Interfaith Office!

What in the world id the Interfaith Office?!? I decided to go to the Interfaith Office.  I knew it had something to do with religion but I wanted to see if anybody ever went there. When I got there they were very nice to me. I met the shoe staff and they told me all about the office. Religion is everything to them and they welcome everybody and all beliefs. When I was younger, my parents always took me to church every Sunday and I loved it. As I got older I slowly started to pull apart from that. Know that I know Theresa place at college for me I will always be here!

Midterm grades!

When it comes to grades, I always worry, especially in college. I kept on refreshing MyBlackboard to see if my grades are posted. I'm not very satisfied with my midterm grades, as I got three B’s, and one C.  Im not very worried about these grades though because my professors said that they will change. There are some tests and quizzes that I did bad on that are going to be dropped at the end of the semester, which will help my grades. I believe I still have time to improve my grades because I'm just starting to get used to the college work. At first, I was still in the "high school" mindset but now I know what college professors expect from you and I want to improve. I think the amount of time I put into school has affected my grades because as you see I put the least amount of effort in East Asia class. I plan on working a little harder on the classes I have low grades in because I'm not satisfied. I can't believe I got a B- in my math class which I thought I was failing. Although that is not the best grade I was satisfied wit it because I really struggled through the first half of the semester in that class. In inquiry, I wanted to get an A and I was disappointed when I saw my B+. I need to read when we are assigned to read because the quizzes is what brought my grades down. Overall I know that I can improve but these grades are temporary

The mural!

I Never really paid attention to any art when I walk by it. When I read about this post I started focusing more on the beautiful art we have around campus. One that really stood out to me was  located in the Jennings and Morrill hall. I stopped one day and really looked at it. It was a beautiful piece. The mural was painted in 1986 by Nicholas Orsini who is a professor of Art at Southern Connecticut State University. Every time I looked at this mural I thought students painted it. What I didn't know is that it has a lot of meaning. This mural represents the stages in human development from left to right. It starts of with the emergence of life from the sea then leads to the discovery of microbiology then the exploration of space, and finally the botanical and biological forms depicted.  This painting if really interesting if you take the time to just look at it and study it. You will find the amount of detail and thinking it took to create this mural. It shoes that the artist is a creative thinker because he thought outside the box. This mural really makes you think before entering the science department, which I thought was pretty funny. You can always look at art, but to really admire it you have to stand and study it for a while. I loved this blog because it really makes you think about the world of art and how it influences mankind. 

School's Radio

For this weeks campus safari, I decided to visit the school's radio website. At first I couldn't find it but found it after I searched for it on google. I found the website to be very disappointing. It was very confusing to navigate through and it was also mostly empty. When I clicked the calendar, there was nothing scheduled. I would love to have a school radio, as other schools take it very seriously and it would be fun to listen to. They did not have any shows scheduled but I would love to attend the Sinfest scheduled for October 24 at 7 in the student center ballroom. The radio website needs some TLC.

I deserved it!

Midterms were very stressful for me. I don't really do good on big tests so I tend to be very stressed out during midterm week. After midterms were done, I took a deep breath. I knew I needed to do something to get my mind off college. Since all my friends are on their fall break and are back home I decided to go out with them. We all wanted to go to the movies and then go out for ice cream. It's always a fun with my friends because we tend to argue on many things, like picking out a movie. After 2 hours, we decided to watch Pitch Perfect. Let me tell you, I never laughed that hard during a movie before. That movie was hilarious! I wanted to watch it again! During the movie my friend decided to throw popcorn at me, so being me, I decided to throw it back. We ended up having a popcorn war during the movie. I know, so immature. After the movie we went to  Peach Wave a self serve frozen yogurt place. Although I spent 7 dollars on ice cream, it was delicious. I missed all the old times where we used to go out every weekend during high school, so going out this weekend brought back many memories. When I was out with all my friends, I felt free. I didn't worry about school as much and I freed my mind from all my midterms. I guess it's good for everybody to go out and do something fun once in a while. College can be over whelming, and everybody should reward themselves by going out and having a fun time.

Midterms already!?

I couldn't believe I was taking midterms for the first semester of college! I feel very confident in every assignment I hand in for every class. In high school I was always an A or B student and I wanted to continue this throughout college. I knew I had to work harder than I did in high school to maintain these grades. Looking back at my grades for each class, I believe I'm reaching my potential and putting in a good amount of effort. The classes I believe I'm doing the best in are this one and my political science class. I feel like this class comes easy to me because of all the discussions we do and I'm not afraid of speaking during class. My political science class is another great class for me because I just took a test that is 25% of my grade and I received an 93 on it. I felt very accomplished when I received my grade because it reminded me that hard work pays off. On class I feel like I'm having trouble in is my math class. I can barley understand my professor and my last test I got a 63 on although I studied hard for it.  To recover my grade I studied hard for the next math quiz I had. When I handed in my math quiz I felt very confident that I got a good grade. I'm the type to worry a lot about my grades so I get very nervous when a professor hands back grades. These last weeks have taught me that whatever happens, like goes on and you need to learn from everything. You get a bad grade? Study harder next time. College is all about the effort you put in.

Meeting my professor!

I met with my East Asia Instructor, Thomas Radice, at his office hours this past Tuesday. I had to ask him questions about about the midterm exam that was coming up and about the quiz we just took. I needed to know what I was doing wrong and if I can get some extra credit. His office Is located in Engleman Hall, room, EN C215B. His times are as follows: Mon. 1:00 – 2:00, Tues. 11:00 – 12:00, Weds. 12:00 – 2:00, Thurs. 11:00 – 12:00. The professor golf me to take better notes while he was talking to help me get better grades on my quizzes. I'm glad I went to talk to him because now I feel like he knows who I am and notices me more in class. He was very nice to talk to and we got some good laughs talking!

