16i: Get Involved!!

Choosing a quiet place to study isn't as easy as you think it is.. I went to the library and failed to find any means of concentration or focus. The only thing I found was constant moving, rustling, and wrinkling of pages, with an occasional dropped book and sneeze every now and then. I remember one of the involvement tasks being find a quiet place to study, so I instantly tried to think of the obvious instead of breaking my back and finding a hidden spot on campus like the other students. I came up with the library. It turns out if you break concentration easily you’re better off just saving yourself a 20 minute walk and staying right in your dorm room.. it’s as simple as that. You're welcome.. (yes I'm being sarcastic)

16 A&B: A Quick Look At my First Semester

                High school was four years of nothing but success, four years that I would gladly go back to at any time with no questions asked if possible.  College brought to the table a set of challenges and tested me from day one. College from the start ultimately tested my study skills, time management, work ethic, drive, and determination to succeed in the classroom. Come to find out, eight weeks later at the midterm break, I was far from the straight A student I was once was in high school. Through eight weeks I was nearly failing two courses; something that has never happened to me before. I was lost. I had a choice to make, buckle down and fix the mess that I’ve created in the classroom or let my problems run deeper to point of no return.

Here I am at week sixteen in nearly the same predicament I was at before. If you went on and graphed grades this would be the most up and down line graph of all time. With grades ranging from 98 and 94 to 58 and a mere 60 exactly, it’s safe to say I’m not the most consistent student you’ll ever run across. My biggest challenge thus far has simply been completing work and finding a routine that works best for me. Anyone who ever said the amount of distractions in college is ridiculous definitely wasn’t lying. There is so much going on at all times that for some reason my mind is easily strayed and wanders to who knows where. Half the time I found myself day dreaming or wandering my dorm in search of a new friend that shared the same inability to possess to the drive necessary to finish their ever so important school work.

I can tell you for a fact that if I were to go around our inquiry class and take a poll; it would read that nearly 100% of us had the same exact goal coming into our first semester of college: Get good grades and be successful. I can tell you for a fact my goal was to finish with a 3.5, and I can tell you that I wasn’t even close. As of now I’m sitting pretty with a Low 2 maybe? Who knows. I spoke to my parents and explained to them that I made a mistake, I owned up to it. No one else was to blame for my lack of effort and care towards school, it was my own fault. That’s one thing I sure did get better with, taking responsibility for my OWN mistakes. I used to be an immature kid, looking for excuses for every little thing I possibly could; never wanting to take responsibility for anything at all, no matter how much of the issue was my fault and my fault only. Though the academics lagged and my performance in the classroom was minimal and scarce, I did mature as a young adult.

The only thing left to do is move forward, move on from the first semester and look ahead to the winter class that I’m taking and the spring semester. Now that I’ve had a taste of the real world and what college is really about, I know what to expect and won’t be caught off guard now. I can formulate a schedule and study plan that works for me, and now that I know my weakness is mathematics, I can get set up with a tutor right away so I’m not struggling midway through the year to find a passing grade in math. Moving forward is all I can do, move forward from many absences in the fall and make sure that in the spring semester I’m in class every day and applying myself at all times. I want success and I was told “if you want something to go out and make it happen yourself because no one’s going to baby you.” So I’ll take the same passion and determination I have in football and baseball and apply it to the books.   It’s not the end of the world my mom said, and since she’s my mother, I’ll take her word for it.. after all, mom knows best right?

16V: Freedom, Justice, Equality

Freedom- What would you define freedom as? The right that all of us are given and without even realizing we take for granted? Freedom seems like such a simple and basic thing, but really it’s what enables to live our lives and freely make our own choices without anyone really questioning us or trying to put it to a stop. We are one of the only countries that allows us to be completely free; free at the mouth and free with our actions.

Justice- Just treatment or bringing what is rightfully deserved to someone who has committed harm or wrong doing.

Equality- The act of treating people like we are all the same; making no set point to make it a known thing that someone is better than someone else.

15I: Getting Involved!

Donations! I know this isn't a set campus involvement task, but I thought it was something that was worth writing about. As the holiday season hits us at full affect; our dorm, Hickerson, has put together food drives in which all donated food went to the shelters in order to provide those less fortunate and unable to make their own Christmases and new years perfect. Happy Holidays!

15v: Expand Your Vocabulary

Autonomy- Big word, huh? Well let me break it down for you. Autonomy is simply the right of being able to obtain a sense of self government. Now imagine, buying a piece of land and declaring it its own country or state.. you’d be in charge so therefore it’d be an Autonomy.

