My Experience Of My College Experience In College

I once saw a quote that said “do not judge my life by the chapter that you walked in on”. For some reason, this quote really rings true to me. Would people think of me in a different way if they knew my whole story? In every person’s life, there are so any successes, challenges and failures, that if you walked in on their life on any particular day, you would have no idea how they became the person that they are that day.

My name is Alexis Leann Guthrie and I am 21 years old. Recently, I completed my associates of arts degree at Jones County Junior College. I am currently enrolled in my first semester of nursing school at the University of Southern Mississippi. As a transfer student, I have experienced many changes in this past month. I have a goal to graduate this nursing program and go back to school to earn my Nurse Practitioner degree. My first year at Jones County Junior College, I was a Pre-med major. After many prayers and job shadowing, I felt that God was leading me to become a nurse. In this paper, I want to tell you about my own personal nursing philosophy as a beginner-nursing student.

A nursing student’s time is precious. The amount of time that it takes a student to secure a degree varies by college, yet the process still requires extreme dedication, diligence, mental stamina, and judicious time-management. Once a student has been accepted into a nursing program and begun their education, it soon becomes apparent the need to adapt and accustom a pattern of readjustment to the field of nursing. Overcoming what lies in the unknown, assessing one’s own stress, discovering ways to reduce stress, and creating ultimate compensation that is reflected by achieving good

“You’ll never be able to do it,” is all I hear anymore from those who are suppose to be the ones supporting me. Since nobody supported me in the past few years, I took matters into my own hands. I determined I was going to prove everyone that ever told me I couldn’t do it wrong, with or without them. First, I had to decide what I wanted to do with my life. I’ve learned over the past few years that I love to help people, and I don’t like to see people in pain. This lead me to wanting to pursue nursing as my career. Now I had to take the next step in my life; I had to plan for my future.

Picture this, a big high school football playing senior in the middle of his school’s stage. A sea of freshman fill the audience in front of him. He has his thumbs up, elbows back, butt out, knees together, head back, and tongue out.He was singing the song “Singin in the Rain” and that football player is me. I was leading the freshman in our first icebreaker of the day in hopes of waking them up while also setting the scene for fun the rest of the day at our Freshman Ignition. For the third year I decided I would be a mentor for the Freshman, except, this time, as a Senior, I would have a part in running the show. That day was full of fun activities like kung fu introductions, a skit for the freshman and a game called the human machine. I had a lot of fun myself leading the kids around and talking to them. We were able to make a fun and exciting atmosphere which contributed to a positive first experience for the freshman at high school. The ability to give back, help others grow, and make the time worthwhile is the job of a mentor. In college I want to grow more than just academically. I strive to share lessons with others while .

During my life growing up, I have held a dream of wanting to be in the medical field and working as a nurse. It was while helping care for my grandmother, who at that time had liver cancer, was when I first realized that I had a passion to treat and care for people. Whether this meant to start pursuing my passion now or later, nevertheless, it was going to get done. Fortunately, I was able to start college right out of high school and begin taking science courses, which served as pre-requisites for the nursing program. Upon completion of these courses, and graduating from a community college with an Associate’s degree in Nursing, I was quickly stuck in a bind, as there was a long waiting list for almost every nursing program I applied for. I knew nothing satisfied me more, then to help people and try anything possible to make them smile, even during their toughest times of being ill.

One sweltering day in August of 2014, while New York was experiencing a 108-degree heat wave, I made a decision that changed my life forever. Two months leading up to this day, I had just graduated high school, and eager as ever to start a new chapter in my life, college. One problem stood in my way though. I had no idea what career I wanted to pursue. I was planning on attending York College, because of the central location, but with no direction as to what major in. On this day, I finally realized that I wanted to be a nurse. Throughout my college career, I have faced countless challenges, that helped shape me as an individual. I believe that both my negative and positive experience as a Pre- Nursing Student at York College, has molded

Growing up I fondly remember not knowing where I belonged. Even to this day I still ponder on this very thing. I was casted away by my mother and father, forced to live with my abusive grandmother. Who at every chance never wasted a minute berating me for every little thing I did. In time I grew to hate her like many other things. For most of my younger years I stayed in a hot trailer, on the back skirts of civilization. We didn’t have any AC and barely any cable, we were completely off the grid. I´d work in the field with my papa. He was a tall, dark skin islander. Hailing from The Virgin Islands, his thick ,harsh accent fills my head even to this day. I remember summers filled with hard work, sweat, little play, and sugar cane. My perspective of life has always been cynical. I don't exactly remember when I lost my innocence, or if i ever did. But I ,always remember looking at the world with heated distrust. Things only got worse from there. We moved for my first day of school,so we could be closer to the school district. We moved closer to what some people would call the hood. I personally didn’t see my neighborhood as such, but that was what it was labeled. My house was fairly nice, red and cosy despite the environment being unpleasant.

When I started the 2015 Fall semester things were going swell I was very excited to start college and to start learning.I was very much more interested in figuring out what would be the best major for me to select.Going to college was something I wanted to do because I felt like it was the best option for me to find a career and a job I would love doing.While attending classes my mom started dealing with injuries and started experiencing pain with her right knee.I soon learned that bad knees, runs in my family and she has been dealing with it for some time now.Going to school during that time wasn't hard due to the fact she was still working and able to walk around by herself.But as soon as the semester was over I started to consider going to school. I wondered if school was for me at one point and time. So I talked to my old high school guidance counselor and talked about how I need to buckle up and get on track to success.Knowing that school is very important I decided to focus completely on school and nothing else.

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.

My first semester of college taught me the importance of balance. When I got to college, I thought life would be easy, especially when I learned that all classes were not mandatory. After the first day of classes, I had made the resolution to be relentless about my schoolwork and remain focused. However, I did not realize how many diversions there were in college. Every other weekend there was a party or even going on. At first, I remained diligent about my school work. I stayed in my room and did all of my readings and homework early so that I did not forget to do it. After a while, however, I began to envy my friends who had stories about how much fun they had at the parties.

This week has introduced very intriguing, interesting, and vital tips and topics for me to be successful as a first time college student. I feel more confident going about in my endeavors now that I have this new found knowledge. Now that I know these things, I can use them to fix where I fall short and improve even more when I am doing well in certain areas. In this essay, you will be informed about my personal shortcomings as a student, and how I can improve, my thoughts and feelings on ER Nursing, and what I have learned this week in class.

Starting since 6th grade I always found a way to get out of going to school or doing my school work. I put in more effort in skipping school, not doing my work, and in extracurricular activities than I would at school. I was lazy a person, I was a C student, I was that kid who everyone expected him to fail. Until my junior year I thought school was a total joke, what changed my perspective about school was during the summer when I realized that my grades sucked and no school would want me if I kept up my poor performance in school. “To be great is to be misunderstood.” (Emerson) This quote by Ralph Emerson is a quote I can relate to easily. I always thought it was normal to not do your work because your peers didn’t do it, but I was right it was normal. I knew I have achieved greatness when I stood out from my peers, when I set myself apart. You may be thinking, “What made you decide to break your old habits and start your new ones?”

College, from what I heard from people say, is a time that you would not forget. From coming from such a far away place I did not really know what to expect. I was expecting some changes, but not the changes that I experienced over the past semester. I have changed as a person with greater openness of others’ ideas and topics. I have changed with more independent from my parents and I have changed with more knowing of determining who I want to be, and I have changed by being more understanding that a person has to ask questions or otherwise, when in doubt people will not communicate with you. This past semester has been a time of self growth, which in turn has caused me to be a much different person that I had started out with.