My College Experience

During the first semester of my college experience, I believe taking Composition 1 greatly improved my skills as a writer. The confidence I have in my writing ability has soared, my time and stress management has improved when taking on an assignment, and I have learned several techniques and tools that will carry on in my future writings. From the beginning of the semester I underestimated the depth topic exploration, drafting, and revision had on the success of a final essay. However, I believe I have successfully organized my thoughts to coherently write each essay from early on. I took every process assignment seriously to help determine what techniques work for me, and I stuck with what worked through the remainder of the semester.

Coming into college I knew there was going to have to be changes that took place. Throughout my high school career I never felt the need to study. I was usually fairly successful without ever having to put too much effort into any sort of preparation for assignments or tests. I knew that once I began college things would be different. I knew I would need to study and work harder on my assignments. This semester's triumphs and failures has given me an idea as to what I need to do in order to successfully move forward with my college degree. I must be always open to change and adapt in order to succeed.

“Today is finally the day,” I thought with butterflies in my stomach as I hopped into my car and trekked forty miles to The University of Massachusetts Boston. Everyone’s first day as a college student is daunting and the nerves were definitely high that day. I was no longer attending a high school of a little over five hundred students, but rather a university with a total undergraduate enrollment of over twenty-two thousand students. This day was the start of a new chapter in my life and the University introduced entirely new opportunities for me to explore. Since the first day here, I have been submersed in a culturally diverse community that has challenged and allowed me to gain a new perspective of this world. The University of Massachusetts Boston is more than a school that I attend to gain a degree; it is a place where I continually learn and grow. I quickly fell in love with UMass Boston and only a few weeks into attending, found myself referring to it as my school. During my first year I was able to meet new people through my freshman success community and eventually form new friendships. Everything seemed to fall into place and my worries disappeared, but more personal challenge arose as the year continued on.

I am in a dark blue twelve passenger van with unfamiliar people driving off to an unfamiliar place. Behind me I see my college campus slowly disappear. My summers tends to be chaotic with changes in scenery. Arrived just yesterday and already leaving for training to lead a week-long service trip. It’s my first time as leader and the thought of it reminds me of the wiggling worms I feel in my tummy.

I am a twenty one year old female. I come from an old school Mexican-American Catholic family. I grew up in a low socioeconomic community but we never struggled financially my father owns a construction company. I was privileged and fortunate enough to always have what I needed and wanted. I went to school in a Hispanic dominant district it was not very diverse the minorities in this district were actually the majority. Even the teachers were not so diverse we had a few here and there that were from different ethnicities but most teachers were alumni’s from this district. While I was in school I notice amongst my classmates how some of us were more privileged than others not just economically but academically as well. Academically I was always in GT, dual credit, or AP classes and I saw how we were given a better education. We were always challenged more, we even learned more things for example how to write an essay I had been writing essays since I was in elementary and some of my friends senior year that were just in regular classes were just about to learn how to write one. We were even pushed more to do apply for universities and colleges it felt like they had given up on the regular classes before they even had a chance to prove themselves. I never saw it as a privilege I was never grateful when I was in school I just thought that’s just the way things were I was not going through it and it was not affecting me. It wasn’t until the summer going into my senior

I walk into the house close to around eight- thirty pm, it’s pitch black inside my house.  Still standing in front of the doorway, I call out to see if anyone's home. A glowing orange light appears bouncing off the hallway walls and barely brightening up my field of view. It was my mother, she was crying; I asked her why she had a candle in her hand and she had told me that the power, electric, water, and gas had all been shut off. This had been the fourth time in three months.

Ever since I was young, I have dreamed of going to college. Both my parents met at Indiana University Bloomington, so, they’ve always been extremely enthusiastic about the whole college experience. I am embarrassingly similar to my parents, and that, I believe, is the reason I have been looking forward to going to college so desperately. I knew it would be totally different from high school, but I think that’s the best part to me. I love new places and meeting new people.

Let me just make one thing clear, the College process is not easy, and by not easy I mean nearly impossible. Thousands of students paying thousands of dollars expected to just suddenly know how to become an adult and know what they want to do for the rest of their life. No thank you. But sooner or later this was going to be my reality. So I braced myself. Not know what discoveries would lie before me, I headed off to visit LMU’s campus.

