'The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants'

In “How Not to Get into College”, Kohn states that all decisions and goals made by students are based on extrinsic motivators, and that they are essentially controlling them. He tells the students in a sarcastic tone to “let grades control your life. All decisions about how to spend your time and plan your academic schedule should be arrived at with grades in mind” (para 2). Kohn discusses the problem that students are facing with their early lives and education: they allow extrinsic motivations such as grades to rule their lives, and make decisions that benefit them extrinsically rather than intrinsically. This which creates an issue as they lose the inner motivation to strive for the top. Furthermore, in “Somnambulist”, Jones discusses how people are continuously exhausting themselves by making decisions that are based off extrinsic motivators. He writes that individuals are “exhausting [their] skills but not to worry cause’ every two weeks [they] get a cut of government regulated and filtered income” (lines 17-18). Jones argues that individuals within society are continuously exhausting their valuable skills, as well as themselves on a daily basis as they work towards

1. Spending introspective time thinking about my life is the first step to achieving a balanced life.

While reading “Becoming a Learner” by Matthew L. Sanders, I found many interesting points on college education that I have never really focused on. One of my favorite statements that Sanders makes is that “who you are still matters more than what you can do because it speaks to your long term potential for success.” I thought this was very interesting and inspiring because it is encouraging the reader to focus on developing themselves rather than some impractical skills. I also thought it was really cool when Sanders made the point that “it’s not only what you do that counts; it’s also how you do it.” I thought that this quote is relatable on so many different levels, especially in the aspect of college. Sometimes you can take the easy way

What we get out of the college experience, we use in our day to day lives. Even the things we think aren’t important or useful end up becoming helpful. The material we learn in college is fundamental when it comes jobs and life in general. We are taught to make choices. We are taught how the real world works, and how to turn our education into our way of life. “…the really significant education in thinking that we’re supposed to get in a place like this isn’t really about the capacity to think, but rather about the choice of what to think about.” (Wallace 199).

According to Lupien, McEwan, Gunnar, and Heim (2009), going off to college involves significant adjustments to their daily routines; sleeping and eating habits, time-management skills, and stress levels will be altered in one way or another. First-year students have to adjust to the new school environment, different social settings, and new schedules, all without the help and guidance from their parents, who have been there for them for eighteen years. Over 30% of college freshman report that they feel overwhelmed (Klainberg, Ewing, & Ryan, 2010), where some students even opt to work as they juggle their class and work schedules. Some students work at a job or study harder than others, but they are all trying to get degrees so maybe one day they will have meaningful and significant lives. It is a constant struggle for everyone who is trying desperately to make him or herself into a success. And every college student wants to be involved in society in a positive manner, allowing contribution of their ideals and values to others.

This can be a scary and exciting time in a young person’s life when they must step out on their own for the first time. It can be a struggle to meet new people and obtain new knowledge. College can be a new opportunity to change who we are and learn information that will hopefully contribute to our future career. God has given us this opportunity and there is more to going to college besides obtaining a degree in hopes to earn a better living. Hauerwas goes on to explain that while the desire for a better education and a decent job are important, this should not be

Time management was a vital element that I had to incorporate into my daily routine. My entire family had to adjust to the new stressors that were introduced with my decision of returning to school. The normal routine that they had grown accustomed to was no longer practical. It was difficult for them to accept that I was no longer the primary source of everyday responsibilities. This new adaptation was difficult and stressful for them to accept. However, the willingness to accept their new roles ended with a positive outcome for everyone involved.

