The Eleventh Blog (Final Exam)

Four years from now I will hopefully be graduating from Georgia Southern University with a degree in education. During my high school graduation there were so many thoughts running through my head and I cannot even imagine what I will be thinking during the year 2014. College is the last fun step until my real life begins. I will be expected to find a stable job and my own place the moment I leave this campus for good. That thought in itself scares me now just thinking about it. I will be expected to step up and take full responsibility in getting my life in order.

Life lessons are a part of everyday life. Most people learn valuable lessons the best from personal experiences. College, in my eyes, is one big life lesson. People will come and go, teachers will be easy or extremely difficult, you will gain weight your freshman year, and things do not go as planned are all life lessons that I feel will be taught to me quite a very times during my stay here at Georgia Southern University.

Not counting the obvious amount of educational knowledge I will have acquired over the next four years, I will also have been put through many personal experiences to help me grow as a person. If high school was not a wakeup call, college will be. I strongly believe that college is where you become the person you will be for the rest of your life. As long as you take all the opportunities that come your way and push them to their full advantage. Some students are here just to have fun and get their parents off their back; most do not realize how lucky they are to be having this experience here at this amazing university.

When I am done with this journey at Georgia Southern I expect to be a strong person. I expect to have strong opinions and know where I stand on politics, love, my main goal in life, what I expect to achieve, and where I want to settle down and teach. Most of all I expect to have learned who I am. I am almost finished with my first semester of college and I can see how my views have already changed so much. Some may say that is a bad thing, however when you go out and live on your own you are forced to grow up and mature. College is an experience I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of and being here at Georgia Southern University makes it that much better.

Change of Major

My current major is Psychology, however after this semester I have decided that I want to change it to Education. I am not really sure what has made me decide this but I would really like to be a teacher. Either middle or high school, I have not decided yet. I have not made a choice on what subject yet either, however math is absolutely out of the question. Maybe history or english. I am still trying to figure that out but I do know thats the direction I want to head. Psychology does not interest me in the way I thought it would, I took a high school class and loved it but I see now there is no comparison. I am thinking about making that my minor. My daddy said I would change my major many times before I settle down and figure out what I really want to do. Daddy knows best.

10 Things I Have Learned This Semester

1. College is not as scary as everyone acts like it is
2. Math is my worst enemy
3. Time management is the key to success
4. You have to clean a goldfish's bowl at least twice a week
5. Lecture classes are harder for me to retain the information
6. Meeting new people will always be a hard task
7. Writing papers is not that bad as long as you get someone to revise it
8. Always make sure your laptop is charged
9. I want to change my major
10. All college kids are broke

War Eagle

Ever since I was a little girl I can remember going to the games. My daddy would wake me and my little sister up with the mot upbeat attitude. We would all pile in the car and off we were to tiger town. When we arrive in Auburn, Alabama I cannot help but to try an take in as much as I can. Orange and blue everywhere, all of the fans proudly supporting their team. We park our car in our usual spot by the BBQ place an unload the car. My mom has made lunch and bought only the best kinds of snack foods to get us through the day. Tailgating is the only time I can sit in a chair by our car all day an not complain. I love to just be there and people watch. Spending all day in Auburn with my family is one of my favorite things to do.

Once it becomes game time we make our way to Jordan-hare Stadium. There is nothing like being surrounded by a bunch of rowdy fans pumped for the game. We wait in line, gt inside, wait in more lines to get to our seats then its time. We watch the pregame show an the excitement builds. The opponent comes out and we all boo. The Auburn Tigers come out and we all stand up and yell. Its kick off time and we pray our tigers can pull through. WAR EAGLE.

Finance

When it came time to register for classes, everyone around me was trying to get a 'funny' fye class such as College Drinking. However little did they know that those professors would give the most work of them all. I chose finance because honestly I don't know much about stocks, bonds, insurance, etc. If I ever had a question I would always turn to my daddy for the answer. Therefore, I wanted to be able to impress him and pull out the facts myself.

At first I had more work in my fye class than I had in all my other classes and I could not understand why. Looking back now I am thankful for it. That class alone has taught me how to get better use of my time in college. There can be a lot of down time so you feel as if you have nothing to do, then all of the sudden you are slammed with multiple papers and assignments. That transition can be hard to get accustom to.

The fye finance has taught me a lot about mortgages, stocks, bonds, insurance, and many other  financial topics that everyone should have a good idea about. I am thankful that I took a class that has already helped me.

Research time

One thing I have learned from being here at Georgia Southern is that you have to learn how to research a topic and be able to sift through to find the factual information. When I get an assignment I take certain steps to obtaining the information I need to complete the assignment. First, I start off by typing the topic in the search bar of google. I like to read a few different articles just to get an idea of other people's views and to attempt to see where I stand. Then, I will go to YouTube and see what kind of videos I can watch introducing my topic. After that I usually go to the websites such as GALILEO, EBSCO, and other informational based search sites. From the start I open up a word document and keep something like an annotated bibliography going so that I can continue to go back and look at the sites I need and information that I need.

Sifting through the web can be extremely difficult. Some websites are filled with actual information and others are filled with someone else's opinion. In college you have to learn how to learn the difference from the two which can be difficult. Sticking with websites that end with '.edu' or '.gov' you will never get led on the wrong path because those websites come from the government. Therefore you know those websites are filled strictly with facts.

Learning Outcome

The learning outcomes for English 1101 all serve there different purposes, however there is one that always seems to give me some trouble. 'Be aware that it usually takes multiple drafts to create and complete a successful text' happens to be the one that shows me difficulty. I am use to the traditional rough draft then final draft and I am done. This class has shown me that it can take many different drafts to get your paper exactly how it should be. Granted it is hard to catch all of your mistakes but by the third or fourth draft I am basically able to recite my paper by memory. This outcome has grown on me and I have accepted that doing more than one draft in fact usually get you a better grade.