I had a moment this week were I realized how independent of a person I really am. Ever since I have been in college, I’ve been told “you are such a little adult” and “you’re so mature for your age”. Even my biology teacher called me the “problem solving adult of the class”. While I never understood what these statements meant and if they were in a positive or negative tone, I knew that I wasn’t like most kids my age. This past weekend my parents were in town. I was at dinner with them one night and they told me these things that I have been hearing my freshman year. I finally gave in and asked why I was told that for so long. My parents gave me the typical parental response, so likewise, I gave the typical child response; ignored them. In the past few days, this question had been eating at me. As far as I knew, I was just like any normal kid in college who makes stupid mistakes, procrastinates studying and eats junk food just because I can. How is that “mature” or being a “little adult”? The deeper I thought, I began to realize that I am not just a normal college student. I have never skipped a class, I don’t go out and party, I don’t drink (literally gag at the taste), I attend church every Sunday, I have no problem eating by myself, and I am not here to get my “MRS Degree”. I don’t mean to write this weekly artifact about how good of a person I am (I’m not perfect in any way), but I finally drew the connections between these statements and my actions. I also realized during this time that I have a ton to work on as an individual. Looking at the big picture of this realization, I have learned many things during my first time away from my parents, but there are many situations and skills that I am still in need of improvement. I think the reason this artifact was so profound for me was because I had a moment of self evaluation for not only my academic life, but for my personal life.

Since it is the last week to work on this project, I guess it would be a good time for me to draw the connection between what I have done in the past and what I should do in the future. A few weeks ago in history, we had a 6 paged essay to write over a book we had read outside of class. Well I must have thought I was super woman or something because I waited until two days before it was due to write a draft, take it to my professor to edit, and revise it accordingly. Well, unlike I had hoped for, my professor basically told me to re-write my paper. Now I had heard the constant lectures about not to pull an all nighter and that your brain goes to sleep after a certain amount of time, but I was left with no option. My point in including this story into my commonplace book is not to fault my first (and last) all nighter, but to remind myself that this wasn’t a good idea. When I was looking at my rough draft today, I thought to myself, “DONT DO IT….DONT YOU DARE PUT IT OFF!” So, I am going to publish this post and go work on my paper, because it is a miracle my friends are still my friends and I am still functioning normally after my days of running on no sleep.

I had a hard time thinking about a moment this week in which I had made a connection. After spending some time writing my list of things that have happened this week, and doing some studying for my history midterm, I discovered that I drew a connection without my realization. In history class, we were talking about the different labor unions that were created during the time of industrialization. More importantly, they were very selective and secretive about the people and things of which they discussed. Without consciously realizing what I was writing I wrote “Phi Mu Rituals” in my history notes. We are currently preparing for rush and there are so many things of which we, as a sorority, keep under-wraps and private. While I don’t know why labor unions who petitioned things made me think of Phi Mu, I know that I drew a connection between my personal life to an event in history.

As soon as we were given this particular assignment, I knew exactly what I was going to write about for this week. I was doing my daily stocking on Facebook last night and came across an article on “10 ways you change while at college your freshman year”. Of course my curious mind overtook my body and I clicked on the link. I was so humored by the things the author suggested. In fact, I could instantly give you an example to correspond with each of the 10 points that were made. For instance, one of the points was about how you learn to be spontaneous, because you have the absence of your mother telling you its probably not a good idea. The irony of that is that just yesterday, I had the smart idea to loft my dorm bed, just because I was tired of how my room was arranged. With the help of my $2 rubber mallet purchase at Walmart, I was able to complete take a part my bed with only one bruised knee. I looked at my bed, which was in three pieces, and realized that I could not lift the bed, on my own, above my head. At this moment, I realized I had made a huge mistake. So what did I do, sit on the floor with my bed in pieces and just sob on the phone with my mom. While she found it humorous, I was concerned that I wouldn’t have a place to sleep and was convinced that I needed to come home. After I had the stable reasoning and advice from my mom on FaceTime, I was able to loft my bed. Still to this moment I don’t understand why I made such a spontaneous decision. Why I thought I could take apart and reassemble a bed is beyond me, but nonetheless I did it.

The reason I thought to include this example was because with something as simple as a Facebook post and a stupid idea/action, I was able to draw a connection. Even further, I was drawing these connections without even realizing it. I think that this was an important learning moment for me, because I always feel that a weakness in my writing is drawing connections between two articles. I have a new perspective in the sense that I have learned how to be more aware of the times I draw connections.