Taking the First Step

V) By definition, the word initiative means “the ability to assess and initiate things independently.” I’m not sure about you, but for me that makes no sense. When I hear the word initiative, I always think of “taking the initiative” or in other words, taking the first step. In my own words, I think it means being able to make the first move with self-determination and confidence. It is self-inspiration to see what needs to be done, then pursing the acts to achieve it. It is being able to act on your own and being self-sufficient and not needing help or advice from others. This is a word I hear in almost every class from all of my professors. They are constantly reminding us we need to have the initiative to do our homework and to be successful.

 

 

A new word I came across this week was Xenocentrism in my Sociology class. By definition, it is a culturally based tendency to value other cultures more highly than one’s owns. In others words, it is the belief that everything in your culture is bad, and everything in someone else is good. An example of this is Americans valuing Europeans products as higher quality than their own products.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenocentrism

Another new word that I discover during this week was moral subjectivism. I also came across this word during my Sociology class. By its definition, moral subjectivism is the theory that proper human conduct is to be determined by each person individually. Also, it is the view that there is no absolute truth, and that truth is merely in the eyes of the beholder. In other words it is the view of what is morally right and good for an individual. It is a theory that morality is based solely on society as a whole.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_subjectivism

Need a quiet place to study on campus?

I) Recently I have been on a quest to find a quiet place to study. The dorm room isn’t that loud but there is constantly people coming in and out of our room since my roommate and I are close friends with many people on our floor. I don’t mind this, but I found myself getting too caught up in their discussions and I becoming less focused on my school work. I could of simply asked my roommate to close the door but that would be unfair to her and I would still be too distracted with even just her in the room, since should we want to about things like how our day was going. Desperate for a quiet place where I can focus solely on my school work, I ventured out to the new Buley Library on campus.

 

 

 The library is located right behind the bridge that leads from west campus to the student center. As I entered and walked down to where the computers are located I found out that I was not the only one a quest to find a silent place to get my studies down. The library was completely silent, so silent that you would be able to hear a pin drop, no matter where you were. Even though there were a lot of students, everyone kept to themselves and respected everyone else’s needs to do their work. Another thing I enjoyed about the library was that there were multiple floors that we all have access to and each floor offers something different. Besides just being filled with thousands of books, they also had other resources like the computer labs that were all equipped with printers. I think the Buley library definitely filled my need to find a quiet place to study and I will definitely use it as a resource to find information and get work done.

 

 

 

Too Cool for School

2b) For this week’s blog entry, we were asked to write about something new that we wanted to work on during the duration of the week. For me, I wanted to focus on being a more organized student. Throughout high school I was never an organized student. My papers were always just thrown everywhere and I never really believed in a binder. I kept all my papers for all seven of my classes in one folder that was ready to split down the middle any second. I could never find any of my papers when I needed them and I was always determined to change this bad habit of mine.

 

To help with this, I went and bought separate notebooks for each of my classes, along with a folder to hold of the papers and handouts that went along with each class. I found this to be very helpful in the first step of trying to be neater and more organized because each class was separated and all of the papers for that specific class didn’t mix with others. Also, I went out and bought a planner. All four years of high school my school handed us a planner to use for a classes. Of course I thought I was “too cool for school” so I never even touched it. When I came to college, I realized it was a necessity to have a planner. I purchased one at the book store and it was definitely a life saver. I have plenty of room to right down my homework for each class on any given day and at the beginning of each month is a full calendar, where I can right down any important dates that I need to remember. All the months are labeled clearly, and this helps me track all my homework and plan my free and “work” time. All though these were two small changes, it has helped me tremendously in my goal of being a more neat and organized student.

 

 

"Think about you whole life, not just your job"

2a) Recently I was presented with seven articles to read and to take notes on for a class homework assignment. The articles ranged from advice tips for a first year college student, to how to develop into a deep thinker, and about being “independent thinkers”. At first, nothing about these assignments really interested me because I had that typical college attitude of “I already know it all.” As I pushed myself to be optimistic about these articles I realized that there was still a lot I was unaware of and each article taught me something new and unique. Two articles that I found most interesting are listed below:

One article I found very useful was, College Advice From People Who Have Been There Awhile. This article was filled for advice that I found very useful considering the fact that I’m a freshman and this is my first year. We were advised to listen to our educators because they have the most helpful advice for us young adults entering the college life. What I found most powerful from this article was when they said, “We need to think about our whole life and not just your job.” I think this an important reminder because college has a lot more to offer you than just being qualified and your field of interest. The best thing that you can do is focus solely on your future self.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/opinion/06collegeadvice.html

Another article that I enjoyed was, How to Become a Deep Thinker at College, because it gave us three tips on how to be a “thinker”. I found this interesting because I’m always looking for a way to better myself and a way to explore the unknown. The three tips are as followed:

1)      Choose a mixture of courses that all seem interesting to you. These courses should be something you already know about.

2)      Calculate the numbers of hours you will need to handle for the workload of each class.

3)      Double your totals. Keep that number of hours free in your schedule.

http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/10/24/how-to-become-a-deep-thinker-at-college/