Etymology- What the? I ran across this word today online, and thought to myself.. “it shouldn’t even be legal for websites to use words of this nature. NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THEY MEAN! But since I’m a genius, I’m here to help.. etymology is the study of the origin of the everyday basic words we use and the study of the ways that they have changed throughout history.

Pinnacle- A cheap brand of gross flavored vodka is what we all probably know it as, but it actually has an actual definition! Pinnacle is an upright architectural formation generally ending in a small spire.

15B: 5 P's!!

Well, well, well.. the most dreaded week by every college student has graced us with its presence, finals week. Finals week just lurks over every struggling students near horizon in hopes of becoming that big dark, grey, and gloomy cloud that has all hopes of ending your semester horribly and making your Christmas suck. But finals week does have a kryptonite, it does have a weakness. STUDYING!! Well organized, laid out, and thorough planning. This is exactly where I probably would have failed this year if I had more than one written- sit down exam; thank god it was just math.

                This year I really dodged a bullet I only having to sit down and write out one final, but I do realize it won’t be like that for the rest of my time in college. The “Five P’s” is a concept all of my coaches use when it comes to practicing and our everyday performances on the field. It means “Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.” Though I didn’t do too well on my math final, I made sure I had set times where I was able to go about studying and making sure I got done what I needed to. I write this having just finished my first ever week of college finals, and for next semester I know exactly what to do and what not to do. I’ve come to have a strong handle on what college finals consist so in the near future I’ll make sure I set aside more time for studying and go about the concept of the 5 p’s even more. Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance, I’ll use this along with utilizing more resources that are offered on campus and maybe even start a study group. Work with my peers and classmates in order to link up and maybe innovate new ways to study for upcoming finals. 

15A: Video Edits !

                Watching the drafts in class gave everyone a sense of what exactly they needed to fix and add to their video. It allowed each student to use other classmate’s videos as a reference to what not to do in their videos and what they should put in based on their classmate’s rough drafts.

                As I finished my video, in my eyes it seemed like the perfect video.. perfect skit, flawless! Great acting, some humor, you know.. the basic things that would’ve given me the Oscar Award for my inquiry class. I was wrong, extremely wrong. While it flowed well and captured the crowd with its witty instances of dry humor, it still wasn’t enough to potentially get me the perfect grade. My final product was a good video in my eyes. I took into consideration my peers comments and tried to make my new and improved video fit their exact comments. The rough draft and open comments section is such a helpful and useful tool simply because the people who are going to be viewing your final product are the ones giving you all the feedback in what exactly they want to see in the finished product. That’s basically like your teacher giving you a take home test and saying use any reference possible; or better yet, like taking a quiz and the teacher writes all of the answers on the board.

                After my peers gave their points of view, I made it a point to go back to my video and add some more informational slides. My rough draft lacked the proper information any of my fellow classmates would have needed to go on and eventually end up writing the perfect paper. If you can make the changes that the critics themselves are supplying to you then there is no way your video or whatever you’re working on shouldn’t be perfect.

final blog post

http://youtu.be/kzr1yOcPydw

Final Video!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzMbWd3wMOw&feature=youtu.be

14V: Investment!

What is it to make an Investment?

è  The action or process of investing money for profit or material result. Not always does it only include money. Its really applying anything such as effort or energy in order to get something you desire in the end.

Articulate- This is having or showing the ability to speak fluently and coherently.. to pronounce and enunciate your words properly.

Ratification- It is making something valid by formally ratifying or confirming it.

14B: Thanksgiving post

Hmm what exactly am I truly thankful for that’s taken place during my first semester of college? Well for starters, I’m thankful for the fact that I found a group of friends that I can relate to and that are literally just like me. That was one of my major worries coming into freshman year.. what if I don’t find a friend I can relate to and hangout with?! IM thankful for the fact that I have yet to have any true issues in the dorm and that I get along with my roommate.. why on earth would I want to have a roommate that I don’t get along with? Imagine living with someone for one WHOLE year that you did not get along with!!

Coming into college I worried that I would be stuck with a group of professors that were hard and unwilling to work with their students.. safe to say this is far from the truth. I was lucky enough have almost near perfect professors (except for one)! Fun and flexible are really the only words that can be used to describe my professors. They understand each students strengths and weaknesses in the classroom and are willing to find a way to work with the student so they are better off as a student and are able to have success in the near future.

