My Final Assessment

            Yeah I know I was the one who wanted to do the video for my final assessment but I didn’t get around to trying to make it so I settled for the paper instead.  Even before this class had started Jen had sent us out an email saying bring a campus safari and answer these questions by tomorrow for your first grades in our class.  This to me was a huge shocker to what college life was going to be all about.  But then I realized that everyone else had felt the same way.  But as the semester trudged along I realized that I started to like this class because of its stimulating conversations and discussions we had.   This class was very challenging in all perspective of the college life.

            Over this semester in inquiry I have gained a lot of confidence in speaking in front of the class such as raising my hand and answering one of Jens questions.  In high school I was the kid who didn’t talk much in every class but got by with a B or better.  I liked participating in this class because I knew no one would judge me on what I had to say.  I felt I have made progress on the college thinking level with doing so much work with inquiry and writing lots of essays in my history class.  This class also showed not to be afraid by what you stand by, argue your position on the topic and I felt I have become a lot more comfortable in doing that in a college class. 

            Even though I commute to school everyday, sometimes it is an inconvenience to do drive 20-40 minutes out of my way to get an interview done with a professor on something.  But I learned that each class has to have a separate priority slot in my life.  I took my time to do all the work in my harder classes such as my exercise science and inquiry class, but knew what I had to do and got them done quick and easy with my history and English classes.  Also in doing my midterm video on time management in food and eating healthy, I learned that a lot of people should sit down and have a proper meal more than a couple times a week.  My study habits changed significantly also, because when I was a senior I barely studied because my hardest class didn’t even require a textbook it required us taking care of our cars properly.  I learned that if I wanted to pass all of these classes I needed to study like a maniac. 

            I also believe my social life has changed a lot in many ways. I have new friends in all of my classes including inquiry.  It has been quite the experiences getting to know them all but; in the end everything was great.  From getting up at 5 o’clock to get the athletic training room for 6:15 took a lot of time and effort.  Banding together to get that surprise campus safari assignment done and handed in took hard work and friendships.  All in all I want to make more friends on campus, or maybe get an apartment down the street so I can hang out with them and not have to drive 20 minutes to see them.

             To conclude this awesome and final blog post for inquiry, I will say that blogging was a new experience for me because it is something that I have never done before.  It was weird in many ways on the topics we had to answer, or the specific reasoning behind what we had to say.  I didn’t like it at first because I just thought of it as a waste of time, or just another assignment to do for this class but I began to like talking about my family or myself and share my personal experiences on campus.  I thought this inquiry class was awesome, and I hope to see some of you guys next semester!

My final video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9arFkJuU8ms

The final video, I had to cut it down my almost a minute because it wouldnt upload to youtube. hope you guys like it!

Goals, Goals, and more Goals..

Some of my big goals for next semester are to get into the athletic training program at Southern Connecticut State University, which would be a huge load off of my shoulders.  That is probably my biggest academic goal for next semester, but other ones like keep my gpa up and do well which are always goals for me.  Some of my social goals for next semester are to try and make more friends on campus, I know I have made a couple this semester but I want to make a lot more.  I want to go out more to downtown New Haven and get used to being in New Haven because seeing as I don’t want to live on campus because it is really boring I can save my money for a place some where near there so I can stop bugging my parents at home.    

 Some of my personal goals is to just be a happier person in general, I know I an be a grouch when I want to be or be really annoying according to some people…  but I want to change that so people can see me as a better person than they already know me by.  I want to get a job other than lifeguarding and being a camp counselor because I have done that for way to long and it is time to do something new and exciting with my boring life.  As this semster wraps up and winter break comes, my goal for winter is to snowboard as much as possible.  It relaxes me to no end and I just feel at one with myself when I am in the back country of VT. 

Ups and Downs

I have had lots of ups and down this semester regarding my schoolwork and just school activities in general.  I have lots of trouble in the beginning adjusting to the college workload and the college classes.  But once the semester got going I felt it got easier as it went.  My first big battle of the semester was getting the campus safaris done and handed in on time.  Weeks would come and go and I steadily got the hang of doing them.  Some other big problems I had were getting my student interviews done in my exercise science 184 class.  They were extremely difficult because no one would tell us when the teams had practices with the athletic training students (ATS) or when they had games and no one had practices. 