This shows us that it isn’t easy to achieve goals. It’s actually really hard, but we should never give up because every time we fail to achieve our goal, we still learn something new. As, all of us are capable of doing lots of things that we might not be aware of yet. Now, moving on to spending time with your family and friends. On average, families only spend about 8 hours together in a week. Which sounds odd to me because right now I spend more than 20 hours with my family and friends each week. For example, my dad didn’t used to care about his studies or anything and just wanted to have fun when he was younger. But as he got to university, he realized that he has to be serious in life to get somewhere. So, he got serious with his studies and he got a rank on #1 out of twenty one collages, which I think is really hard, since before that he was almost failing. So, my point is that you can do whatever you want when you set your mind to it. Moving on to my third meaning of being human, which is learning from your mistakes: “The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.” ―Dale Carnegie. This quote reflects on my meaning of being human because I think that learning from your mistakes is something that we all do. I have made numerous mistakes since I was born, and I can say

Many people he had went to college with never had to find out the lifestyle of hard labor, but that can lead to a bad permanent choice sometimes. Braaksma with this prompt may be able to pursue the ones who never knew of such a life of hard work to still realize and value how far a good education can bring somebody in life. The author may not be able to relate to the leisurely life before and during college, but hopefully could motivate the ones to read his prompt to work hard in the classroom, so they can continue to live, for what he calls, a leisurely life.

We need to know our formula, what we want to get. There are formulas for cylinder, volume is equal to pi times the radius squared times the height. You might want to get a pyramid’s volume, and you use a different formula to get it, a third times the base times height. These are all great things to learn, but what’s the formula for life? Do you want to succeed, go to college, have a family, live in your parent’s basement for the rest of your life? Let’s say you want to live in your parent’s basement gaming for the rest of your life. You next have to substitute ways to achieve that. This situation has a simpler formula, you need to live there, have a food supply and video games, and nothing else. But when we simplify this, is this really what we want to do with our lives, by just throwing it away? The teachers at this school and especially my parents have shown me by their examples is to lead a happy life, you need to expand your education. I want to go to college so that I can get a job to support a family and because of the complexity of it, the formula for this situation is a tad more touchy. Getting to college is a nice thought, but I need to substitute ways so I can get there. Maybe I put in some AP classes in high school for expanded knowledge and college credits. Involvement will also make me more appealing to colleges. Now that I

Students are often attending classes in college, working part time; maintaining social relationships with others, and on top of that want to have the ability to do the things they enjoy. Out of all the organization methods demonstrated to students, students which were interviewed, most of the time responded to having a to-do list and planner hybrid. This method appears to be the definitive option because it takes into consideration the monthly calendar method where bigger events in life are mapped out, and it also implements a to do list method where all assignments are listed out and are checked off as an individual progresses through their daily life. Compared to those that had other methods of organization or no tool at all, students with a hybrid plan were often those saying they often had enough time in the day to complete their responsibilities while having an average of 3 hours per day of free time. People do not need to sacrifice their interests for the purpose of performing their responsibilities, but there does need to be a balance and by using a hybrid planner and to-do list planner that balance can possibly be established for

A special accomplishment of mine that I believe sets me apart from my fellow applicants is that throughout my high school experience I have always been enrolled in AP and online college courses. By doing this I have been getting high school credits and college credits at the same time, so as some would say I’m “killing two birds with one stone.” I believe that this is a great accomplishment because while my fellow applicants were taking the easy way and only doing what was expected of them every year I wasn’t; instead, I was at home challenging myself to do more than what was expected of me. Many high school students don’t study on the weekends; instead, they go out to parties and they go and hang out with their friends I was not one of these

During childhood, I took enjoyment in reading, school, and the arts. Escaping into books and my schoolwork would be my escape from real life. Since school was the priority in our household, there was little time for extracurricular activities. Similarly, through my high school years, determined to make my mother proud, I pushed myself to succeed. Above all else, college was the goal

Before this class I never put thought about my family goals because I believed it was not important at this point in my life. However, during the class after discussions and reading Meg Jay’s book especially, I started to understand the importance of work-life balance. Meg Jay’s advice and the story she shared about Emma really resonated with me. Meg Jay stated that, “the foregrounding of the individual in relationships has caused us to forget about one of our

Imagine being born just so you can give up your cells and organs to your sister with Leukemia. That is the life of Anna Fitzgerald, and her sister Kate. The book I read is titled “My Sister's Keeper”, the title is the same for the movie. Personally, the movie was better for me because I like being able to see things visually and in detail. The way the book explained the characters I was really able to imagine them in my head and in the movie it wasn't so much easier to understand what was going on