My First Semester : A Case Of Burning Brightly Too Fast

My original plans for academic success were decimated. Still, as I entered college I reverted back to my original ideal. Perhaps it was the sense of renewal or a change in perspective that spurred me back on track. I truly believed I was going to hold myself together long enough to become the successful student I needed to be, my original self. I did not even last four months. This time was different, though. Instead of pushing through the anxiety and depression to finish, the way I had my freshman and sophomore years, or letting everything pass without a care, like junior and senior year, I made a decision to stop. I left college and everything I had spent my entire life working for to focus on my health, because I was not going to survive

In the Fall quarter of 2014 at pierce I was still being introduced to this style of learning and the school setting of Pierce College which was a pretty big turnaround for me seeing as my only previous schooling had been public high school. Along with my unfamiliarness with my academic surroundings I was also beginning my first job and had weekly meetings with a counselor.Needless to say, i put too much on my own plate and wasn't able to keep up with it as much as i had hoped to. I had been visiting a counselor to get help on some issues i had been facing with an Anxiety disorder along with issues in my home life ,which had been keeping me from focusing on many tasks. The anxiety was a major issue for me during fall and winter quarter but has since then improved and taken a back seat and is much less of an issue now. I know that none of these are an excuse for my poor grades but it was a heavy influence on how i handled

I admit, I had a very challenging time last semester, and as a result my grades suffered. I don’t mean to make excuses for my poor performance in school but I would like to explain my circumstance. During my second semester of college I treated my classes like I did in high school thinking I could coast by and pass my classes, but when I noticed how poorly I was doing in class everything was already headed downhill. I started the second

In the Spring 2017 semester, I really buckled down, got every homework assignment and event down on the planner so I knew what each week looked like. The first couple months to about spring break I was going to class and only missed due to some extreme circumstances. But I got over whelmed during the semester, being President of Children of The American Revolution, and active in my sorority, these things took away from my academic

My Freshman year of college, I was a mechanical engineering student at the George Washington University. It was there that I learned how difficult school could really be. My past schooling experience had not prepared me for this extremely rigorous program. As one of my requirements for the program was a social science, I had registered for a history course my first semester. Unknowingly, I had registered for a third-year history class, clearly not the correct class for a freshman engineering student. I went on to struggle with the amount of work that was assigned for the course including an 18 page research paper. This course, on top of the difficult engineering curricula was extremely challenging. At this point, I also realized that although

Time flies, the first term of my freshmen year is almost to the end. When I first got into college, I didn't know what to do as a college student. It was hard during the first two weeks of my freshmen year. Not to mention, It was right after a long summer's vacation. I was extremely lazy about everything and couldn't focus on school work. After almost failing my first mid-term, I realized I need to focus on studying. I began to get back on track and finished work before the deadline. As time passed, I could still remember when I first got into the Freshmen Inquiry class I was struggling and now my Freshmen Inquiry class is working on our last project of the term and our group is doing great. During Freshmen Inquiry class, I learned many things.

Attending High School is hard enough, especially that last year in High School, yes senior year. Now let's add college classes to that and my High School routine is eat, school, and sleep. In the past, I’ve made horrible mistakes for not knowing how tough courses can get especially with an overload and not studying "right". This year I’ve made changes and improved on how, when and where I study to earn good grades and improve my knowledge.

When I came to college, I had a lot of expectations at Susquehanna University. I was expecting a lot at college and also what I’d be doing. Also, I was told by people how I’d change and become the person I never wanted to be. When I first started thinking about college, I was thinking about the movies and that’s nothing like reality. I was thinking about all these parties and never really thought about the studying because college movies don’t show that. So now, Susquehanna, I thought Susquehanna University was a perfect fit for me in the beginning. My expectations and goals for myself were to meet a ton of new friends, and have many connections with people for the after college and work experience. My expectations from myself, my family, and my friends were extremely different for the grade point average(GPA) part of things and also how much I would apply myself. In high school, I slacked off because I had the amount of intelligence to get through without trying. My parents for example thought that I would slack off here but would have the ability to do well if I had the motivation. Most of my “friends” didn’t think I would make it through college and have a very low GPA. When I came to college, I had a very different mentality. I wanted to prove everyone wrong and show people that I have the capability if I apply myself in college to be a very smart student. I mainly wanted to prove one person one, my brother. My brother has always said he was smarter than me because

By the mid-term point of Fall semester, I was depressed and ready to give up. I was disappointed in myself because I was still failing despite dropping out of football. My parents refused to let me succumb to the “poor me” syndrome. This was the time to show my strength of character. I needed to prove to myself that I could overcome this obstacle. I prayed to God to give me guidance on how to get back on track. I started staying up later to do the reading. I paid more attention in class. I joined a study group. As I put forth more of an effort, my grade slowly began to improve. By the end of the fall semester, I had raised my “F” to a “D”. I kept my focus during the spring semester. I ended the year with a 77% in the class. Although I didn’t receive an A or a B, I received something more valuable: self-respect and self-esteem. I learned that I must always do what is in my best interest even if there are others who tell me that I am making wrong decisions.