I’m thankful for the fact that Im not doing horribly thus far.. by no means am I doing great but it could be worse.. I’m glad I’ve made it through the first semester without failing out of the university. 

14A: Preparation over Break

                There’s no better feeling than going home after not having seen your family and friends in nearly a month. It’s always a good time when you go back home for the first time in a while; and though I’m 30 minutes from home.. I do get home sick. So getting to sleep in my own bed and have a home cooked meal was something that couldn’t be replaced.

                Having a week off gave me a bunch of extra time to get myself prepared mentally for finals week, which is one of the most dreaded weeks in all of college. Finals week shouldn’t be too hard for me seeing as I only have one final where I actually have to step foot into a classroom! (thankyou professors) This week mainly consisted of me gathering information and filming some things for my next video in inquiry. I sat down and really had a lot of time to myself to brainstorm how I would go about handling my final project in this class. Though I didn’t have too much work to get done or even have any finals to prepare for, I took the time to really plan for this inquiry final because my grade as of now isn’t exactly where I’d like it to be and if I get an A on this final It can really boost my grade.

                Thanksgiving came and I took the opportunity to be thankful for the fact that my math teacher is sending out an extension until December 4^th to finish all late math homework.. talk about a life saver. So once this is all completed and I ace this math final, I can walk away from freshman year happy and maybe end on terms that I choose myself, maybe I can walk out of the first semester satisfied with what I did as a student. 

13I: Registration..

It seems to me like everyone had such a hard time registering for classes in the spring.. I wish I felt your pain. Athletes at SCSU are given the opportunity to register 3 weeks earlier. What’s tough about registration for athletes is the fact that we usually are limited as well. Most of our schedules have to be free by 2 pm everyday, and that simply means morning classes… I’m not really a fan of that at all. I want to wake up late and finish around 4 or 5 and not have to worry about anything else at all.. While on the topic of registration, SCSU should maybe develop a better system for it.. because the one they have now is awful. 

13V: Vocab for the mind

What is your Purpose?

Will you strive to make a difference and stand for something? Will everything you do and aspire to be in the future have a sole purpose? Or will it be random acts that don’t stand for anything useful? A purpose is the exact reason something is done or created; all important actions in life are handled with a purpose.

Speculate-  Form a theory or state your exact opinion about a subject without firm evidence.

Adjunction- The asserting in a single formula of two previously asserted formulae….. Someone please better explain this to me in class on Tuesday.. thanks. 

13B: Creativity In Your Video

                Creativity…. I like to think I’m a tad bit more creative than the average college student and maybe even the average person who’s graduated from college. So for my final video I’ll go about setting a goal of having the most creative video in my class. I like to think my first video was creative, it just wasn’t very clean or well thought out. I plan on winning my professor over with soft but witty humor, and maybe even some elaborate jokes I’ve created myself.. always been quite the jokester. My goal is to create a video that’s fun, humerous, but filled with informational bits and pieces that can potentially help my peers to go on and enable them to writing the perfect paper.

                In the background of all that takes place in the video I’ll use catchy music that immediately draws the viewers attention to the computer screen and makes them want more.. Background actions are important. (I know this from my film making class I took in 8^th grade). I’ll assemble the best crew of actors I possibly can and make sure that they perform their lines to a T. My lines however will be strictly improv; nothing like someone on camera winging it as best they can.

                When all is said and done I’ll have the funniest most creative video that has ever passed through a freshman inquiry class at southern ct state university.. (Hopefully)

13A: College Level Thinking

As I journey into making my second video for inquiry, I’m trying to everything completely different this time. No way will I hand in another video like the last one. What do you immediately think of when you hear a teacher say “Embody a sense of college level thinking?” If someone asked me this the first week of college, I would have thought instantly like a high school student would.. ten page research papers daily and endless work.. But that’s far from what it actually is.

                College consists of going about assignments in a way that sort of makes you think outside of the box, nothing is as straight forward like an assignment in high school. An assignment in college makes it so you tap into a strong sense of critical thinking and implying some everyday knowledge into each and every assignment. When going about making my final video I plan on actually going around campus and using the resources SCSU has for writing the perfect paper and showing that they are available to us students. My first video didn’t get the grade I was much hoping for, so on this next video I plan to stray away from my methods and carefully examine how I go about making this next video.. no need to make the same mistakes twice. Good college students are enable to inquire and accomplish things without explicit direction by a professor or one of their peers;  I plan to critically think and inquire what I know about this campus and its writing facilities into my next video. I’ll even use tools from our 14 weeks of readings that we’ve had in inquiry thus far throughout the year. Hopefully with using all of the tools that I’ve been taught , and with my own personal I’ll be able to write the perfect paper and make the perfect video.