Can't believe I did that!

I spent countless hours thinking about what I'm going to do to push myself out of my comfort zone. It is very hard to push me out of my comfort zone because I'm not shy of anyone or anything, I'm a dare devil. I wanted to do something I haven't done before. On Saturday, I called my cousin asking him his opinion. Surprisingly, he was on his way to Six Flags New England, something I haven't done before. I immediately thought of this blog, and put my car in drive with my destination being Six Flags. When I got there, I saw it, the roller coaster Bizzaro. With a 221 ft drop, I knew it was the roller coaster for me. When I got in line, I started getting butterflies in my stomach. I didn't like the feeling. At all. I knew I had to continue because I was with my friends who love roller coasters. As we got closer and closer, the butterflies in my stomach grew. At one point, I was about to turn around and tell them I can't do it. I was up next in line and my cousins were all laughing and joking around because they are excited, while I'm about to cry. I sat in the seat and said this is it, this is my time. As we went up the steel frame, I knew this was the best thing I was going to do. When we got off I was speechless. I definitely didn't expect such an awesome ride. I was laughing at myself because I was scared at the beginning. A lesson I learned was you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone in order to have fun. We all had so much fun, we wanted to go on again! Oh what a day it was at Six Flags New England

Learn from it!

Failure is emphasized very much in The Mindset. Failure is hard for people to deal with, no matter who you are. Everybody in life wants to be successful but unfortunately, it can't happen. Although you fail, it's the way you get back up when you do. There are two types of people that deal with failure, the people with a growth mindset, and people with a fixed mindset. The people with a growth mindset see failure very differently than a person with a fixed mindset. For example, the person with a growth mindset sees failure as an opportunity to exceed the next time he tries to do something. They will use failure as a lesson learned. They come back and finish what they started. On the other hand, a person with a fixed mindset would just quit after failure. After reading this book, I thought about myself. I always try different things in life and sometimes fail. I use this failure to strengthen myself and recognize what I did wrong for the next time. Whenever someone challenges me telling me I can't do something, I try a lot harder too achieve my goal because I want to prove myself. For me, failure is very hard because I'm very competitive in everything I do. I believe that failure also measures the determination in a person. When a  person failures it should motivate hem to do better. For example, my freshman year of high school I did t make the soccer team, but I didn't quit and used the summer for more practice and I ended up making the team my sophomore year. There are many ways to prevent failure but it's very important to learn from it as well.

The writing center!

For this weeks campus safari, I went to visit the campus writing center. The writing center provides a great place for students to visit if they need any help with writing assignments. The center is located in the basement of Engleman Hall in room A-014. I decided to choose the writing center because I'm not a strong writer and will hopefully use the center when I have a writing paper due. When I first walked in it was very quiet, but a lady approached me immediately and asked me if I need any help. She turned out to be very nice and told me, I was welcome back at any time. I had a good vibe when I walked in and would definitely go again. The busiest time for the center is during exam week, so make sure you go before! .

Having the right Mindset!

After reading the book Mindset by Carol S. Dweck I came to the conclusion that I agree 100% with what she is saying. The authors two main ideas is that you either have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. I think that is very true because as as you progress in life you realize what mindset you have. For me, I believe I have a growth mindset because I like to learn about new things and I always practice what I'm bad at so I can become better. This book reminded me of the 10,000 hours we talked about in class because they both relate to the effort one puts in. For example, the person with a fixed mindset tells themselves that their natural talents cannot be improved. While on the other hand the person with a growth mindset, although may have talent, goes on and practices to make them even better. The growth mindset relates to the 10,000 hours because it shows that you need time and effort to master a skill. I reality the person with a fixed mindset fears failure. For example, the fixed mindset person would rather do something and be good at it rather than do something he's not good at and fail. To me, that is the wrong way to go in life because you will never learn from your mistakes. I believe I'm in a growth mindset now because I always challenge myself to new obstacles and if I fail, I take that failure and use it as motivation to be successful in my next try. I believe that everyone should try to be a growth mindset person because it will make you feel better about your self and make the world a better place

Video Project

I couldn't believe how my video project turned out. Being a kid that is obsessed with technology, I really enjoyed this project. I started this project on Thursday, September 27th. I sat on my computer motivated to finish this video. As hours and hours past by I noticed this is taking longer than I expected. I did not hesitate at all because I knew I had all weekend to do it and I wanted to do a perfect job. On Friday I continued to work on the project and finally on Saturday morning I finalized the video and then published it. Overall the video took me 20 hours to complete but it was totally worth it because I know I put my hardest work into it.  For my video, I decided to take videos of myself talking about every video. I found this a very strong tactic because it keeps my video informative and fun to watch. I also tried to make my video a little exciting by adding effects and suspense, almost like a movie trailer. A downfall of this was it took much longer because I kept on messing up my videos which made me frustrated. I had to eat dinner on my computer because it took so long. Another important aspect of my video was that I used iMovie. iMovie is a great program for making videos. It has endless possibilities to add to your video. Although I loved the program I found it very hard to use so I spent most of my time looking up tutorials for the program. Although it took a while to get used to, I'm happy I used it because I learned a new program that I can use in the future for any class. When I was done with my project, I showed it to my whole family because I was so excited with my work. My whole family loved the video and couldn't believe the work I have done to it.  With all this hype spread around my family about my video, I got excited to post it and show it to all my peers.