My Personal Experience : My Experience Of 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.

Welcome to the “playground of unregulated freedom” (Delbanco, 19) that is college. These institutions all have a purpose in forming an individual. Some take their years in college to discover who they are, to gain independence, or to simply complete their degree. My personal experience thus far during my collegiate career has been to focus on following my passion. I have taken my love of athletics, and interest in the human body as a way to motivate myself through school with the end goal of receiving a doctoral degree. Given that my first year of college was full of hardships that caused questions as to whether an education was truly worthwhile, I am here as a sophomore stepping out of my comfort zone daily to pursue my passion.

“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.

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 .

For those who attended college will say that their best years of their lives were in college, while others say otherwise. So far, my SU experience has been a blast so far, but with four years still coming ahead, there is a myriad of matters that I want to do before I graduate. As noted by Barack Obama Howard University commencement speech “Change is the effort of committed citizens who hitch their wagons to something bigger than themselves and fight for every day.” (Obama, 6), I will make use of my time for the purpose of changing the world for the better. Some of these topics that I want to do are participating in classes or majoring in another topic, traveling abroad to possibly a developing country, working at a major or a little company as an intern, finding myself and developing my people/leadership skills, and growing my skills of cooking. Hopefully, my college years will be the best moments of my life and during these times I would develop these lifelong skills for the future.

College is a great place to grow as a person, but you have to plan out what you will do in order to have the greatest experience possible. Without having a plan you will not be able to go forward with great confidence that you have made all of the right choices in college. This means you should not party and make bad decisions that will ruin your chances at making a great career out of your time and money that is going in for your education. I believe that you should not be part of the crowd that is only at school to party and to has fun, I believe that you should join a group that will help with your education and that you can still have a good time with. You should also have great relationships with your professors in order for you to go to them and talk about problems or issues that you are having with the classes you are taking and maybe they can give you advice on how you could improve in the class that you are struggling in, or maybe they can just be a person to talk to. Professors are great tools for you to use to start doing the best you can possibly do with the help and guidance that only professors can give.

Going into English 111 in August, I had no idea what to expect. This was my first experience of college classes, and walking into the classroom on the first Tuesday of the semester, all I knew was it was going to be different. As the class period went on, however, we were introduced to Moodle and then the seven student learning outcomes. These made the goals of the class clearer to me.

My first semester at the University of Evansville has been some of the best, yet hardest, days of my life. I have made many new friends, joined clubs, attended events on campus, and worked out at the gym, but along with all this fun came a lot of stress, hard work, and restless nights. Although I had some rough times, I believe that taking ID 106 provided with me all the information I need to cope when put into these situations and taught me how to avoid being put into stressful situations.

Friday nights are a busy time especially when you get home after a day of serving and making sandwiches, salads and soups. My dad had just got home and he sat straight down looking tired complaining about his feet and how they were hurting. He was always so open about his college experience because he thinks it is a good lesson we should all learn about because he didn’t have a straight road to go on. He enjoys telling people about it because he feels that others can learn from him. Jeff Anderer is a German Irish American who grew up in multiple cities, such as Hackensack NJ, Goshen NY, Charleston SC and San Francisco. He only lived in those city for about three year each but moved schools frequently because of natural disasters or closures. He had an unusual college experience but never the less was excited to share his experience.

describing your purpose for being in college, your educational experience, motivation and attitudes toward learning, your strengths, weaknesses, and academic/career goals.

I came to college to explore the world and learn more about myself. In a small town, there’s never much to do. In the country surrounded by corn fields there’s even less. As a little girl college had always been the dream. For the obvious reasons of getting a good education, finding a job, and making money. As I matured my reasons for attending college became more complex. Things at home were never very good and most of time I usually found myself held prisoner in the house. Exploring the world and learning new things had always been my passion. But, as time went on I began to lose my purpose in life. I soon realized that college could help me find that purpose that I was searching for.

My college life experience started in 2016, when I finally decided what it was I going to become. College will not only help me with my own personal goals, but it will help with preparing for my future career. Marketing Management is what I am studying for and I know a few things that I expect to learn while educating myself on this specific subject. There are, of course, many new things I am looking forward too when getting my diploma and degree. Once I receive my degree from Coastal Pines Technical College, I will want to achieve great things in my life and make sure that I keep trying once I get there.

A week and a half before Thanksgiving break I found myself overwhelmed in an instant after learning the sheer amount of events and work that would come up. Leading to November sixteenth and seventeenth, the deadline for all my assignments, I was given my first college research paper to due, an important essay for my connections class, a midterm for my calculus two class, and two quizzes and a test for my Japanese class, all due in the span of those two days. I additionally had individual issues around then that affected me further, they include the stress of registration, roommate issues and the knowledge that my mom would not be home for Thanksgiving due to her visiting my grandma to stay with her through the sickness. At that moment I felt a multitude of emotions, which prompt my mental breakdowns and crying consistently. I felt insufficient and futile, how would I complete this work on time and with good marks?

This college quarter passed by like in a blink of an eye, it has taught me many skills and lessons that will be important and beneficial for future quarters. While this quarter didn’t go by as smoothly as I expected it to go. It has taught me to persevere through the ups and downs and look towards the future. When I first decided to do running start I expected college to be just like high school, but with a little bit more homework and a decent amount of free time. In reality, it has been a whole different story for me with late nights spent finishing homework, writing essays and studying for exams. These past couple months haven’t been so sweet for me like they have been for others, but they have taught me many valuable skills and lessons. They have helped me get used to the college environment, taught me many responsibilities and have helped improve many English skills that I never worked on before. I have also learned first-hand on how important it is to have good time management and how open teachers are to help you if you need help. While I have improved on many skills, I haven’t completely fixed some of my old bad habits with procrastination and not doing homework.

“College is an experience of a lifetime they say.” That quote is definitely applicable to my experience so far, even if it hasn’t been long. I've already developed immensely as a person and I’ve only been here since August 17th, so close to two months. College is a transition like no other I’ve experienced before. I mean over the years as a student you've had to transition through various phases like from preschool to kindergarten and then middle school and from middle school to highschool, but highschool to college seems like the greatest leap. Through my time spent here I’ve already learned some valuable lessons. However the most important traits i’ve noticed about myself is that I’m starting to become independent, I’m learning how to balance different aspects of my life, and I’ve learned that education is all in my hands.