Journal Entry 32

So, the final blog has come at last. Even though it feels good to be ending this semester as I'm greatly looking forward to summer, I still feel I will miss it. It truly has been a great semester; a lot better than the first, that's for sure.

1.On to the task at hand, I'm not exactly sure whether or not the first scores I have here are the true scores I originally had, but I'll use them anyway.

First Scores:

1. 57 2. 51 3. 27 4. 33 5. 31 6. 39 7. 25 8. 38

Second Scores:

1. 54 2. 40 3. 32 4. 23 5. 34 6. 41 7. 23 8. 25


2. Although I seemed to lower my scores more than raise them, there are still a few which have seemed to increase. Going down the list, I noticed that I had raised my score for #3, which is mastering self-managment. I feel that this actually is very accurate in that I have really gotten myself together since the first semester and have become much more organized. I used to have a huge pile of stuff that was supposed to be somewhat organized, but of course ended up becoming a huge mess. I have now organized all of my things for each of my classes, written down what I needed to do each day, actually set up schedules for myself, etc.

The next improvement I recognized was in #5, gaining self-awareness. This seems pretty accurate because taking this course really was actually quite the eye-opener for me. I have becomre more aware of my personal goals and how I need to go about achieveing them, which is, of course, by doing well in college and eventually getting my degree. I have recognized this as very important and have adjusted accordingly to a more responsible student and person for that matter.

The final area that I increased by a small margin was #6, adopting lifelong learning. I definately felt this to be quite true actually. This is because, like I stated, I have recognized how I need to go through life to be successful and to achieve my dreams. It's amazing, really, how just a class I went to once every week for a couple hours has literally changed the way I will go through life. And it was not only the class, but the college experience in general that has really been a reality check for me and will truly stick with me for the rest of my life.

3. Going through all of these different areas of self-assessment, I really feel like I would want to improve on all of them, because it would, obviously, be for the best if I did. In reality however, that will most likely not happen, but being able to improve on at least a few more would really still make a huge difference. The two I feel would make the greatest impact on my life would have to be areas 2 and 8.
Area 2, discovering self-motivation would for sure be a big life changer if I happened to improve it. Although it has gone up a little over the years, I still find trying to motivate myself to strive to be the best (and to actually sometimes just sit down and do some homework) to be extremely hard, as I am constantly distracted by other things in my life. Raising this area would make one of the biggest differences out of the 8 areas for sure.
Area 8, the area of most importance in my situation, is ,sadly, believing in myslef. Basically, I have this uncanny ability to doubt myself to the point where I will actually convince myself that I will fail an exam, not accomplish something, etc. I must say, I am not very proud of this talent; I, in fact, hate it. It still seems to never go away and I don't know what to do about it. No matter how much I think I know about something or how confident I feel about something, I will still question myself in every area that I feel I still have some sort of weakness and end up totally doubting the whole situation. I feel that this is honestly my worst trait and would do anything to get rid of it. Doing so to the point where it would actually help me in the long run is still rather unclear to me, but I have found ways to temorarily help myself. And, it was mostly all thanks to this class.

4. Wrapping things up, I truly have had an amazing time with all that this class has given me. I have been able to find the inner drive in myself once again, which truly was a life-lifter. Becoming more dilligent and responsible has also made a huge impact as well. These, along with many other traits I have gained after taking this course will forever stick with me not only through my college career or my actual career I plan on getting after, but my entire life as well. So I want to thank this course on a job well done. You really do give students who have seemingly given up on themselves to get back on their feet, find their inner drive and become what they always wanted. I will truly miss it all.

-Bryan Lowney

Personal Choice #2

For this personal choice blog, I chose to write about making better achademic choices, which this semester has had a lot more of compared to last semseter. This semester, I usually buckeled down and did my work when I had it and afer I was done I would go and do fun things like hang out with my friends and skateboard. I also, after class often go to the library or my computer lab to do work and study jjust so I'm away from all the things going on at home that distract me from my work. Last semester was horrible in that everyday after class I would just go home and immediately do fun things and wait until last second to do homework, if I did it at all, that is. It was a terrible way to go through college, and boy did my grades prove that.

As I stated in my last blog, this class truly has helped me out in that it has pointed out my flaws and I have, for the most part, recognized them and have changed accordingly. This is just one subject I really wanted to touch up on and go a little deeper with becuase I felt it was definatley one of my most hindering flaws from last semester. So thanks again, I really do appreciate the help.

Personal Choice...?

Although I'm a little confused at to what I'm supposed to do, exactly, I'll still try and give 'er a whirl I guess.

Since taking this class, it actually was an eye-opener for me and really made my second semester a lot better than my first. Although I still did poorly in my Chemistry class, I did fairly well in my others and felt pretty confident with them. This class really did make me realize the importance of college and how fun it actually could be. My first semester was absoloutely terrible because everyday I just hated going to class and never wanted to apply myself. This class ultimately changed that, in that it actually changed my mindset and outlook on college. I realized that it was more than just going to class to get good grades and to learn, it was going to class to ultimately get my dream job that I've always wanted. It made me able to set my mind on the big prize waiting for me at the end of all the craziness that is college.

Ever since I started going to this class, nothing but positive outcomes have occured. I've been able to identify some of my flaws and work on them and just all around feel good about going to classes and applying myself. I feel like I'm leaving out a lot more than I actually could put into this, but I think you kind of get the picture. I guess you could say I'm happy that Tech made me take this class, so thank you for helping me become a better overall student and, ulitmately, a better all-around person.