My mother once asked me what college I wanted to attend after high school and where I saw myself in the future. These questions had been brought up the night before my first day as a freshman at Waiakea High. Seeing as I was still, at the time, a naive prepubescent teen, I just stood there dumbstruck, with a blank expression on my face. One could say I looked like a deer in the headlights. After the initial shock of the unexpected question passed, I first felt overwhelmed and flustered because I had no idea how to respond, and then I became concerned. Concerned because I knew my academic skills were subpar and there was no way I would make Division 1 Cross Country on scholarship. I felt as though I was in a hole. “Maybe I’ll just go across the street,” I replied referring to UH Hilo in a jokingly manner.We continued to talk for a while longer, but the thing that she said that sticks with me till this day was, “Aim higher, I know you can do better if you try.” Looking back on it, I can say that I was afraid. Afraid of wanting to dream high and end up failing in the end.

The semester has been able to turn on a more positive outlook, I feel every semester that you are going to have of college, a part of you always matures. Think of yourself being a plant or a tree that only grows and grows—your branches, leaves, roots, so much rooting indeed.

Fear is not a word that was in my typical vocabulary, as most people who know me I was very active throughout my highschool years. I participated in many things such as Student Council,Cheer,Band, and other extracurriculars. To do most of these you are expected to have courage and so on. One thing I understand now more than ever is that you never leave what you can do today for tomorrow, the opportunities might be gone. Many things would go through my mind these past months before I had to start college in the fall. It finally hit me that I was becoming an adult with many responsibilities ahead of me. This didn’t seem to bother me much since I kinda had everything figured out or so I thought. I wasn’t the first of my siblings to graduate. I forecasted I would have the help I needed occasionally throughout my college journey. As the days went by college registrations were getting closer than ever. I honestly was super excited to be back in school with familiar faces and even to meet new ones. The news I would be receiving two-weeks before I officially started college really set me back physically and emotionally. By this time I had met someone I’ve never in a million years thought I would meet my new friend fear.

Not being able to graduate changed my life a lot. It made things better, but on the other hand, made them even worse for what I was put under, stress and pressure. It was me, who was putting the pressure on myself, but my family put some of the stress on me too. Not being able to walk and graduate was already humiliating enough for me, how I thought of myself, and was thinking of my future were all stress factors. I was constantly thinking, "what should I do now?" It was stressful already to handle, but having some of my family put me down was even worse, I struggled with my ACT, and worried about passing my classes at Ridge, and competing my requirements.

Coming into a Texas A&M University as a freshman, I had no idea what to expect. Everything was new. From living in such close proximity to a stranger, to having a sporadic class schedule that I am completely responsible, the experience of college is unlike anything I could ever imagine. Having this seminar the first semester was so helpful in that it showed me my options on campus and all the resources that I have available to me.

Shakespeare wrote, “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves”. With the life I had growing up, I never thought college was an option. I was in and out of foster care until my grandparents took guardianship of me when I was 12 years old. They never really pushed college on me or even mentioned it much. None of my other family went to college, some didn’t even graduate high school. So when I finally enrolled in my first semester of college this fall, I was very excited but also very frightened. My brother, who everyone thought would be successful with college, flunked out his first semester at UCO. He’s in the Army National Guard so he says he had a hard time juggling that and school. Therefore, it worried me that I wouldn’t be able to make time to stay focused, issues in my personal life, such as my work schedule, family, and television pose a threat to my success this semester.

Learning about your strengths while in college is beneficial to learning and knowing yourself as a person. Two of my strengths were discipline and includer which both can be achieved through college life. To be discipline means to be productive to get a task done and not to procrastinate which means getting things done using a schedule and sticking to the plan. Anyone that is an includer does not let anyone feel left out of a group and wants everyone to feel welcomed to a new space or group. These special strengths is what makes up my DNA or who I am as a person. Both of theses things can be applied and even further developed during the next years while growing as a person. I plan to grow in these strengths by doing homework sooner which should translate into better test scores and grades while I want to become more friendly and get to know more people so that no one left on campus feels like he or she does not have a friend. Throughout life at college both of these strengths will grow me as a person and focus on self growth.