To also go along with the AT stuff the students we interviewed didn’t really want to help us out because we asked the same questions over and over again because it was the same interview that our professor made us do twenty times.  Then after a while I became friends with a couple of the ATS and I got to learn their practices schedules with the teams they helped with.  After the first week I had lots of successes with parking and getting good spots in the parking lots closes to the campus or even in the parking garage.  Every first year college student has a lot of ups and downs, I felt I was just going with the flow, getting stressed out over the same exams and stuff like that.  

Good times, Good times

Grouping the English class and the Inquiry class was a very fun and enjoyable experience.  It made it seem like the transition to college life and getting to know new people who were just like you a lot easier and a lot less scary.  It was awesome getting to know everyone in the class, made some new friends that hopefully I will get to see around campus more after this class.  The good class discussions aka arguing over stupid stuff in Inquiry and of course no one paying attention in Pete’s class.  I will really miss hanging out between classes talking about random stuff also, the two classes combined made the transition to college friends a lot easier to handle and not make anything awkward.   

  

Forgetting to do the campus safaris right before the class was always fun not, having to worry about taking notes on stuff that we didn’t want to take notes on.  I never thought I would say this but inquiry actually got fun after a while, lee made the class seem less nerve racking to take because someone that we know had gone through it before we did.  But now that this semester is coming to an end I hope I see my friends around campus.  Keeping ties between friends made in college is always good, someone told me a while ago before orientation that the friends you make in college will are your true friends and will stay with you for the rest of your life. 

One Day..

My ideal life after college after college is simple; hopefully use the degree I got at Southern Connecticut State University to further and better my life by getting a job in the area I was taught in.   I would also like to get my own place with my dog and my girlfriend and finally start my adult life.  I would like to be making enough money from my job to have the car of my dreams and hopefully have enough to pay for other necessities in my life.    But the one thing I really want is to truly be happy doing what I do every day, wake up with a smile on my face and go to bed with a smile on my face.  I want to make a good amount of money, get through the tough years after college happy and satisfied that my college education actually paid off in the long run.

Eventually I want to move away from the city/rural area and move down south.  I have always wanted to live in North Carolina on the shore and on a beach and relax with my family every day.  But I know it will take a long time, but for now I am sticking with all I want is to be happy with everything in my life after college with the people that make me happy to be alive.  I want to be a normal average Joe and live my life like everyone else after college, pay off loans and live on coffee and fast food just like we all did in college.

my life be like ooh ahh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAB6TmLL7Aw
This is my video so far its a little on the short side now, but i promise it will get alot better..i plan to interview all the people in my life who know me very well and can judge which job they think i would be better at.  So comment on what you like and dont like so far, i still want to ask more questions to the people i am interviewing.  post them on here if you want!

An Italian feast!

            Seeing as thanksgiving just pasted I guess I’ll talk about all the food I had on the holiday and the days after.  I went to my mom’s side for thanksgiving this year; it one huge Italian mess. We got kids screaming, dogs running around, and people giving toasts to family every 5 seconds.  Food none the less was the best part, so much great Italian cooking I couldn’t help but go up for 2nds, 3rds, and 4ths.  All the turkey we could eat, along with my grandma’s homemade meatballs and ziti, cornbread up the wahzoo, and last but not least mashed potatoes with gravy.  I didn’t know where to start there was so much food but so little time to eat it before the football game came back on.  My cousins dared me to make a sandwich out of everything that was on my plate, and if you know me pretty well I did it and ate it.  Ima champ, just sayin.