12V: VOCAB FOR THE MIND!!!

11.)    Interdisciplinary Perspective- It is looking at “the same” issue/s from multiple disciplinary perspectives,  in a way that tries to integrate or make holistic sense of the various explanations of “the same” phenomena that are generated from each of the disciplinary perspectives; an interdisciplinary perspective might be more than merely multi-disciplinary because of an attempt to think through the relations between the various disparate disciplines” explanations. (I have no idea what this means, I got it off Griffith.edu… hopefully you can further explain in class.)

22.)    Perspective- Is the particular point of view someone has on varying topics. A certain and particular attitude someone possesses upon certain things.

33.)    Rendition- Ran across this word on youtube today.. I liked the way it rolled off the tongue (now I guarantee that you just said this out loud once more, didn’t you Professor Guarino?) It’s someone’s own variation or interpretation of some sort of dramatic role or musical piece. 

12B: Is college really doing its job?

*What is college exactly needed for? Is it as important as people portray it to be?*

                Growing up, college was something that we were all taught was a necessary thing, and that basically without a college degree, success was something that was almost as attainable as walking on the moon for the average person. We were all told that a college level, four year degree opens up doors that only a GED won’t open.

                College or an institute of higher learning is something that prepares people and builds them better intellectually than high school did. College also is something that is known for doing a very good job of maturing a person as a whole. Entering college as 17 and 18 year old teenager is something that can seemingly be overwhelming, seeing as some of those teenagers are still trapped in the high school mind frame.  College builds young adults and quickly starts an intense process of maturing these individuals into bright adults, that are mature enough to think on their feet quickly and prepares adults that are mature enough to go into the real world on their own and find ways of success. Aside from maturing students and building them intellectually, as you set out on the long journey to studying your major, college prepares bright young individuals for the job world that seemingly is in your near future.

                But is a college education what you really need to be successful? Living in a time where a four year college degree means basically as much as a GED does, is a college degree what you need to be able to land you first job? Reflecting back on one of our readings, it says, “In today’s generation as job opportunities decrease, if you want a job, invent it!” Does college really do a strong enough job in preparing innovative people that possess that creative drive and skill needed to create their own job opportunities?  This question can simply be answered with one word.. no. This is exactly why the four year Liberal Arts degree will seemingly be more important than the master’s degree in mathematics. Liberal Arts programs build balanced and well-rounded students that can potentially work in multiple different fields, while the math degree limits you to simply math. How many math teaching jobs are really actually available?

12A: Is liberal Arts Necessarry?

When I went about picking a major for college, Liberal Arts was one that nearly everyone steered me away from. I always heard “There’s no job opportunities when it comes to Liberal Arts” or “Liberal Arts is for those who lack the mental capacity to hold the knowledge that it takes to require such a field as psychology or biology.”

                What exactly is Liberal Arts?

                Liberal Arts is the broad study of academic subjects such as literature, philosophy, mathematics, and social and physical sciences all combined into one. Seems useful to me? Seems to me that Liberal Arts finds a way to build well rounded and well educated students, that possess the academic ability to hold an educated conversation in many different fields.

                Liberal Arts also plays an intricate role in the job pursuing field. Surveys say that employers look for their potential college employees to be able to meet “learning outcomes” which is exactly what a liberal arts education provides. Employers want someone who writes better than the average, speaks better than the average, and reasons better than average. The liberal arts education provides the creative drive and enables all of the tools for the people with this degree to do exactly that. Especially now that we’re in a generation where if we want a job we need to create it, liberal arts provides the education necessary for someone to create their own job opportunity, for someone to create their own destiny when it comes to their future in the job world. It is able to expand your learning and overcome the notion of blindness towards education; it broadens the awareness to other subjects. These subjects consist of cultural histories, multicultural languages, it opens the mind to various mathematical fields, and introduces concepts of many scientific fields.

                Liberal arts produces well rounded students who possess the mental capacity to create their own job opportunities as well as fit right in to many job fields already there. 

