up. I plan on leaving as soon as my last class ends on Thursday, and I hope to have most of my work done so I will have a free weekend and not have to worry about homework.
Because I am planning on this I have to make sure my motivation for this week is extra high!
Hopefully I will be able to accomplish my small goal I set for myself this week, which is to raise my motivation.

State Fair

This school week was a little bit different, and a little more stressful than normal.

I ended up leaving on Thursday to go to the State Fair of Virginia, so I had to make sure all my work was packed up with me for the weekend. I missed one of my classes for the first time, which felt weird, but I had a friend in an earlier class so she was able to let me know everything that was talked about. I went to the State Fair of Virginia because I was showing five of my dairy cattle there. It was definitely different being in college and trying to get everything ready before leaving.

Usually I'm home helping to pack up the truck and trailer during the week, but this time I wasn't there. I had to rely (and hope) on my mom to pack everything we needed for the four and a half hour trip. Luckily speaking over the phone with her during the week, I was able to remind her about what not to forget. She did well and didn't forget anything important (except for a butter knife for making peanut butter and jelly).

We left around 6 p.m. on Thursday and got to the fair with the cattle around 10:30 p.m. that night. The trip had worn us out, so we quickly unloaded the cattle, fed and watered them, and headed to the hotel. The weekend flew by, with so much stuff going on in the barns and with the shows, I barely had time to look at my homework! Sadly, I felt rushed when we got back on Sunday. I had hardly any time to look at my homework and had to get it all done tonight.

Now I know that if I ever decide to take my cattle to another show while I'm in college, I'll definitely have to prepare myself better. I will need to get as much homework done as possible before leaving for the show. Then, I will need to balance my time in between showing and taking care of the calves and try to work on homework as much as possible.

Luckily, I have no more shows this year, so I won't have to worry about rushing anymore!!

(By the way, I planned on uploading pictures from showing, but for some reason my computer will not let me tonight. So, I'll be sure to eventually put some up!)

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

The highlight of this past week was definitely Tuesday!

The authors of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver and Steven Hopp (Kingsolver's husband), came to speak at Burrus Hall. The presentation didn't start until 8 p.m., however the celebration started earlier with a Virginia Harvest Celebration at D2, one of the dining halls.

Let me tell you, that food was AMAZING! Definitely the best meal I have had on campus by far! Plus, you could go back and get seconds, thirds, or even more! I ended up eating roast beef with au jus, pork with spiced apples, and vegetables of course! Then, dessert... well, let's just say I sampled a lot of dessert! I had poached peaches, fried apple fritters, and an apple and zucchini muffin. The poached peach was definitely my favorite, but all of it was great! The best part about it was that all of the food was locally grown, it think that's what made it taste so good!

On top of the amazing food, what made dinner even better was the atmosphere in D2. There were almost as many families, or older adults as there were students. It was crazy, yet it felt like a close community because of the fact that no matter how old, everyone was there together, to celebrate this book and the harvest. Also, there was even a live band playing country music the whole time!

Then, after dinner, everyone headed to Burrus Hall to scramble for a seat before Kingsolver took the stage.

For some reason, Burrus wasn't as packed as I was expecting though. I was hoping that maybe people were watching in their dorms on one of the channels, but I wasn't too sure if it was on television or not since I was there instead.

Kingsolver eventually spoke, and she ended up reading excerpts from her book. She chose very wisely and found the ones that would make an impact on the crowd. She showed the audience how much of a difference it would make, in the world, if we bought locally or grew our own vegetables.

Living and growing up on a farm, her words hit home to me because she's trying to show people that it is important to buy and support local farmers. Being part of a local farm I know how hard it is to compete with the huge farms out west and all around, and have always hoped that one day people will realize local farms are just as important. Hopefully, with encouragement from Kingsolver's book and words, people will soon open their eyes to local farmers!

Not as easy as I had expected

As I ended my third week of college, I realized that my workload is getting heavier.

I have a philosophy paper due in about a week, a biology exam on Wednesday night from 8-10 p.m., and homework from all my other classes.

Now, this might not seem like that much at the moment, but compared to the last two weeks, it's definitely much more.

Especially since one of the chapters that's going to be on our biology exam, is pretty confusing! It's about lipids, proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, etc., and we have to have models like these (pictured below and to the right) memorized. Ahh! Luckily, chapter 3 is the only hard chapter out of the 4 chapters we have on the exam. I've already printed out all the study guides and have started to fill them out using notes, slides from the lectures, and the book. On top of that I've been attempting to read the chapters in the book, although sometimes it gets really boring and I have to take a break. Hopefully by pushing myself and trying my hardest to make sure I know the material, the exam won't be as overwhelming as I expect.

