College is a stressful time. On my better days, I try to look at it as a forge, a crucible for creating great works out of mere metal. However, life makes it become less about ideals and vision many times. Stress, especially academic stress can wash over you like a fog on a hazy and hot day, unexpected and sometimes overwhelming. I am no stranger to it. There are a variety of stressors that come with academic life. Time management, hard classes, extremely variable workload are some of many for me. They roll in like this flash fog, sudden and unexpected. I feel like it is an adjustment period to be ready to deal with them, especially with neurodivergency. ADD (my form of neurodivergency) is a major stressor for me as I feel like it takes me much longer on certain things, especially when I find them rather dull. It almost feels like I become cyclic and erratically inefficient, opening new browser tabs, having to get up to walk around to read another quarter to half of a paragraph, it feels truly debilitating sometimes. 

 

College is a stressful time. On my better days, I try to look at it as a forge, a crucible for creating great works out of mere metal. However, life makes it become less about ideals and vision many times. Stress, especially academic stress can wash over you like a fog on a hazy and hot day, unexpected and sometimes overwhelming. I am no stranger to it. There are a variety of stressors that come with academic life. Time management, hard classes, extremely variable workload are some of many for me. They roll in like this flash fog, sudden and unexpected. I feel like it is an adjustment period to be ready to deal with them, especially with neurodivergency. ADD (my form of neurodivergency) is a major stressor for me as I feel like it takes me much longer on certain things, especially when I find them rather dull. It almost feels like I become cyclic and erratically inefficient, opening new browser tabs, having to get up to walk around to read another quarter to half of a paragraph, it feels truly debilitating sometimes.Truly, I do wish it were easier, but I feel like life has to be hard before it gets easy…before it gets better. Do I think this all the time? Absolutely not. But I think upon review and better hindsight this proves to be partially true. I have witnessed my personal evolution and growth over the years and so have others. I would not be the person I am today without the wealth of experiences and downfalls which both propel my step and drag at my feet. It is just incredibly hard sometimes. Some days it feels damn near impossible to keep going. It feels like some days I get to the lowest point I have been at in my life, drowning at the bottom of the ocean, yet when I get there, I feel that there is something or someone to pull me up and back into the race of becoming the person I want to be. While the path forward can be unclear, and life can really drag you down to its’ murky depths, I can speak from experience when I say that the best choice is pushing forward with your goals. Self-fulfillment and being content with your life in my opinion has and will remain the foundation for having a life well lived. 

Coming to Green Bay this past fall had a lot of turmoil, but with that same turmoil came so many different surprises. It was like stopping at a small-town’s local roadside diner. I was greeted by friendly faces and was served a surprisingly good meal, one that I had never quite tasted before.  This surprising meal came in the form of meeting many different kind-hearted and caring people that I have the pleasure of calling friends. My meal also came in the form of finding some of my purpose. Before I came here my life felt a lot more aimless. I think I’ve found some of this purpose through the care provided by my friends and the care of my significant other, who I also met this last semester. I believe the way they think about me has influenced (rather greatly) how I think about myself, that their love has given me more self love, and in turn that has provided me with what I feel is the strength to want more for myself.  This strength influences me to push toward life satisfaction. These surprises have become meaning for me, a decently grounded purpose to achieve in life.

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I am elated to see what the coming years of college have in store for me, while many detest the new challenges of college. I feel as though they are starting to help me thrive. The new challenges of dorm life, the less than desirable dining hall food slowly pushing my picky eating habits away, the emphasis on my evolution as a person especially is what really has enabled growth for me. The surprise of college professors, friends, loved ones, and their willingness to start providing the tools for me to truly become an adult and find myself, my security, and my drive in life. I’m excited to make more friends, gain more knowledge, learn more about myself, and make amazing new memories during my time here.

High school and college have some similarities; however, there are a few differences that have stuck out to me so far. The major difference for me is not playing sports. Throughout high school I played three sports, so each season I was involved in something at the school.  However, now I do not play a sport on campus, so I do not feel as involved at school.  Could I play intramural sports? Yes, and I have, but it is just not the same type of commitment and competition as it was in high school. In high school I was always up super late to work on homework because I had games or practices at night; however, now I can work on homework after my classes get done around 3 o’clock.