11B: Prepared

This week has brought a new perspective to my view on tests and quizzes. Now that I know how to analyze and ask college questions I don’t think I’ll ever be stumped on a question again.

In class one of my peers asked “ Why is it important to be able to formulate good educated potential test questions?” I thought about it and really didn’t have an answer until I failed the math test that I took next period. I realized that if I can be able to formulate potential questions I can then better prepare myself for what the test will be on.. maybe even have the answer alreadly prepared for the question that will be asked.

Seeing as my study habits are awful, having any bit of help or head start is something I can use to help better my grades. Being prepared is the first step to passing a test. 

11A: Productive Questions!

This week in inquiry the readings we were assigned were about creativity and lessons in perspective. The readings ranged from innovation and to the joy of boredom. In the end all of the readings touched back upon the art of “creativity”. What I found interesting with these readings, and seemingly every other reading we’ve done, they all touch back on points that were made back in the first two weeks of school when we discussed motivation and the inner drive that we possess.

                Our class lesson required us to develop “creative” questions that would potentially be asked on a quiz or test. We were asked to venture away from our high school ways and use our newly built college-minds and form good, thorough questions that could form a discussion.  

11.)    How does the creative industry hold people of creative nature ransom to their own self image?

People of creative nature are held ransom because of fear of not being creative enough to please everyone.  Most jobs lack creativity.  People learn to live without the need to be creative.  so for jobs that require creativity, there is a lot more pressure on these creative people.  These people become less willing to put their ideas out there because they don't want to be criticized or rejected.  The pressure of coming up with the best idea keeps creative people from coming up with an already great idea.

22.)    When we ignore innovation, what are we more likely to accomplish?

3

33.)    What is the difference between a fact-based question and an inquiry based question? In detail describe what an inquiry based question is and what a fact based question is.

4

44.)    When analyzing the joy of boredom, what can we do to break away from technology as what use to fill the time? How can we make the free time that we call “boredom” something productive? 

9I: Advise me!

Meeting with my advisor was probably the best thing I've done all year. It was truly a wakeup call that I need to get on my game and really improve on my studies. Now that I know where I stand, I can come up with a way to better myself in the classroom and make my college stay truly more enjoyable. Thanks Mrs. Guarino!!!

9V: Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking- Critical thinking is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, partially true, or false. Critical thinking is a process that leads to skills that can be learned, mastered and used. Critical thinking is a tool by which one can come about reasoned conclusions based on a reasoned process.


Common Sense- Albert Einstein famously said "Common Sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."

Analyze- To break down and formulate a final conclusion on something based on previous research you have done. 

9A: Critically Thinking

            Now say you decided to ask your nearest college professor or class braniac what exactly they thought “critical thinking” was.. you’d probably get an answer like “Critical thinking is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, partially true, or false. Critical thinking is a process that leads to skills that can be learned, mastered and used. Critical thinking is a tool by which one can come about reasoned conclusions based on a reasoned process.” Sounds fancy right?

            But critical thinking is something that is used to be able to really analyze and observe things that are around you, the process of observation. We think critically when we are trying to really go about digging deeper and finding the true meaning of something. College is all about critical thinking, especially in our inquiry class. Inquiry teaches us ways to observe everything that goes on in our everyday college lives to make our time in the university far more easy.

            The process of critical thinking really taps into everyone’s sense of “common sense.” Seems simple right? But so many people lack the thing called common sense. Common sense is basically just pointing out the obvious, being able to put a finger or some sense of idea on the obvious occurrences that take place every day in your life.

            Common sense allows you to quickly analyze basic things enabling you to make th right decisions upon completion of something. Almost like critical thinking, critical thinking enables you to break down and analyze something, therefore letting you find the proper things out about something, which then allows you to make the right decisions about something or formulate the proper conclusion. Albert Einstein once said “Critical Thinking is 'rational optimization' of 'rational' aspects. It provides a 'rational' optimum, for instance not considering most emotional aspects. And often ignoring most cultural differences.”

9B: Midterms

  To no surprise at all my midterm grades werent anywhere that I would presumably  like them to be. It's really no ones fault but my own, I've been slacking. Failing to complete all of my work and failing to really study as much as possibly should. 