I wasn't expecting freshman year to go by as fast as it did, it all went by in a blur and if I could go back and redo it all over again, I would. Words can not describe how ashamed, and how deeply I regret jeopardizing my academic future. Before freshman year I had lived unexposed to the world in Amish county, Lancaster Pennsylvania, a small religious farmers town. When I graduated high school I had my life together; I was going to attend a great university, pursue a career in communications , and move to the city of my dreams.

During Spring 2013, I received a C- in Organic Chemistry 2. During that semester, I took an 18 credit course load, began a 20 hour per week research position, and spent 6-8 hours per week as the Conference Chair of the Asian American Student Union. In addition, I had two separate oral surgeries within a three-month period. I had truly lost a healthy balance between school, extracurricular, and my personal life. Although receiving the C- did not significantly impact my GPA, it did significantly impact my self-confidence and I began to doubt my own abilities as a student. This was the first time in my life that I had “failed” at school. This experience taught me two important lessons. First, I learned how to forgive myself for my failings. I

Freshman year was an extremely difficult time for me. I was just starting high school and my parents were in the process of getting divorced. The relationship I had was starting to crumble and it broke my heart. I had placed myself into mostly honors and AP classes and I thought I could handle it. It ended up being difficult for me and I ended the year with a 3.5. This isn't terrible, but I always cared so much about my grades that I knew I had let myself down. I promised myself that I would try as hard as I could for the rest of high school, and I kept my word. After my freshman year I went on to get straight A's, and I went from being in the top 20 percent of my

My baby sister was born freshman year and even though I was very jubilant with her presence, she unintentionally became another catalyst for our deteriorating financial status. We eventually left Florida, after 10 long years, and moved to Georgia with the goals of finding a better job and a lower cost of living, conversely, that was not the case.We continued our endeavor to minimize our bills, trying to make ends meet, albeit we were failing. By sophomore year, I had to procure a full-time job to help keep us afloat, which was understandably a lot of pressure. For the first time in my life, my grades significantly dropped, reflecting the nonexistent time and availability I had to fully commit to my courses. I was fully enrolled in the International Baccalaureate program my school junior year, something that I was quite excited to challenge myself to do and be the best possible, to defeat any underlying insecurities on whether I could achieve anything I put my mind to. It was admittedly very naive for me to believe that I could work 35 hours a week while being able to fully commit to my academics. I wasn't even able to participate in any extracurricular activities given that I just did not have enough time in the day. I legitimately had meltdowns on meltdowns, my meltdowns had meltdowns

What you see before you are my final grades from the past two semesters. While I know you 're concerned with the letters and numbers, rest assure that these are about as insightful as an Instagram photo. My first semester of freshman year, for the most part, went by without much of a hiccup. I was able to coast by with the same mindset towards learning I carried in high school, and I finished with a 3.30 GPA. Afterward, my second semester was what lead me to buckle down. I realized that I would need to dedicate my time outside of the classroom to studying and comprehending the material. My classes were going to become harder, each assignment more crucial, and my time more valuable. Thus, about midway through the semester, I was building better habits with studying and learning in general. Keep in mind that at this point; I was still adapting to the routine of a college curriculum. Even though I adopted a serious attitude towards each of my classes, there was still something working against my favor. Looking back now, I realize that I had been enrolled in more credit hours than, perhaps, what I could handle. The increase was only one extra credit hour (16 to 17) which came from a chemistry lab that I needed to take as a science. But, considering that I went from taking all 100 level classes to 200 level classes, including a 300 level class, the extra credit hour was enough to stretch my workload. Plus, we had a lab report due almost every week, which is more than what you

Throughout my time at USC, my pace of life has change dramatically. At certain phases of my college career, I saw many weakness. One of my major weakness was my indecisiveness attitude toward life. I was the young indecisive fool who mess up his freshman year by trying to define success as attaining reputable degrees. I had associate majoring in engineering, biological sciences, or economics as the pathway to success. During that time, I did not know what I wanted in life. Did I want to be a doctor, engineer, lawyer, or an employee for a firm? The self generated pressure led me to creating ridiculously rigorous schedule, which force me studying ten hours daily without scoring well on my exams. I begin to question my academic ability and my fading future of being successful. A 3.2 GPA was not going to get me into medical school, and I might not be intelligent enough to handle engineering. Self doubt became my second weakness, which only worsen when I return to Chicago after my freshman year.