With this, time management is something that is another difference between high school and college. In high school I had to work very hard to manage my time because of sports, clubs, and the friends I wanted to make time for. But, in college my free time is all the time. You only have class 2-3 times a week, so you have time to get the homework done.  I don’t have sports to worry about either, so all the time I used to spend playing sports, I spend studying and doing homework. If I’m not doing homework I am hanging out with friends because you have your own schedule.  You are not on school time anymore. Overall, I feel high school teachers scare high school students that college is harder than it actually is.

From Google Images

 

Different

Returning as an adult student has had many pros and cons. It has also been very different, and I’ve had to make many adjustments now that I am a full-time student and part time employee and not full-time employee and part time student. Some of the pros for me returning as a full-time student is that I have a very good understanding as to what I want to do with my future. With this I knew what I wanted my major and minor to be which were business administration and marketing. Time management is something that I’ve always struggled with so returning I’ve been able to find what works for me. I have the time and experience of living on my own and so I can work and take classes year-round to finish my program faster.

Although I have run into some issues as a returning student. I have much higher bills in comparison to many of my classmates as I did finance a vehicle while working full time. That falls right in line with I have to work a lot more which leads to many late nights and early mornings. I’ve also found that I’m having a hard time relating with people that I meet in some respects because I am not a traditional student. I also took 3 years off before returning to school and now I feel a little behind compared to many of my peers I have spent lots of time in the workforce right out of high school and I don’t exactly have the same goals or desires as some of my classmates I currently work about 30 hours a week which consist of morning and late evening shifts. I also have a hard time living on campus in a shared apartment with roommates before returning to school. I had my own apartment to myself back at home and I’m not entirely used to living and sharing rooms with other people and having a shared bathroom between many people is something that is something that is very different and has been quite the change for me.  I am also a little weary of making too much noise or doing something that might disturb someone else if they are trying to focus and do something that is important to them. I also feel a little on edge about things even though we already have a set line of rules and expectations with each other and in reality, I don’t have anything to worry about.

There are many pros to online classes. For instance, you can learn and read things at your own pace. Online classes give students more time to do assignments and a bit more leeway with their learning, which for some students is more helpful. Another pro is that students cannot be late to online classes, unless they have zoom meets, and there is no reason for students not to do their assignments in a timely manner as they typically have at least one week to do them. Online students can also range from on campus students to parents who decided to come back to school for a higher education.

There are also many cons to online classes. For instance, students can cheat on assignments and not learn anything from the course. Students can also get easily confused on material and it is a struggle for them to get help as online students as professors may not check their emails or get back to the students on time leaving the students completely confused and alone. Online students tend to lack social interaction and connections with other students and professors as they tend to do their schoolwork in their dorms or areas on campus by themselves leaving them lonely and without a sense of connection or society. Another con is that students can become unmotivated if they only have online classes and rot in their dorm rooms and work on their schoolwork all day and night, they will slowly but surely give up on school and either drop out or go on academic probation. Online courses also do not limit distractions; students can do whatever they like such as watching shows and movies or scrolling through social media, doing anything but their schoolwork, which is concerning.

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Becoming Awesome: Part 1

would like to create three goals to aid in my academics and wellbeing this semester. I need to get better at submitting assignments on time. I’ve always had a tough time remembering deadlines. Last semester I turned in only 13 assignments on time! Thirteen, out of hundreds! I’ve tried one thousand ways to remind myself, but nothing seems to work. I have planners, post-it notes, cell-phone reminders; you name it. I think the problem lies in my work ethic rather than my memory. I get things started, but then leave them at that. I am going to start devoting more time while beginning my essays and assignments so I can complete them in one go or get a good head-start. My second goal is to get involved more on campus. I participate in clubs, and I hang around events, but I’d like to do more. Being a part of this campus will help me out in the future. The world is built on connections, the more I volunteer, the bigger my world can be. I will be more devoted to my community if I can make an impact. My third goal is to take time to be thankful. I want to start a journal to write down at least one thing I’m thankful for or grateful for every day. Phones and computers take up most of our free time now-a-days, we’re constantly fed information. Everything moves so fast; this would be a designated opportunity to slow down. This type of reflection will help my mental wellbeing and allow me to see the positives on paper, too. If anybody else would like to join me in daily positive affirmations, feel free! Everyone could use some more sunshine these days. 😊

         Hello fellow travelers, I’ve been forced against my will to write you this blog post. So, bear with me as I share my darkest desires while simultaneously enjoying the somewhat anonymity that comes with writing under an online alias. I suppose now is a good time to introduce myself as that online alias. Hey, I’m Quercus2000. I’ll attempt to make this as bearable as possible for you as the reader, but no promises. Okay enough chit chat to make it to the end of this first paragraph. Time to really hit the question you’ve all been dying to know the answer to: What were the biggest hurdles I faced last semester, and how did I overcome them?