  Inquiry, a class I should definitely have an easy A in, is my lowest grade. Why? Because of my laziness and deciding to slack off and not complete all of my work on time and thoroughly. Step aside from inquiry and take time to look at my history and media studies grades. Both A's.... Why? Because I've seemingly applied myself and done what I've had to do in each of those classes to succeed. Work your way over to math.... Lower than I'd like, but it's no secret.. I'm absolutely awful at mathematics. (Reasons why I'm in 95, the lowest level of math offered at this institute of higher learning) but is that an excuse to have a D? A high D..!! nevertheless still a D. Now move on to journalism texhnology.... C-... Simply because I obtain an inapt ability to work any type of electronic technological device (especially a computer) except an IPhone. 

   Though my grades as of now don't show how smart I am, they most definitely show that I'm lazy. Luckily I have 7 more weeks to pull these grades up as high as possible! Wish me luck.

YOUTUBE VIDEO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgSK1o_mBH0&feature=youtu.be

Here it is!

7B: College so Far… Nothing but Failure

               

                To those who said college is a blast most definitely lied or were Albert Einstein’s son. It’s far from fun and nothing but a “blast” of failure.  Everything was so easy in high school, ya know, I just coasted.. did what I had to do to get by and still managed to graduated top ten in my class. I formed a world of bad habits that seem nearly impossible to break simply because everything works and moves so fast in college. You’re basically your own teacher, and if you don’t formulate some sort of schedule to keep to then you’re almost guaranteeing yourself failure.

                I have failed at nearly everything I’ve attempted to do in math and I’m almost okay with it at this point, I don’t how knowhow much more failure I can possibly use as motivation without seeing any progress anymore. From getting extra help with the teacher to having my roommate tutor me, nothing seems to be working. I’ve accepted it, but since I absolutely hate failure I’m determined to bring my grade up and show some sort of success in the class. While I’m on the topic of failure, inquiry.. inquiry is a class that I love going to. I love the group discussions, and I love the readings, but the blogs are something that’s completely foreign to me. I’m slowly starting to improve at it but it really all just seems to come with repetition and keeping a schedule that gives me enough time to complete all four blogs.. ON TIME.

                I feel like the first semester of college is hard for a lot of students, and I know for a fact that I’m not alone. So I’ll just find a schedule that enables me to balance school work, football, some sort of social circle, and eating and sleeping. 

7A: How Many Times Have You Failed?

                I grew up with an NFL playing stepfather who seemed to be great and succeed at everything.. you could imagine the pressure. Pressure to be great just like him, pressure to dominate at every aspect of football just like him.. I’m convinced that his greatness is the only thing that kept me from playing football until high school. I said to myself I don’t want to be great like him, I want to be remembered for what I’ve accomplished, for the athlete that I am. I never wanted to stand in the shadow that was to the far right of the spotlight of glory that stood over my stepfather’s head every step he took. How could I ever live up to the greatness and glory of the “greatest athlete to ever play in Waterbury, Ct” or the “greatest wide receiver to ever come to Southern Connecticut State University”?? Seemed impossible to me, so gymnastics was my scapegoat.. My way to be great at something I wanted to be great at. I was scared of letting him down, scared of failing to be what he was.

                A time passed where I said to myself I can’t be afraid to fail to live up to what he was, so I used his success and greatness as motivation. It motivated me to never look at failure as an option. My stepfather said the same words to me at every gymnastics competition and every sporting event I ever competed in.. “Pick your head up and get going.. failure isn’t an option for those who want to be great. Because when greatness is around the corner, big time players make big time plays.”  I’ll never forget the first time he said that to me. I was 11 years old competing in my first nationals ever at the University of Florida and it was the day I experienced my first failure ever in the sport of gymnastics.. I came in second in the all-around and those word stuck with me. It seemed so weird to me because I had just failed and here he was telling me failure isn’t an option.. he motivated me to be great, motivated me to take that loss to heart and take it extremely personal; the loss hurt him more than it hurt me; I’m convinced of that.

                High school came and I decided to play football, unafraid of failure I was out there playing football to have fun, not worried about his achievements just trying to have fun and try new things. Out there just playing led me to one of the greatest high school football careers in NVL history. I set records, won athletic accolades, broke his records.. and here I am now at my father’s alma mater, in college using his records that he has at SCSU as motivation to never accept failure even though I know that the greatest fail every day of the their lives.

                Today I feel like people are teaching that failure is an okay thing to kids at such a young age, giving out trophies to everyone on losing team, telling kids that there was no winner or loser. That’s not okay. No matter how young a kid is, he needs to know the final score of the game he just played in, he needs to know that he just lost.. because when he enters reality and loses for the first time he shouldn’t think it’s okay. Kids are too protected from failure. I know in class I always say it’s unacceptable to fail, which it is, but if you’re going to fail and lose at least acknowledge it and use that failure as the biggest motivation possible.