Next on the list I have a short essay due on the 20th in philosophy, granted I'm not as stressed about this paper because I understand everything we are discussing in philosophy and know that I can definitely write about our topic for the essay. I just want to make sure that it is going to be written well enough to get me a high grade. I also want to make sure I plan out enough time throughout the week to have it written and finished by the weekend so that I don't have to rush or stress this weekend.

Finally, on top of these two major items, I have little quizzes and homework that I have to keep up with in other classes. I have a math quiz due by Wednesday (which I plan to take either tomorrow or Tuesday), I have a lab quiz I have to have taken before class on Wednesday, and I have problem sets due at the end of the week in my Ag. Economics class.

I know though, that if I plan my schedule right, that I will be able to keep up with all of this! It's just a wake up call saying "Hey, you just started to get into this, don't think it's that easy just yet!"

The bad kind of common

Well, as the second week of college comes to an end, I've started to get the hang of things. I've comprised my habits and goals into 5 helpful hints to hopefully keep my stress level down this semester.

1.) I've already gotten used to my schedule, and now know what time I need to leave my dorm in order to get to classes about ten minutes early to get a good seat.

2.) I've gotten in the habit of going straight to Scholar and my email first before checking my Facebook. 

3.) By planning my time wisely, I have my materials read, or completed ahead of time.

4.) Staying ahead of the schedule with math quizzes and tests, really helps lower my stress level.

5.) Taking a nice, much needed nap during the day is definitely refreshing!

 Just as I began to settle in, organize my schedule of work, and get used to everything, the wonderful common cold comes to visit. And let me tell you being stuck in the hot, muggy 6th floor of Slusher Tower definitely doesn't help being sick! Feeling crummy, all I wanted to do was sleep, nap, anything but sit in front of the computer or book and do my work. I knew that it would not help me out in any of my classes if I just slept instead of studying. So, I had to compromise with myself and do as much studying as possible, but take breaks or naps to keep me from getting even more sick. Even with my cold, I managed to learn and use these 5 helpful hints (with some compromise) throughout the week.  Luckily, I didn't get as sick as some of my friends, so I was able to still attend all my classes and not miss out on anything. 

By making it through this week with a cold, I have added another helpful hint for myself:

6.) When stressed or sick, make compromises with your body.

College has helped me to be much more self disciplined than I ever was. Now that I'm on my own, I have to be sure to keep up with my studies, and I have to be sure to keep up with my health! Although, I've only had minor challenges to cope with, it has opened up my eyes and shown me that I need to be ready to deal with challenges. I'm sure my list will continue to grow as I continue college, but as for now, keeping this list of 6 helpful hints will help me to make it through until the next challenge!

A whole new ball game

As I started college, I realized things were going to be very different this year.

First off, I was in charge of keeping myself focused. Going to my first two days of classes I found myself getting distracted very easily and glancing at the clocks more often than I needed. This made me realize, “Hey! You need to stop worrying about the time and focus on what the teacher is talking about or else you won’t make it in this class.” Hopefully the boring classes will test me to teach myself how to pay attention, even if it’s not super interesting! Next week, I should find out!

Secondly, school doesn't start at 8 a.m. and end at 3 p.m. everyday. My first class could start at 12:20 p.m. and I might not have another class that day until 4 p.m. I have less class hours in a week and time in between classes to take a break to study, eat, or relax. Having more free time will teach me time management, which I have needed to work on for years! I’ve always thought I could fit more into my schedule than I actually could. Being independent, I have to balance my time wisely, which means: getting to classes on time, getting enough sleep, studying and getting homework done, while allowing myself free time to relax as well.

Finally, I'm also in charge of my life. I have to make sure that I'm up on time, get to my classes on time, keep my room from smelling like a landfill, along with a whole bunch of other things! This means no more parents to help do my stuff for me. Scary thought. I have always been an “organized messy” person, as my best friend says. Sadly, I have to agree. I know where all my stuff is, and have set places for them, but I don’t keep it as clean and neat as most people. Living with another person has actually helped me to become a neater at my organization skills already!

Getting used to these changes reminded me of the saying "A whole new ball game" because it really is like learning a whole different "game" as one might put it. High school was like T-ball with everyone helping you through the "game" or classes, whereas college is like the big leagues! In college there is not someone beside you to help you through every little thing, you have to rely on yourself, and push yourself to become better.