5A How I've Started & Where I'm Headed

Coming into college the workload I pictured is definitely the workload I have in all my classes. In high school I did care about my studies, but never really put all the effort I have into them. Now that I am in college it is a whole different game. Yes we have to stay on top of work, but also put in that EXTRA effort to do better and succeed. 

So far I believe that my successes in college has been great for the first quarter. I am on top of my work and make sure I get it done long time before it is due. I make sure I complete my homework with my best effort and also make sure I understand what I just have completed. When I first walked into my Microbiology lecture I thought it was going to be my hardest class that I have out of the rest. To be honest, I think that I have been exceeding my expectations especially in lab. In lab, I do understand everything we are doing and it sticks with me. Unlike in high school, I would do a lab and forget what we did or why we even did the lab. I haven't had any failures, but the only thing that concerns me is exams, midterms, and finals. When it comes to actual test taking, those skills are out of the window for me and I completely shut down. 

What I have learned about myself and the way I make time for my work and how I get it done is that if I am reading something or typing an essay it has to be DEAD silence. Some ways I make sure I get that silence is by going to the library. The library has definitely been a great resource that helps me get my work done. Also when getting my work done I always make a list of what I have to get done. For example, right now I made time to do one blog and my social issues homework so that later I only have to do the rest of my homework. I try and split up the workload so I don't have to do all of it once that can overwhelm some students and sometimes I do myself. By making a plan of when I am going to do what helps me keep track of what I am getting done and what I have left to do. I have always been a student that makes sure I get my work done, but now in college I make sure I also understand what I am doing because if I don't understand it and do it just to get it done there is no point of doing it in the first place.

Some methods from the readings this week that I am going to put to use for the rest of the semester is by telling a story about what I learned in class. In the article about note taking they advised to re-tell the lecture you just had, but in a story form. By doing this it will help you understand what you learned in lecture and make sure you did not miss any information. A small goal I want to set for myself is to use the writing center when I have essays due. My long term goal is to get better at writing and by making that small step to the writing center I feel that it will help me in the long run. Overall, I believe that I've been starting off my academics in a positive way and can't wait to continue them and learn more about myself.  

4B Inquiry Questions

This whole week we have been discussing how self-control, willpower and delayed gratification work. For me, all of these topics relate to one another. It is all about how you control your mindset and your patience. If you have patience you have delayed gratification. If you have control over your choices then you have self-control. If you have the motivation and mindset to get something done then you have willpower to do anything; you just have to figure out how to find that will power and put it to work. The real question is how do these help you with your futures?

How do these help us with our futures? Self-control, willpower, and delayed gratification are very important keys to our future. Without self-control you cannot really do anything. If you do not have the ability to control yourself how can you function on a regular bases? To me self-control is the most important factor out of the three. When you have self-control it leads to you having and finding that willpower to do something. Finding the motivation to do something can be hard at times, but never impossible. That willpower is somewhere you just have to learn where to find it. With delayed gratification, this will help you be patient with things that sometimes are hard to wait for. Sometimes we may get impatient and get up and leave, but if you have delayed gratification then it will make it a lot easier to get through your day as difficult as it may be. 

In the marshmallow test we discussed this week, all of this were a major key to the children being tested. They had to find the self-control and will power to not eat the marshmallow even though how delicious it may have looked. And that delayed gratification to be patient and wait for that next marshmallow. In the article, "Don't", says, 

"Instead of getting obsessed with the marshmallow—the “hot stimulus”—the patient children distracted themselves by covering their eyes, pretending to play hide-and-seek underneath the desk, or singing songs from “Sesame Street.” Their desire wasn’t defeated—it was merely forgotten"(3).

This states that the children tried to have that self-control and will power not to eat the marshmallow just by distracting themselves from it and it did work. They just forget about it until the adult came into the room in order to obtain that second prize. Just by this it states how I believe that self-control can be obtained, you just have to figure out how to make it happen. Overall, I believe that all of these three key factors are affected everyday in our daily lives and we learn day by day on how to control them to make them benefit us. 

4A It's either you have patience or you don't!

Delayed gratification is something that many people in America have or do not have. Let's define it first. Delayed gratification means to have the ability to wait in order to obtain something that we want. And so this applies to many aspects of any person living on this earth. In order for us to have anything we need to have patience. For example, if I go to BK and order something through drive thru, and I can see there is a huge line. If I really want to eat BK at the point then I must crave it really bad because I am going to have to wait through this long line in order to get my food. This shows that I have delayed gratification, but not everyone does. If I would have just left because I did not want to wait in the line then that would mean that I do not have delayed gratification because I did not want to wait. 

This has been a big controversy over the past years. Many believe that delayed gratification can be measured with the Marshmallow test. (Click here for more info. on marshmallow test ) They also say that by doing this experiment they can predict the future of the patient, academically wise and how successful they can become. Others say that by doing this test you cannot get anything out of it. That it is a joke and you can easily influence the children before the test. I believe that this test can aid scientists on how delayed gratification may work and possibly predict who will be successful or not, but it definitely it is up in the air when it comes to predicting one success in the future. 

As a society we do and do not have delayed gratification. If we want to wait for something to happen and push it through the government we have to influence the government on our idea and what it is about, but then we have to WAIT and see if our idea did go through or not. Anywhere you go, if its retail store, grocery store, Starbucks, or any store that are usually busy you are going to have to wait in a line. Even if it is short or not. People may not realize it, but we all portray some sort of delayed gratification throughout our days. If you sit and think about it, it is really true. If you want to wait and can wait then you do. If you don't and are frustrated you see people leave. We have the skills to portray delayed gratification, we just have to put them to use more often. 

