It has now been 10 weeks (yeah, that’s right, double digits) since I set goals to work towards during my first semester here at college. This past week has been unique because for the first time since starting college, I had a week off of classes, thanks to Thanksgiving break. This being said, it was pretty hard to work on my goals, because they involve school and interacting with others at school. Considering the situation, I still think I made progress, even in the short amount of time I have been back at school since Thanksgiving break.
Like I said in my blog last week, I feel as though I have largely accomplished my goal of studying for classes and have instead changed my goal to finishing the year strong. I have already hit the ground running in terms of finishing the year strong, because I have a large load of homework due this week or next week. After arriving back on campus at about 5:30 Sunday night, I unpacked all of my things, ate dinner, and began working on homework. I had to work on a 6-page report for my technical communications class. I was then in the library for about six hours the next day working on my report, and another two and a half hours today after 5 straight hours of classes starting at 8am. Now that I finally have that report done, I have to make a PowerPoint and prepare a presentation on that same report, due Thursday. Not only that, but I have two blogs to do and I have to continue to work on my Global Journeys project, which is due Monday along with all of my campus connections and my reflection on our class service project. This work sprinkled with some homework from other classes means that it is really time to grit my teeth and get work done whenever I’m not in classes. I really have no choice but to finish strong, so it’s time to get to work.
Even though I have had very little time around others since Thanksgiving break, I still made some progress in opening up and talking with people. Since getting back from Thanksgiving break, I have really connected with one of the guys that lives across the hall from my dorm room. We’ve talked about working out before because when I do certain workouts, I have to use a pull-up bar, which in my case slips in and out of my doorway. This means that when I do pull-ups, I essentially do them in the hallway. So naturally he knows that I work out, which gave us something to start talking about. We’ve talked bout working out and also protein shakes, and he’s even asked to borrow some of my protein shake powder. We also talk occasionally talk about hunting and that’s exactly what we talked about for a while on Sunday night. Considering the fact that I hunted five or six times over the break, we definitely had a lot to talk about. It was also interesting to hear his hunting stories because everybody hunts using different methods, and it’s just good to hear other hunters’ stories. We’ve definitely grown more familiar with each other and it’s always nice to be able to talk to somebody who shares my interests.
Thanksgiving break also gave me a great opportunity to clear my mind of negativity and focus on the positive. I told myself that I would try to relax as much as I could over break, so I decided not to mix homework and a weeklong break from school. I knew that thinking about homework would just make it impossible to totally relax, so I pushed it out of my mind. I did make some progress by completing rough drafts of two campus connections, but nothing other than that. I really began to think about homework just before I started the drive home, and even though I only got a little work done over break, I feel like it has left me in better condition to finish the year strong. I came back to school ready to work, which I think will pay off more in the long run rather than completing more work over break. My mind felt clear coming back to school, that is until I got hit with the amount of work I still have left to do. My mind goes from being clear, to being filled with thoughts of homework, and more homework. Even though I still have a lot of homework facing me, clearing my mind over Thanksgiving break has left me as prepared as possible to get all my work done.
When I think of finishing strong, several motivational songs and movies come to mind, but I think that one song especially fits the bill and the mood I am in. That song is Last Man Standing, by Lansdowne. The song talks about what the title implies: being the last one standing and outlasting all others. It gets me pumped up whenever I hear it, and it definitely applies to completing the end-of-the-semester workload that I currently have. Here is a link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPn8zLZvE5c
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