                Failure has been my motivation since day one, I’ve failed so many times that I’ve seemingly become successful from it; it’s weird how things work in the end. Like Michael Jordan once said "I've failed over and over.. and that is why I succeed."

6V: Persistence

What is persistence?
Persistence is the inner drive you possess to be able to keep going and push through anything, no matter what the circumstances are, no matter how tough it may seem at the time.


What is Grit?
The ability to be able to stick with something over a long time until you master it. Grit requires a strong sense of stamina both physically and mentally as well as passion; you can't stick with something unless you ae truly passionate about it.

What is Retention and Attrition?
Retention- The continued use of something in ways of being able to control it.
Attrition- The act of over time wearing someone or something down by reducing the strength or effectiveness of it.
Retention and Attrition are both used in the military and the grit scale is used to predict the rates of each.

6B: Where to Next?

                Over the course of a six week period we have learned many new concepts that seemingly all have their own meaning and what they stand for, but in the same instance all of the concepts we have learned and gone over are somewhat connected in their own way. When I first started taking inquiry, I instantly knew that class could be a general study of literally anything; anything that we’re willing to “inquire” about.

                The class started off at a slower pace and really seemed as if it was just generally explaining us to what college is and what we’re up against for the next four years. Without inquiry and the things I’ve learned about college, I would’ve came into college with the same old high school mindset, and just tried to skate by.. wing everything. I was wrong, so far college is the hardest thing I’ve seemingly had to do in my life; it’s not like high school where teachers were there spoon feeding us information and basically holding our hand through everything.

                Throughout the past week we’ve been discussing grit and persistence, which are the characteristics in which enable someone to work through problems and face conflict head on, because as Margaret Heffernan says, opposition is a good thing and if you’re able to break the fear of conflict you’ll then be able to do your best thinking. Persistence and grit really ties in to one of our previous lessons in motivation. Without motivation and the drive to want to do something, being gritty and persistent is something that can’t really take place. Whatever your motivation is, it is needed to keep pushing forward.

As the half way point through the first semester comes to a close, I’m interested in seeing what else we exactly learn or “inquire” about next. Hopefully they’ll all be useful things I can use in my everyday life at school. 

6A: Challenges... Prozac & Xanax

                Growing up was hard for me, losing my father at such a young age left a gap in my life that really has yet to be filled, even with a stepdad who loves me unconditionally. As I got older I showed signs of early age depression and “chronic anger” as the therapist said.. In short I couldn’t really control my temper and the littlest things absolutely set me off. It never really showed until early in high school, my temper had seemingly started to take over. I was getting into fist fights during football games and freaking out on the baseball field when things didn’t quite go my way. Finally they got me another therapist and she insisted that I take medication, Xanax for the temper and anxiety and Prozac for the depression and mood swings. At one point they even insisted I had a mild case of bipolar disorder.. for those who don’t know what that is, in short, it’s chronic mood swings. The whole idea of taking pills to keep me “normal” just wasn’t really something I liked too much and overtime it seemingly just wasn’t working. My temper was uncontrollable, and my anger worsened; which was only a good thing to some extent when I was on the football field. My immediate family were the only people who I never really freaked out on. Four years of high school as a hotheaded, temper ridden student was far from the easiest thing to do.

                Finally my senior year came and I just needed to get off of my medication, it turned me into a dull, feelings-less person.. I felt nothing and had no emotion toward anything. I finally stuck with my therapist and worked harder than ever to make it so I was no longer on my medication and finally was able to control my temper. Knowing that I was off to prep school on my own for the first time, my mom truly worried if I would be able to control myself without fighting or getting kicked out of the school. It was the hardest thing ever, but it was well worth the hours of therapy and worth all of the holes in my wall, because now I’m off on my own, in college, playing sports and maintaining my temper… oh and I’ve now been off my medication for close to a year. 

5B: How to Use Your Time.

                This time study assignment has really come to show how much my life is consumed by school and football practice. Monday through Wednesday my days are consumed by classes until 1 then football meetings and practice from 1:10 until 5:45, then comes study hall… three dreadful hours from 7:30 until 10:30. With such busy days and so much time spent on football, these study halls are really the only thing that enables me to complete some of my work, though I still find myself in my dorm working for two or three more hours after study lets out. It was said that we’d spend roughly 30 to 40 hours not including class doing review work, which is exactly right.. every week I have 20 to 30 hours of more work to do, on top of practices and games for football. I wouldn’t quite say I’ve touched that magic number of 40 hours yet though.. I hope to keep it that way.