              You cant forget the best part about thanksgiving, the pie!  Mmm my family had atleast 12 different pies; from apple to canoli to pumkin and pecan we had it all.  So much pie I couldn’t stop eating until the food coma set in, so then I waited like an hour and started all over again.  That’s usally how the evening goes and you repeat the process one-three times depending on the person.  You cant get much better than a Italian family thanksgiving besides all the yelling and screaming, the dogs grabbing peoples dinners off their plates.  But its one of my favorite holidays because of the food. 

follow the leader

Before I aged out and became a leader I was in the boy scouts.  Yeah, yeah everyone make their jokes, but in all seriousness being in the boy scouts gave me many opportunities to show off my skills of being a leader.  Many experiences stood out in my mind but this one example just stuck with me.  We were hiking the appliachian trail a couple years back, my leaders were in the back letting the kids lead.  It started to become dark out and we still had not arrived to our campsite yet.  So we stopped on the trail to check the map.  We were 4 miles away from destination because we had taken the wrong trail, by this time most people would give up and sleep there for the  night, not me I took charge with my flashlight ahead of the group down the trail hanging glow sticks on the trees with the trail markers so we could make it back to camp. 

            We had finally arrived at camp around 11 oclock at night, everyone had thanked me for doing this because if someone did go ahead of the group to get back on the trail to find the markers we would have been lost until morning.  I thanked god espcically that night for not giving me horrible eyesight unlike my dad.  This may seem stupid to some people but this is what changed me as a person in the outdoors to always plan ahead and pay attention to key things in the nature. 

reasons why i pull my hair out

A difficult situation I have been in over the semester was in my exercise science classes.  We have to do interviews with the athletic training students in the program at Southern Connecticut State University and find out what they like about southern and the ATEP at Southern Connecticut State University.  These interviews are usually 25 questions long; we had to do the same questions 20 different times to 20 different students.  This wasn’t the hardest part about the assignment; the hardest part was finding the students in the athletic training rooms and on the sports fields during practice.  This was a long and difficult process to do, sometimes the athletic training rooms would be closed and no one was in them, or their practice was cancelled.

 Over the course of the semester I learned when to get to the athletic training room, and after interviewing 20 students with the same questions it got really boring.  I finally figured out when the games were for the teams to I based my trips to class and the ATR around this.  The first sport that I interviewed all the AT students in was football, there were all understanding of what we had to do because they had to do it the previous year so they knew what we had to deal with.  Next was Soccer, up early at school by 7:15 to get my interviews done that was a long and tedious process.  Finally I finished my interviews with gymnastics these guys were my favorite because all they did was joke around and have fun.  They were all great interviews in the end and I learned a lot.  

The nuts and bolts of Athletic Training

 

One class I feel intellectually stimulated in is my exercise science class in pelz gym.  We are just starting to get into the good stuff of athletic training all the human bio stuff I should have taken in high school if I actually thought of doing this kind of work.  All the anatomy terms interest me; learning about the different bones and muscles of the body really intrigues me.  I participate a lot in class and most of the time the answers are right, so it boosts my confidence up to know in a college class I can answer questions successfully.  Even though this class is really challenging I believe that I can make it into the program if I work very hard and complete everything on time.

My professor in this class is very funny which makes the class that more enjoyable to be in.  He tries to get us all involved; I think that’s the key to getting people to pay attention in college.  My friends in the class also make it enjoyable, they help me along since most of them are upperclassmen they guide me in the decisions I make.  My exercise science class is one of my favorite classes this semester because it is so interesting, I am surprised I am doing this well, and I always have to go back and study everything over again.  This major will not get easier from here, only harder so I have to keep my head up and do well if I want to become an athletic trainer.

 

off the beaten path

            Usually when I study at Southern Connecticut State University I study inside at the student center.  On occasion when the weather is nice out I like to sit outside underneath the trees in front of Englemen Hall by the quad.   It is very relaxing and there is rarely anyone else there.  Seeing as it is getting closer to winter I don’t think I will be outside as much but on nice fall day I will be out there on my laptop studying away.  It really is a hidden gem on the campus for studying not many people realize how nice Southern Connecticut State University is in the fall weather with all the fall foliage around.  Sometimes I will go outside of the student center just to sit and relax, one time there was some dude doing yoga outside of the fine arts building and he asked me if I wanted to join, I said no.

