Anderson's Blog

My first year at the Univeristy of Tennessee,it was up and it was down. I thank GOD every day that I had more ups than downs, I was tested mentally, physically, and even emotionally. College has its way on testing you in more ways than One,so get ready for them. It seem like it was just yesterday that I graduated from my High School and I was talking about going to COllege, well now I am in College and I am heading towards my second year. I have no doubts in choosing UT as the COllege for me to better my education, and I plan on staying here until after Graduates School. I met a lot of new friends, got reacquainted with some old friends, learned a lot in and out of class that I can use in my every day life. SO to the upcoming freshman, get focused, stay focused, stay focused, and did I say STAY FOCUSED.

Staying focused is a lot of college kids problem, there is so much going on around us. Sometimes is very easy to lose focus on what you are doing, and most of the times we would be losing focus to things that we can control. Things like getting on myspace or even facebook too much, which can lead us to delaying on finishing a paper or even a project. Staying focused is something that takes a great skill in doing, and its something that I have been good on and something that I am getting better with as the days go by. Last semester, I would catch myself being on facebook and myspace alot, watching tv and playing the game, and even going to the gym. This semester, the library is my second home, I go to the library as least twice a day. While im there, I dont get on facebook or myspace, I just focus on what I have to do pretaining to my studies. Then, when I get back to my room is when I would do the ohter things that I want to do. My family pounds in my head all the time,STAY FOCUS, STAY FOCUS, STAY FOCUS. Now that's all I can think of is staying focus!

I have always heard from my parents, church members, and family members to communicate with them alot. Well here in College, communication is very important with your professors. Sometimes, it can be the difference between an A and a B. I weekly choose to either meer with my professors, or email them, this has proven to be a very good technique of mine. With staying in touch with my professors, they all know me by name, and it has even helped out to gain extra credit. By me communicating with my professors, I am letting them know that I am very concerned about my grade in thier class, as well as being a productive student. SO, when you get to College, don't forget to COMMUNICATE!

In high school you might have a chance to miss a lot of classes, maybe even fail a couple of exams, but in College everything counts. From your first day of clases til your last, everything you do or dont do, goes eithere for you or against you. It is very important, while in College, that you start off on good terms. Yes it strange, but having homework on the first day of classes was a very big adjustment for me! Normally in High School, there would not be homework until maybe the next week or so, but a lot of Cllege teachers believe in starting off early. You know that in High school you have a lot of class work due, plenty of tests and exams, a lot of chances to recieve extra credit and more. In college, some of your classes you may just have four exams, maybe two or three quizzes, and maybe no homework due. This can help you but also hurt you if you dont take everything seriously. You have less room for error with a lot of your classes. In my Math class, we have four exams, four major Online homework assignments, homework in the book that we dont have to turn in, and a quiz everytime the class meets. It may sound hard, but its not just as long as I do my book homework which is basically just practice for that chapter, and do good on most of my exams and do the online homework. In my Geology class, all we have is four exams that count as 40% of our grade, our Geology lab, that counts as 33% of our grade, service hours that count as 17% of our grade, and 3 quizzes that are 10% of our grade. Thats challenging at times because you you have to be serious with your studying, simply because EVERYTHING COUNTS.

This past weekend, University of Memphis played the University of Tennessee. With me being a hometown boy from Memphis, and attending a school that I love so much, that game kind of put me in a bind. I wanted Memphis to win because those are my roots and I love to see my hometown doing good, but I attend UT and I bleed orange so my cheers was going for the University of Tennessee. As I watched the game, I honestly cheered for both sides but wanted UT to win though. It was a very good game that had me proud of my hometown as well as my school, but the best team won so GO VOLS!!!!!

Each and every day that you are here in College, you will have to gather and keep the motivation to go to class, perform at your very best, and maintain throughout the College life. This is a big part of the kind of student you are. Honestly, yes there are days that I wake up and dont want to go to class, or even do work, but I keep the thought in my head that God has blessed me to be here and I owe it to myself and my family to work as hard as I can. Today for example, yesterday was not a good day for me at all, and this morning we had light snow and it was very tempting to not go to class, but I went. Here in College I have had a lot of days like that, and it is so tempting to not go to class, but I think that if I dont go to class then what else am I going to do besides sleep? so with that thought, as well as others in my head, I make sure I get up and go to class. One thing for you to work on before you come to College is getting your motivation and keeping it in your heart.

*In College you will have more time out of class then you will have in class. This surprised me last semester by it was sommething that I was told but honestly did not expect it. All of the time that's on my hand outside of class does go by fast if I dont have a plan on what I am going to do with it. I am loving the College life and the open time that is associated with it. I try and study each and every day for at least three hours or so. Studying each day helps you by whenever you have an Exam or something you would not have cram because lack of knowing that subject. Even with studying so much, there is still time I have on my hand to go to the Gym, go out, and other events that may occur.


*College is based on decisions such as to study or not, go to class, or even if you want to leave your room that day or not. My parents are not here, so there is no one here that can tell me what to do, so everything I choose to do is to my choice. One thing I have learned, is that a bad decision can cause a chain of other bad decisions to come. I learned that the decision to procrastinate is not a good one at all for many reasons. I had a power point presentation for my english class and I waited until the night before it was to be turned in to do it, I was up all night doing that presentation which caused me to be so sleepy the next day for all of my classes in which I was dozing off in my lecture classes. So making good decisions is very important in college.