Moving on

Im not going to lie, I have had a few very important people in my life pass away, but I don't think that that was as big of an impact as my parents getting a divorce was.  I lived with my mom and dad for my whole entire life.  We were pretty much what you would call the picture perfect family.  I loved them so much, they were basically my best friends.  Because I am an only child, I got all of their attention, which made it even worse.
When I was about a sophomore in high school I was told that my dad was going to move out.  My life froze on the spot.  I though, how could this happen to me? To my family?  What did I do wrong to make him want to leave?  Were we not good enough for him?  He moved away for three months to see how it was, after the three months, my parents sat me down to tell me he would not be coming back.  They told me it wasn't my fault, he just wasn't happy anymore.
For weeks, then months, my mother was a mess.  It seemed like she was putting on a fake smile every time she was with me, which is understandable considering my parents were married for over fifteen years.  I was okay with the situation at first, it didn't really bother me, until I had to start sleeping over his house.  Anyways though, the real difficulty I faced was watching my dad get married again after only about a year and a half from being away from the family.  That was one of the worst days of my life.  My stepmom is one of those typical step moms who try to be my mother.  I do not like that to this day.
My dad got married when I was in junior year I believe, which was one of the worst years for me.  Because I was an only child and all of my friends parents were together, I felt like I was alone.  I started failing all of my classes in school, my parents forced me into counseling, and eventually I was put on anti depressant medicine for about a year and a half.
Although I thought my life was ending at that point in time, I came to realize it wasn't.  Both my parents are happy now, I'm happier, what more is there?  During that time my counselor kept telling me that the divorce was not my fault and that it gets easier.  It did get easier.  Although I'm still not the happiest kid in the world, I am finally used to the separation.  My counselor was right, you get used to things like this.
This can relate to my college life because instead of loosing one of my parents I feel like I lost both because I don't see them as often as I would like.  As my counselor said, I will get used to this too.  I didn't give up before and I do not plan on giving up now.  I have too much to live for.  Life is too short to dwell on every little thing.  I am trying my hardest to be happy and to stay on top of my work (which has been stressing me).  But planning everything out and making a schedule of when to do what it has gotten a lot easier to get my work done.  Hopefully I will do well in all of my classes!

Work=success

"You are stronger than you think you are, you are more creative than you believe yourself to be, you are infinitely more powerful than you believe you are and you can reach that summit."(Work Hard or Work Smart)

While I was reading that article a lot of things popped out at me.  For example, that quote.  Tom Weber, who wrote it, said a lot about how working hard can get you very far in life.  He says you have steps to becoming successful.  At the beginning of the day, everyone should make a plan on what they want to achieve that day.  Or what they will be working on to get to their goal in mind.  He also said to look at what your working with, and plan a schedule of when you will be working hard.  You don't have to work hard all the time, but you should have a set plan on when you do want to.  Working all the time is simple, but working hard takes time and effort.

"The most common kind of multitasking doesn't boost productivity-it slows you down."(Debunking the Myth of Multitasking)

Dave Crenshaw talks about multitasking in his article and how to overcome it.  He says the most helpful thing to do would be one-on-one training therapy. He found that the best way for people to ultimately make a lasting change.  He doesn't think technology is the main reason for people not being able to multitask.  He does though have ideas to help us with that problem. 

 -Take control of technology

Meaning, turn off your cell phone and emails for a while and set a specific time for them, don't check it every few minutes.

-Schedule what you can schedule

Meaning, Set regular times in the day and week to check your voicemail and email.  Let your friends know when you will be checking them so they know when to send you an email or message.

-Focus on the person

Meaning, be present, listen carefully, and make sure everything has been taken care of before moving on to another task.


The second article really did help me, because I have a multitasking problem.  I get overwhelmed to easily with all the work I'm given.  So I try to just plan it out to avoid getting overwhelmed, which doesn't help all the time.

BLOGS

The blogs I looked at were all very interesting.  I didn't really see any I disliked, although some gave me some ideas of what to write about.  People seem to be so creative when it comes to writing.  I am personally not creative at all, but I will try my best to keep this blog as creative as I can.
I also noticed that a lot of the students have the same idea of college as me.  Learning the ropes, finding my comfort zone, and just being yourself.  In my blog I will be myself.  No one else.  Im not going to lie about something, I'm not going to try to hide something, I will just speak the truth as my philosophy teacher said.
I have another blog, tumblr, but this blog is just a little different.  Theres not a dashboard with a bunch of pictures on it, its people from the same school as me going through the exact same thing and I think i will like this blog just as much as my other one.  I plan to make this blog all about my opinions and thoughts on anything I think of.

The College Life. Setting the tone for this semester.

In my opinion, college is a time that you spend preparing for the rest of your life.  In college, you pick a major to study on and learn about.  With that major you start taking classes on that subject.  After the four or more years of that, you can now begin the rest of your life with the skill you were taught about in college.  Being a college student academically means getting all your work done and working up to your best ability on every class you take.  Socially I think it helps everybody come out of their shell.  In high school you're with the same people for four or more years, but now that were in college we are meeting people from technically all over the world.  I have already met someone from Hong Kong and from England.  Personally, I feel like everyone is growing up here.  We are on our own for the first time, we don't have teachers or parents over our shoulder the whole time telling us what to do.  We are on our own.  Which helps us grow up and become mature adults.
During my orientation for this school, I got even more excited about coming here.  Everyone seemed so friendly and all of the teachers seemed like they actually cared about their students and would help with anything they needed.  My goal for this semester and this year is to get as much help as I need to pass my classes and succeed at this university.
I am actually really excited for this class because I feel it will help me in order to meet the requirements I gave myself.  Even though it will be a lot of work, I think it will help me with my academics overall.  Im really excited for this semester.