In my first year of college I expected to breeze through my classes, make new friendships and keep up with my existing ones and go out and party. Like a lot.

I definitely didn’t do horrible at all in the school realm but I definitely didn’t breeze through. For one I underestimated how hard my classes would be and how much I would have to give up to make sure I passed those classes. Obviously it takes time to figure out when to keep on going at it and when its time to give up and just go out with your friends for a little bit because that extra cram isn’t going to do anything. I didn’t get that at first but I got and it made everything so much more enjoyable.

Making new friendships was the easiest part of my first year and I thank God every day for the people he’s placed in my life just in this first year of college. I love pretty much all the friendships I’ve made this first year but there are some that just don’t work and that’s okay too. I’ve come to realize that you don’t have to stay friends with the girl you sit next to on your first day in sociology class. It may have been a great friendship when you’re in class together but if it’s not a friendship you see leaving the classroom that’s okay. I’ve learned that the best way to enjoy your first year is to surround yourself with people that fulfill you and bring joy to your heart no matter where you are.

As for keeping up with existing friendships… that’s

Consider the connections between high school writing and college writing.  In today’s daily write, make a list of “advice” to high school students coming into college composition.  What would you tell them?

This Was Supposed to Clearer

That it’s been ten months since I started my new life here in Oxford seems impossible. My friends laugh at my wonderment, saying that it feels like we’ve been here for decades already. But this first year has passed by in a flash. Soon, my life as a student will be over and I will be left standing here wondering where all the time has gone.

I head down to the conference room of Ventress Hall where there’s three administrators sat before me waiting to start the interview. I make sure I’m sitting straight and am engaged in everything they say. I wait my turn and answer each question the best I can. I breeze through each question comfortably until the question “What would you tell an incoming freshmen to do to make the most of their first year?”

That question stopped me in my tracks. The only thing I could think of is time itself and stopping to actually live in that moment and savor the time I have here at Ole Miss.

Read your first entry on your blog (August 22^nd:  Why did you choose the University of Mississippi?) and your first semester’s final reflective post.  Pull the most significant lines out of each and type them at the top of today’s daily write.  Now, reflect on these.  What do you notice about the differences between the two?  The similarities?  How do you feel you’ve grown/changed/transitioned since then?  As an academic?  In your social life?  With friends/family?

“Ole Miss has everything I could want in an university and makes me content that I’m doing everything I can to ensure that I will get where I want in life.”

“I shook that fear that I might look like I don’t have everything figured out and put myself out there and that shows me that Writing 101 has benefitted me in ways four years of prep school never could.”

This whole year has helped me grow as a person but it’s also showed me that by being here at Ole Miss I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. Ole Miss is where I need to be and no matter if I was supposed to go to another school or not I ended up where I was supposed to.

At this point I’m feeling very good about the research paper. I just started writing my introduction but I feel confident in it and just really need to build it up by choosing the right words and sentences to make it easily understandable and grab the readers attention. This is the first paper that I’m not worried about writing because I am confident in my knowledge of the topic and my claims on it. I also very much enjoyed researching this topic so it makes actually writing it so much easier to write.

My research as shifted by becoming more general yet still very specific. I was very specific on only focussing into one area of why the elite education system is flawed but as I did more research I decided to shift into more than one area. My research definitely didn’t change my opinion on what I was researching but further increased my reasoning for feeling this way about the elite education system. There’s a lot of research about education but finding research specific to the elite education system was harder but using my source’s sources helped me get exactly what I needed.

Looking at other people’s annotations to see how they did theirs helped clear up how you write them for me the most. I was confused on how to write one effectively so seeing good examples of how others did theirs was most helpful. Getting feedback also helped because I need to work on strengthening my reflection and becoming more specific without being too wordy.

I have so many directions I can take this paper in that I’m struggling on which way to take it. I have so many sources that narrowing it down to 2 will be very hard.

Immigration is something that I have personal experience with given my father owns a landscaping company. I know the horrors of the immigration process and I’ve seen all the time, money and effort it takes to become legal in this country. I’ve also seen the horrible people who’ve snuck into our country that are here not to make a life for themselves but to ruin the lives of others. I think immigration reform is one of the most needed changes in our country but I also don’t think it should be so easy that anyone can get in. For me one of the most profound sayings about immigration is “I lock my doors not because I hate the people on the outside of it but because I love the people inside”. Locking the door doesn’t mean it can’t be opened but it’s only opened to those who are okay to come in.

What is Education for?

-a career

-the experience

-to learn

-to meet people/network

-to challenge yourself

-to grow

-to build identity

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I honestly don’t think students are as entitled as most professors assume we are. I think the majority of us who are here are here because we want our degree but we don’t expect it to be handed to us, we know we have to work for it. I don’t think teachers take into account the effort that it takes to get into college. Getting accepted into a University is something that can no longer be bought so the students who are in college have put the work in to get there. I’m not saying that students are never disrespectful but what I mean is at least for me and the people I surround myself with understand that Professors are an authority figure that should be respected regardless of age, race, gender, etc. You treat authority figures with the same respect you give your parents because they’re here to teach you and give you the knowledge you need to thrive in whatever you do. I see teachers who will single out students who don’t agree with them on subjects that are very subjective and that causes many students to feel like they can’t speak up during class or they just have to agree with whatever the teacher is saying just so they don’t stir the pot.