Procastination

Almost all students at any level of schooling, including me, wait until the night before to start our homework or start studying for a test. Just an example, I had a five page paper with a works cited page due Wednesday and I did not start it until 7 pm the night before.  I have a big math test tomorrow and I have not started studying yet.  Life is so much easier if one spreads their homework out over a few days but we just have the natural tendency to be lazy and do it in the last second.  The thing is, procrastination does not work as well in college as it does in high school.  In high school, I rarely studied for tests but when I did, I studied for ten minutes before the class. I am starting to learn that procrastinating is not going to work in college.  If I and everyone in this class wants to be successful and graduate form college, we are going to need to learn to do our homework over an extended period of time; not a couple hours before the class.

Why Judge?

As everyone who goes here knows, we have a very diverse campus.  This diversity is represented culturally but also just in people's personalities or just the way they look or dress.  I am a big offender of judging people just on their appearance.  If I see that someone is not showered and is wearing their pajamas to class, I think less of them for whatever reason.  That is not fair to them and it is really not good for me to think this way.  God told us to respect one another and love everyone as you love yourself.  There really is no point in judging people because no one really gets anything out of it.The other person doesnt hear about it and all it really does for you is show how weak you are as a person and makes you feel bad about yourself.  I am going to make an effort from now on not to judge people without trying to get to know them first.

Wearing a Mask

Some people act differently while they around certain groups of people.  Another phrase for this is wearing a mask.  I just dont understand why people have to act differently just to make people like them.  One should just be happy with who they are.  If someone doesn't like you for who you are, then you dont have to be friends with them.  I know people that are really cool to be around when you are with them by themselves but when a group of people come with us, they will act completely different like they are tyring to impress the group. If people dont like you for the way you are, you dont need them because i am sure that there are plenty of people out there who will like you for who you are.  You were made to be the way you are so there is no way you are going to be able to change that.

Faith

Since I missed last weeks blog, I had to think of two ideas that challenged me this week.  Another idea that bothered me this week was my faith.  I have been a Catholic my whole life and I even went to Catholic schools for thirteen years before I came here.  Ever since I came here, my faith has gone down a little bit.  I still believe in the religion, I am just being lazy and not going to the services on Sundays.  A big reason for that is that I dont have my parents here to wake me for mass every Sunday.  I really need to make more of an effort to either get up on Sunday mornings or find a church that offers later mass times.  Im sure that the churches around campus offer services at later times I just havn't made the effort to go to them.  I need to make more of an effort and get reconnected to my faith.

Why Not Care?

I know of several people that currently attend Michigan State University that I knew from my high school and many other schools in my area.  There are a select few I would like to talk about.  These people were excellent students in high school but once they got here, they stopped caring.  They will skip most or all of their class and they wont do any of their homework.  It doesnt make any sense to me; why would you work so hard all of your schooling career to attend a great university like this and let it all slip away in your first semester.  Now I understand that everyone skips a class here and there but when a person skips a whole week of class, there is a serious problem. 
I have a few theories about why this may happen.  First, there are just so many distractions that happen on campus.  It would be very easy to just give in and just party and hang out with your friends all of the time.  Another is that this is the first time that many people have spent a large amount of time away from their parents.  Maybe the only reason they did well was because their parents forced them to go to class and do all of their homework.  The reason one person gave me was that high school was so easy he didnt have to do the homework and he still got a 4.0.  I guess they dont realize that college is much harder than high school.  I just hope they learn this before its too late

Meet New People

For this weeks post, I went to my sister for advice.  She graduated from here last May and now is in Graduate school and University of Michigan.  I asked her advice about living here and she said the most important thing is to meet as many people as you possibly can and to get as involved as you possibly can.  Now I'm sure that everyone one in this class has heard this but thats probably because it is really important.  I came here with many kids from my high school so it was really easy for me to just call one of them to hang out.  But lately I have really been trying to branch out and meet all of the people on my floor and every one in my dorm hall.  One of the best skills one can learn in college is being able to socialize and get along with people.  It is a little bit of a daunting task when we first get here but I learned quickly that a vast majority of people are very nice and they are trying to get to know people as well. So, go out and meet as many people you can because they probably want to meet you also!!

Acceptance

An idea that has bothered me in the last week is the fact that some of the students on this campus do not accept all of the races and ethnicities that w have at this school.  As you all know, we have a very culturally diverse campus including over 5,000 foreign exchanged students.  There have been a few instances in which I have been walking with my friends in campus and we would pass a group of minorities.  One of my friends would make a racial slur against the group and most of my friends would laugh at it.  It just doesn't really make any sense to me.  They make look a little bit different than me but that doesn't mean that they are bad people.  In fact, I have liked every single person from a different race or ethnicity that I have met here.

The main reason I think they are prejudice against these people is the surroundings they grew up in.  The people I hang out with on campus are from a very high end area with few minorities.  I think that they have lived their entire lives without knowing any minorities so they have grown up their wholes making jokes about them.  I grew up in a fairly culturally diverse area.  I have gotten to know many minorities and have learned from experience that they are really no different them me.  So, to conclude, I think that everyone should get to know someone before they jump to criticizing them.