Before arriving at Bowdoin for my first year, I thought I had the next ten years of my life figured out. I was confident, enthusiastic, and willing to travel across the country for my next adventure. Yet, as many students realize, being on your own at a college as academically and socially challenging as Bowdoin can be difficult. Unlike my high school experience, I felt myself struggling to keep up in class, continually depriving myself of sleep to understand a concept. Finding friends was also difficult, draining myself mentally just to find someone who shared the same interests. When I failed my first chemistry exam, I realized that I was no longer the brightest student in class. Getting a bagged lunch to eat in my room made me feel that
I was no longer outgoing or ambitious. Coming to Bowdoin took a toll on my mental health, and slowly affected how I perceived myself. Over the summer I decided to find ways to prioritize my well-being. Whether it was cooking, learning the ukulele, or taking pictures of Maine in the summer, finding ways to de-stress became essential, eventually allowing myself to remember why I am capable of succeeding at Bowdoin. Consequently, as a sophomore at Bowdoin, I am now thriving in a place that I seemed not to belong in. At Bowdoin, self-care is a subject that needs to be continually addressed and practiced. Being a member of the Residential Life staff would enable me to provide students with constant opportunities to care for their well-being in a way that best suits them. Whether it be playing video games for an hour to relieve the stress of an assignment or getting off campus to talk about something other than school, I would make it a priority At Bowdoin, the stress of being expected to immediately thrive in a new environment can take a toll on one’s mental health. Therefore, by providing students with moments to remove themselves from their stressors, I believe they would be able to ease into Bowdoin in a way that allows them to enjoy the college at their own pace.
...d the way in which she makes friends, also suffered. So what can other first generation college students do to avoid what has happened to Sarah? The answer lies in directing a passion towards learning and education in students and their families that will build self-motivation and avoid the negative predispositions of being the first in the family to attend college. While Sarah has not been attending the University of Miami for too long, her experiences thus far have given her a very good understanding of her position in this academic community, and nevertheless, gives a representation of first year first generation college students. Sarah is only one person though and may not be fully representative of the population first generation college students, but as a member of this community, Sarah’s input is essential to the ideas and views of the students in this group.
When I first came to college, I did not have a solid idea of what the experience would be like, but I was excited for this new chapter in my life. I enrolled in courses I though I would excel in but a couple of weeks into the quarter, I felt unprepared for the fast-paced courses that I seemed to be struggling in but that my peers seem to of been excelling in. Early on this cause me some hardships suddenly I did not feel that I was as smart or accomplished as they were. As a result of this my grades in my courses suffered early on. As time progressed, I became friends with a group of people who were also in my similar situation, they were first-generation college students, students, this great support network of students allowed me to gain more confidence in my academic ability and with the help of my lab work, I began to see that I could excel in college.
There is a tremendous amount of things in life that every student at Golden West College should know how to do. High schools do not offer classes that teach their students how to do certain things in life after high school, and instead teach them things that become useless. Therefore, once these students move on to college they think that they know everything that they need to know. However, that is not exactly true for a majority of them. In the article, “How to Make It in College, Now That You’re Here” Brian O’Keeney discusses many different techniques to help freshmen, and any other students in college that need the assistance. O’Keeney’s article is separated into three main sections to help the reader focus on specific things: good grades, organization, and mental health. Personally, I believe that organization and mental health is what students need to be focusing on the most. Once entering college there are certain things that some students do not know, and it greatly affects their mental health. For example, my best friend and I just graduated high school this year, and once we entered college, we felt lost because of the things we did not know how to do. We did not know how to dot some of the most important things: pay our bills, make sure we received our financial aid, how to do our taxes, etc… All Golden West College students should be required to take two semesters of learning how to do some of the most important everyday things, such as: how to balance a checkbook, how to do taxes, what a mortgage is, and many more things.
I feel as though the best way to adapt to the harsh reality of a personal problem is being vocal about it, which can later help someone realize that it may not have been much of a personal problem after all. One issue facing college students around the world is the fact that many of them derive from households and families lacking any college alumni; therefore, making them first-generation college students. The difficulties that come along with attaching this moniker to students include tedious things such as spending countless, mind-bending hours spent on Google searching for what school best suits one’s needs, or needing to delve a little deeper into websites regarding what differentiates an independent student from a dependent one. Minor annoyances such as these can grow into even more vexed issues such as having to depend on a counselor’s often faulty information to help construct a student’s schedule, making things like scouring the web sound rather minuscule in comparison. I heard about issues like this before I went to college, but I didn’t believe it; nowadays, there are moments where I’m sitting in class and end up asking myself, “Should I even be here?”