Technology has definitely affected us and delayed gratification. We are advancing very rapidly for many technological items and everyone is out to get them. For example, the iOS7 upgrade for the IPhones just came out about two days ago and everyone already has it. Our delayed gratification for this new upgrade was present because that was what many people were looking forward too. Little things like this, delayed gratification is completely involved in it. And I do not think it will ever change.

"We can't control the world, but we can control how we think about" ("Don't" 2). 

4V New week, new words!

When you here delayed gratification what comes to your mind? When I hear this I think of something that you take in slower or something that you may do slower than others. The real definition of delayed gratification is the ability to wait in order to obtain something that one wants. So hey, see I was close with my definition! Here's an example to help you understand it better. So lets say that your 5-year-old brother wants desert really bad, but he can only have desert after he eats all his dinner. So your 5-year-old brother has delayed gratification to be able to wait for desert because that comes AFTER he eats dinner. So he has the patients to WAIT until dinner. Hope that cleared your mind up a little more!

Here's a little joke to make it interesting! :)

Microbiology is a class where there are always new words flying everywhere. This week in lab there are a good group of words that are new to us. Two of these words are staphylococci and streptococci. I know you're probably thinking what the in world does this have to do with microbiology and what they mean. Both of these words are types of way that the cells link together. Staphylococci are cells that form random clusters in a form of grapes. Streptococci are filaments that form long cells. Both of these help us distinguish the difference between the cells. Trust me theres more where that came from! 

           

                                      These images below are of what the 

                                         cells look like! Hope they help!

                                                            

                                                  STREPTOCOCCI  

                                   

                                                    STAPHYLOCOCCI

4I Comedy Show

Last week my roommate and I attended the "Laugh Out Loud College Comedy Show" in the Lyman Center. It went from 8pm-10pm and so both us thought it be nice to get a nice laugh in the night considering we have been doing homework all day. And we both showered and stopped by Conn. Hall to get a quick bite before heading to the Lyman Center. As we walked inside we thought there would be a lot more people than the amount that were already there, until later once we were all settled in, the stragglers arrived one by one. And so the show began!

First to come out were the announcers who were introducing the first act. The first act was one of the main acts close friend who also is a comedian. As the show started the first act was not too bad. He seemed trying to get his things together, but still managed to be funny at times which is what it was all about. He made jokes about his girlfriend's father who questioned him and he gave back some not so smart responses about Bill Clinton, which were pretty funny!

Finally as the first act finished he introduced his friend, Thomas Dale, the main act. He had been on Chelsea Lately the T.V. show on E!, which is very popular. Throughout his act he would always refer back to a fraternity that was sitting to his left and joke around. He called out a few of the guys in the fraternity and said their names sounded like One Direction, which is an all boy group. He made this one joke about how he thought he heard a water fountain in the park and when he went to see what if it was one, in reality it was some homeless person peeing. All the jokes he made were hilarious and it was definitely a nice way to end the night after a long day of homework at the library.

3I Navigating to Union Station

Coming from a small town on the shoreline, I have never really known how to look up train times or navigate myself using public transportation in a city. Well the day came when I had to figure out how to get to Union Station from SCSU. I was nervous even though I had my roommate to accompany me because she was also taking the train home. First we had to find out the times for the bus and what bus to even take. We were both clueless to what we had to take and where the bus stops were. So we called the town transportation and figured out that we had to take bus B at 6:45pm in order for us to make our 7:30pm train. 

So we packed our bags and headed for the bus stop. It took us a good 10 minutes to find the bus stop because I'm telling you we had NO idea what we were doing. As we waited for the bus to arrive, we asked another person waiting for the bus how much it was and we learned that it was $1.30 and we needed exact change in order to board the bus. We scrambled for change and finally the bus had arrived. When we called public transportation for the town before they has also told us that once we get off bus B in downtown we had to get on bus J because that bus would take us straight to the train station.   

Finally arriving downtown we ran down the side of the road looking for bus J. It was already 7:15 since the bus before has arrived late. Of course bus J had to be the last bus in line and we get on. I felt relieved because then I knew that I was actually going to make to Union Station and make it to my train. Arriving at the train station, I hurried to get a ticket and so did my roommate. We were just on time and not a minute late. This little adventure through downtown and using public transportation was definitely an experience that was much needed! 

3B Running with some limits

What I do to relax and forget about everything for a short moment is running. Running has always been something that helps me relax, but also stay fit and feel good. When I am stressed or angry I just put my sneakers on, some work out clothes, and hit the road. For me running on the road is much more peaceful for me especially around the neighborhood I live in back at home. My neighborhood is calm and in a woody area where there’s peace and quiet. I just plug in my headphones and run my anger or stress away or even just to relax. For me it can be easy at times to just get up and be motivated to head out and run. I always try to run for longer periods of time or longer distances to challenge myself and see how much I can resist. 

At times while I'm running I push myself and my body tells me to give up, but my brain tells me otherwise. Doing this helps me become better at running and have more resist. What motivates me to do it well is, knowing that I do love this and want to get better at it to feel good about myself. Before I would never even think that running would be something that I became to love and do a lot. 

I can learn many things just from running. I can learn how much I can resist if I push myself and makes goals to achieve. Applying this to my college career or education is not hard. Since I love to push myself over the limit because I know I can do it, my body just tells me otherwise, but I keep on going. In my college education I can push myself to make sure that I get the best experience I can have. I can make sure that I value all the hard work I have been putting forth because it is going to get me somewhere one day. Running is not just something that helps me physically, but also mentally. It helps me relax and apply myself to push my limits not only on the road, but also in my education and future.