Author: Jasmine

 A New Beginning

        This past semester was my first semester at UWGB. Also it was the beginning of my college life. This is special for me because this is the first ti

me I am studying far away from home. It’s all new for me, combining excitement and worries during this semester. However, I am glad to tackle these challenges and overcome difficulties by myself, which helps me to grow as a better person. For example, the biggest struggle I’ve faced in moving away from home to the United States is the ability to take care of myself. In the past 18 years, I lived with my family, so I only needed to focus on my studies. Although I have no experience in housework, cooking, and looking after myself, I manage to do it. Over the course of this semester. I made great progress with cooking and more importantly I have become more independent.

        In general, I am satisfied with my working habits. But there are still some bad habits need to be corrected. With my mother no longer urging me to arrive at school on time, I often late for morning’s class. The reason I can’t get up in the morning is that I stay up late at night which means I delayed my assignments until the end of day. However, this habit it is not only bad for

my health, also it affects my learning efficiency. At the same time, if I am late for class, it will influence class atmosphere and make teachers feel disrespected. Additionally, when the professor no longer reminds me to hand in my homework over and over again, I sometimes miss due dates. Obviously, I need to get rid of my procrastination and learn to properly manage my time. In addition to improving some skills, developing good working habits will be of great help to my future study and career. Although I still have a lot of room for improvement, the good news is that I have changed a lot since I became aware of these problems. I hope I can be better in the future.               from xiaohongshu.com

        There are many big differences between the high school and college. One of the most important is students’ autonomy in learning. For high school student, study is a legal obligation they must fulfill, so schools always force student study with packed academic schedule, like 10 classes per day.  However, for college student, they can arrange the classes you want which means  students have more independence time and choices compared to high school students.  Obviously，college is better for them to learn to be responsible for managing their time, studying, and making academic decisions in college which can help them adapt future society.

          The second most important difference is social life. Normally, high school classmates mainly come from local place. But students in college have more diverse cultural backgrounds. As a result, college provides a more interesting and expansive social environment compared to high school, with opportunities to meet people from different countries. For instance，high school students devote all their time to study. In college, universities have all kinds of club activities which can help them understand different cultures.

                  Since the COVID-19 pandemic, online education has gained tremendous popularity, providing convenience and flexibility to learners worldwide. However, online courses also have a lot of drawbacks. Among all these cons, the isolation of online course brings the greatest challenges to students. First of all, taking online courses tests the students’ self-discipline. The self-discipline required for online learning may pose difficulties for students who need to take more steps to prevent themselves from being addicted to the internet and entertainment. If someone spend more time on one thing, such as social media, then the corresponding effect is still studying less. Additionally, online courses are not conducive to deep face-to-face communication between teachers and

students. This lack of face-to-face communication greatly reduce the enthusiasm of classes’ atmosphere.

        Finally, the absence of face-to-face interaction can lead to a sense of isolation and hinder the development of social skills. Students may miss some teamwork and opportunities to apply what you’ve learned in real life. That will let students feel lonely and easy to get stuck in ivory tower which wear down their ability to be
innovative. In summary, online course separate people from each other and isolate people from the real world which brings a terrible influence to studying effectively and to future development.