 

            I could list off a few mediocre tasks completed, and challenges that I consider as a burden i.e., moving across the state, looking for and changing occupations, and of course the extremely taxing schedule of 3 classes (sarcasm). But instead, I think most of the challenges I’ve overcome have been internal. I’ve been trying to teach myself (as well as accept teaching from others) that a challenge is only as difficult as I make it for myself. We as humans are very capable and unique in our own skillsets if we can learn how to recognize our own ability as well as the ability of others. So, all that to say, most of the time my largest challenge is getting over the fact that I make 95% of the challenge up in my head. I’m chipping away at it 1% at a time, so maybe one day if I’m lucky ill make it down to 0% and actually be prepared for the challenges of life as they crash against my shores.

Stay Frisky Travelers,

Quercus2000

There are many pros to online courses. The first is the fact that you can do the courses at your own speed. Being able to work at your own pace is such a good attribute for online courses. If your other classes are giving you a lot of work in one week, you can just work on your online course another week. Another pro to online courses is that you can open your schedule. If you schedule one or two online classes for your semester, it is easier to have a day that does not have any class scheduled. The last pro to online courses is that you can do the courses from wherever you want. This is advantageous because you can go anywhere and do your homework. If you have a vacation that you are going on or your job is sending you somewhere, you can still do your homework.

Pros And Cons For Business Stock Illustration 

With the pros that come with online courses, there are also cons. The first is that there is less communication with the instructor. Many students like to have a conversation with their instructor to better understand the topic. Without this communication, some students might have trouble keeping up. Another con to online courses is that you can fall behind. If you are the type that cannot set your own schedule, you might be finding yourself doing all the courses work the last week of the semester. This can also collide with finals week, and you can find yourself doing the work for that class instead of studying. The final con is that the work for the course can be unclear. Some courses can be disorganized on Canvas. This makes it difficult to know what order you need to do the work, making the course harder.

 

The last semester I struggled a lot with time management as well as feeling lost.  I felt a little lost going into the semester because I did not really know many people or the campus.  Since I commute to school, I felt as I was missing the college experience as well as falling behind in making connections with people.  I started to join some organizations around campus and began to be more active in the community.  When I began doing this, I felt more included as well as more comfortable.  I began to feel as I did belong in college and some of the people I met expressed that they felt a similar way, which comforted me in a weird way.  It felt as I was not as alone as I felt and that everyone had a sense of feeing lost and alone.

Looking back to my first semester, I had set unrealistic expectations for myself.  I was taking 15 credits as well as working 30-hour weeks.  I felt overwhelmed, as if there was never enough time, and that there was always something I had to be do.  I felt overworked, so I decided to cut my hours at work to 15 hours a week.  If I am honest, cutting my hours was probably one of the most important factors to my success last semester.  I began to feel less stressed and overwhelmed.  I honestly think that going through these difficult times early in my college career will help me in the future.  I now know how to manage my workload as well as understand that it’s perfectly normal to feel out of place sometimes.

When signing up for classes I thought it would be a good idea to take my first-year seminar online. It is fine some weeks; other times I wish I did not take it online. It is very hard to sit through a live meeting without getting distracted. Most of the time I end up watching a movie or TV show to pass the time. If I was in an actual class, I would not be able to do that. I would also be more committed to the class. Part of being in an online is the amount of busy work I get throughout the week, like watching a two-hour video and writing what I learned or clicking on links and telling her what I learned. It just annoys me because it is not really teaching me anything, but it takes away free time that I would have otherwise.  I think an in-person class is better for me because I tend to pay more attention to material.

Having an online class may be annoying but there are some benefits to taking an online class. One benefit of taking an online class is, I do not have to be in Green Bay to attend class. Recently I have been leaving Green Bay around noon every Thursday because it is my last in-person class. Although I have my online class at 5:30, I am still able to attend class while being in Tomah, three hours from Green Bay.  Another benefit to having a online class is the ability to do the work whenever I want to. Every assignment has a deadline, but I could finish the work for the semester early and not have to worry about it during the week. This is nice if I know the next week will be busy with a lot of assignments, I can do the work the week before to free up time the following week.  I will be taking more online classes in the future during J-term and summer-term classes because I do not have to be in Green Bay to attend.

Picture credit: Rasmussen University