           

            The only down sides to this study spot is the weather and sometimes groups of people actually do come outside and sit down but they talk obnoxiously loud and it isn’t really good for studying at all.  Usually the weather cooperates with me and I can sit outside for hours on a time until my next classes.  If you haven’t sat outside and tried to study before on campus I suggest you do it!  Its fun if you get a study group together with your friends or just go out there to relax.  I recommend this spot to anyone on the campus!

C's dont cut it

            All through out my middle school, high school, and now college career teachers have always told me if you do that work and show up to class you will get a C.  Well seeing as I have been in school for most of my life, and I have not seen one case where that is true.  It’s always something else that you have to do to get barely a passing grade.  I am not one of those people that just settles for the C or the D because I like pushing myself in my classes. But from friends who have done nothing but the bare minimum have gotten away with a D-.  Why do teachers promise us middle level grades for mid level work but then almost flunk us?  Its like they don’t tell us everything that we needed to do to do well. 

            If I just showed up and did the work for some of my classes in high school I wouldn’t be in college at this point because some teachers just like to work us over, and in turn we hate those teachers.  But I have finally figured out that the teachers that pushed us to no end actually helped us more.  They showed us that college is a step up and that we needed to be prepared for it.  So for that I thank my Senior year expository writing teacher ms. Feely, because she pushed me to the point where I wanted to just give up in that class.  Even though she will be alone for the rest of her life because she is so mean and heartless I thank her 

maybe i should have ran track in high school...

            When I want to relieve stress the one thing I can always count on is running.  This always has seemed to work for me very well.  No matter the conditions out side I will always make time to go for a run and get everything off my mind.  Usually I go for 2 or 3 miles when I go because that has been the norm for me throughout high school.  Even though I did not do track or cross country I always found myself running around places when I didn’t have a car.  Its very relaxing if you go at night because there are not a lot of cars to worry about on the road and at this time of year you fill your lungs up with that crisp cold fall air.  Listening to music helps me running because I can stay with the beat or pace myself, whether it’s metal, hip-hop or even rock. 

Running along with being a stress reliever keeps me in shape for the up coming months of doing nothing but eating lots of food and being lazy on the couch.  It always seems to help if I have something on my mind that I’ve been thinking about for a while.  I really don’t know what it is that I love so much about it, I always feel accomplished after a run because it gives me pride to know that there is something that I know I can do in my life that no one else can tell me how to do.  In the end I know if I ran well il come home and pass out on the couch downstairs, if you guys haven’t found something that suits you with controlling stress levels I suggest running its worked for me for a very long time.   

outta my shell

            Something I have done that was out of the ordinary or different for me during the week was something that I hadn’t done since last summer.  I hadn’t slept in my own bed since the beginning of summer 2009. Since I had moved in to our new house I had slept on the pull out sofa bed for the entire year since this week.  It was different for me because I had been used to sleeping on a crappy queen pull out sofa instead of my twin-sized bed.  I had enjoyed being back in my own bed, instead of sleeping down stairs all the time.  The only perk of sleeping on the pullout couch was I got to hangout with Marley (my dog) all the time.  Sometimes he would jump up onto the bed and fall asleep he would take up more room on the bed then I would and he is only a 6-month-old puppy.   

            It was different to finally sleep in my own bed after a year but I like it a lot more than sleeping down stairs, with that backbreaking mattress.  I felt like it I had been so much longer than it already has been.  I am promised a bigger bed since my feet hang over half a foot on the twin sized one.  We are finally finished “moving in” to our house so now I can finally have some peace and quiet in my own room.  This own experience had changed me a little bit but I am happy that everything is back to normal.

 

mah grades

As I reflect on my midterm grades as a whole, I thought to myself how did I do this well, I didn’t think that I had done this in my first half of my first semester my freshman year.  All my grades are decent and enough to keep my parents happy for the time being.  My inquiry grade I was surprised about because I didn’t think I had done that well, or had remembered to do some of the assignments to get the grade that I had received.  I am very proud of myself for putting my nose to the grindstone and working my butt off and not wasting time like I did in high school.  I have learned how to study like a college student should and I guess it paid off in the long run.