When I woke up the next morning, I realized that I was in Zaroff's comfortable bed. Where am I? Why am I here? I suddenly remembered. I had won. I was the first one to win the game. I had the island all to myself now, but what should I do?
I can divide life into two parts: The part before I went to the temple and the part afterwards. I suppose everyone could do that. On September 19, 1998, I went to the temple for my own endowments. I read my journal entry from that time and it did not do justice to what I actually experienced at the temple. I went through so many emotions and had so many questions answered that I had kept to myself.
Since the fifth grade I was competitively swimming, by tenth grade year I didn't know what I was swimming for. Maybe it was to see all my swimming friends or just to mess around in the pool, maybe it was to make my parents proud. But at the time, I myself didn't know what I was swimming for. I had been swimming for so long it was just a routine, part of my daily life. I've seen many students like this in various sports with no real reason for playing, but in my senior that fog of uncertainty had dissipated.
Fear is just a reason to try harder is a saying that you might think of . Well this type of fear is different . THere was a time in my life where i was just taken over by fear i was not happy at all i would not smile . I was really nervous about coming to middle school . I was nervous because there are so many new people here and the locks on lockers were a scary thing to me to make that transition .
You said it wasn’t working because I wasn’t happy, but you already knew that. I have depression and it literally blocks my happiness. Since you already knew that, why did you wait so long to break it off? And why didn’t you come up with a different reason? One that hurts less… Did you really think that you could cure me, fix me up, in one month’s time? That’s not how mental illness, nor life itself, works.
It is surprising, but true that motivation for people comes from money, power, and fame. Not quite for me, I was motivated by my loving grandmother. She instilled in me to “Stay Gold”, work hard and be honest always. When you combine those together you can’t put a limit on what you’ll be able to do in life.
I didn’t honestly know how my high school experience was going to go. I just hoped I would do good but I’ll be honest, I was excited to get to go back to school with my sister again. When it was the first day of freshman year for me I hung out with my sister in the band hallway and I remember like all of the seniors going through the hallway next to us yelling, “we hate freshman” and spraying kids with silly string and condomes filled with pee; I never got sprayed. My freshman year was fun I went to my first homecoming with my sister and it was great! After the first semester we moved to Sullivan Missouri which was a big difference but a good one.
The Charles Dickins quote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” has always brought feelings of the college experience to my mind. In the midst of my first official semester at St. Petersburg College, I am overwhelmed with thoughts and emotions. Partly, I cannot believe that I am taking such a gigantic step in my life. I did not always have the passion to further my education. My automated answer to anyone urging me to attend college was, “School’s out.” Now I can say with confidence, “School’s in.”
A little over four years ago my younger sister became very ill almost overnight. She has always been a very active athletic playing every sport imaginable. What seemed to surely be a virus soon proved to be much bigger. The doctors were perplexed and seemed to be almost guessing. Everything from a brain lesion to the C word cancer was given as options. Doctors would receive a referral and want to see her as she was a barely watching question mark. 53 doctors to date have evaluated my sister and that number might be a little low.
Today has been one of the most stressful, most fun, and most hectic days of my life. The day started normal. I got up, got ready, and went to school. The day was going good. I got to school on time, I got everything done for my senior experience, and tonight is the Laurens vs. Clinton football game. Second block is my internship, but today I did not have to go because it was Friday. My friends and I were waiting around for something to do until the pep rally that was later in the day. We decided to go to Presbyterian college and get some Starbucks because we had time to kill. I volunteered to drive the crew. How much better could this day get? It was Friday, I got out of school earlier than usual, I got to get Starbucks, and
I am writing this sentence at 1:37 in the morning. I’m not anxious because I procrastinated (Okay, I’m a little anxious because I procrastinated), but because I didn’t know what I should have written about. Going back and forth in my head all night wondering which will be the right answer to an open ended question. I could have done any number of topics, but there’s always downsides. Is this too serious, too shallow, too immature? Those were all questions I asked myself while thinking about my topic, all the while wondering what everyone else will think about me. At this point, the only thing letting me write this right now is sheer exhaustion. The wonders it has on the human psyche.