 

   My grades for my other classes are quiet impressive for my history of grades.  My exercise science grade was a b- I thought I at least had a c- or a d+ because I thought I didn’t know how to do anything in that class.  I enjoy history a lot so there was so surprise that I actually did well and aced the midterm like I had hoped to.  My math grade was a little less than what I had expected but over all my grades reflected on how much work I put forth to do well and I think that is an accomplishment in itself.  I couldn’t have got this far without out help from my friends and parents so I have to thank them to for all the support.     

fake GPA's

            When I read over the articles for this week’s class the one about grade inflation really stuck out in my mind.  I don’t think this is a good idea, I believe it is cheating to add points to your students overall gpa’s.  It is just wrong for some colleges and schools to do it but not all.  Just because they want to put their students ahead of the game isn’t fair to the rest of us who don’t get that advantage and have to compete with schools like that.  This means for us competing with those students for the same jobs we have to do extra well just to get slightly ahead of their game when they already do not have to anything to improve it.  It is an unfair advantage just because they can pay to go there doesn’t mean that they deserve to receive higher grades than normal students.

  

If this is implemented in some schools it should be implemented in all schools. Just because you pay a higher tuition doesn’t mean you can cheat your way into the work force.  This will also make the students think that they don’t need o work as hard as they did.  Just because they will automatically get higher grades so they wont have the intuition to work as hard as they did.  It makes the students become lazier.  This will in turn make it seem like they don’t have to go to class to earn better grades so they will have no motivation to want to learn more and better themselves.

my video word up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj5dbO8gn3w

This is my video on Time management in food, its not great quality and some of the shots are off, but i think it came out pretty good.  Took me a long time to do but the topic was very interesting and i thank all of my friends that helped me make this epic video

My life

            So a free topic once again, well I sat around for about an hour not being able to think about a topic to write about because it’s a Saturday and I should have done this earlier in the week but that’s not the point.  I finally figured about what to write, so I’m going to talk about snowboarding this winter.  I can’t wait to finally get back on my board; it has been way to long.  I can’t wait for the snow, the fun car rides, and all the sick videos I am going to make this winter.  My board has been collecting dust, I just want to get back on and ride down the mountain headphones plugged in being that annoying snowboarder that all the skiers hate with a passion.  There is nothing better than getting up at 5 on a Saturday driving 4 hrs to okemo in VT to snowboard all day that’s just the best it gets, and im not being sarcastic.  During the winter this is what I live for, if its Mt Southington or Mt Snow in Vermont a mountain is a mountain and I don’t care. 

            

    I have been snowboarding all my life, and do not plan to stop any time soon.  If I went to Costal Carolina for school I wouldn’t get to do what I live for during the winter.  I will one of those dads who will buy their kids their first boards, and teach them how to board.  My dad skis but he some how taught me how to snowboard in one day.  So yeah that’s my rant on snowboarding, its been my one true passion I have done all my life, and I don’t think I could ever stop its just so fun.

lee is legit!

Our new peer mentor lee is awesome.  I enjoy the way that she tries to get us more involved in the campus with fun activities like the free hug campaign.  She is very personable, even though she is an upper class man she relates to us as freshman with many experiences that we will have in our future.  Her techniques to help us out with life work very well with the different exercises she has done with us in only the 15 minutes in the beginning of class.  I liked the activity we did when we had to chose the most important people in our lives, it made me think about who was important and it made me think on what would I do if I had to jump off a cliff and only save 1 person.  I also liked the laughing exercise.  I did not take it seriously in the beginning but after we all had a good laugh it made me feel happier inside. 

            I am glad we finally were given a peer mentor to ask our questions to.  Its like asking another freshman with a lot of experience on what to do with our lives.  In the beginning I didn’t really care if we got a peer mentor or not because I am just one of those people that don’t care every much for students who feel like talking in circles about are lives and crying it out.  Lee is really cool she is like one of us; chill relaxed just wants to be a college student.  I am glad she is our peer mentor and I can’t wait what she has in store for us for the future.