                I never really paid any attention to what exactly my time was spent on during the week, but when I actually break it down and analyze it closely.. football and school has slowly taken over my life. Ironically, I still find enough time to socialize and make friend amongst the rest of the campus.. I still have time devoted to just me (good thing I’m a diagnosed insomniac). Sadly, I felt myself putting off my inquiry assignments until the last day.. and it turned out what I thought was the last day was the wrong day; procrastination at its finest (reasons why It’s 8:52 on a Wednesday and I’m doing them now).

                Throughout the rest of the first semester I plan on sticking to a schedule that works and enables me to finish my required assignments for the week, while staying well rested for football games/practice, and maintain a sense of “me” time or down time. 

5A: How Good of a Student Am I?

College has a brought upon a whole new set of challenges when talking in terms of academics especially when coming from high school and prep school; which wasn’t nearly as demanding. Throughout high school I was able to get by without studying or really applying myself at all, and still managed to finish top ten in my class. This wasn’t the case when I began my prep year and sure isn’t the case in college. The preparation of aspect of college, and following a syllabus is really what has thrown me off completely; not being reminded every day that an assignment is due is something that I’m not necessarily used to. Take inquiry for example, blogging was never something that really interested me or was a requirement for that matter and now it’s 60% of our final grade which has actually really hit me roughly throughout the first four weeks. I’ve had to really adjust to a different type of teaching style and assignment style. For example my grade is exceptionally high in media studies and history because they are courses in which I can watch a teacher put things on the board, and since I have a photographic memory and learn visually, it makes quizzes and tests that much easier.

College has led to some successes and extreme failures, even though I’m only four weeks in. My goal was to finish with 3.0 or higher, and now in such a short time I find myself struggling to pass my inquiry class. Everything moves so fast, that maybe I’m just now starting to adust.. twenty-eight days later. The articles we’ve been reading lately stress the importance of planning out your assignments and being well organized; time management is key. This is such a difference from what I’ve previously been doing because I was able to wait until the last minute in high school and still manage to get A’s. As the first semester continues on I plan on being more organized with my assignments and making sure I know the proper days that all of my assignments are due. (Inquiry) 

4V: Vocabulary for the Betterment of the Mind.

What is Delayed Gratification?

Delayed Gratification is the ability to resist temptation that potentially presents an immediate reward in exchange you receive a more pleasing reward, but after a certain period of time. The ability to show the characteristics of being able to delay gratification at young age has been said that it leads to far more success as a young teen and young adult. The “don’t eat the marshmallow” test was one of the first studies done on four year old children to see how they’d display the ability to delay gratification. Some researchers believe the test was accurate in saying those who waited to eat the marshmallow would display more success at an older age and some researchers disagree completely. To make the decision that a child will be unsuccessful based off of a test that they took at the age of four is ridiculous. Being able to delay gratification can be hard, but if the later reward is well worth it, then you’ll do what it takes to show characteristics of patience, maturity, and responsibility.
What is metacognition? Metacognition is the exact process of understanding one's own thought process. It's the true act of thinking about thinking.

What is nature vs nurture? Nurture is something you've grown with, something that has been instilled into at a young age. And nature is the skills and tools you pick up on as you live life. The things that you adjust to in life. 

4B: INQ Discussions. Is delayed gratification actually accurate?

It is stated that children who are able to show characteristics of being able to delay gratification will grow to have more success when they are young adults and young teens. How true is this exactly? Can you really decide a child's success on what they're doing when they're four and five years old? As a child I personally lacked patience and was extremely spoiled; getting everything I wanted, when I wanted it. But is that exactly how I am now? I wouldn't exactly say I'm the spoiled brat I was in '98, I grew into a responsible and mature adult.. with high SAT scores. The fact that children aren't able to delay gratification is no reason to decide whether or not they'll be great test takers in the future.

At such a young age children aren't set in the right mind frame to really think to delay gratification. They see the marshmallow, and are instantly tempted to eat it.. maybe the child who eats the marshmallow right away knows that only one marshmallow will fill them up, who are we to decide? They say that most important and need principle to success is the ability to delay gratification the ability to show self discipline.. does a four year old child really display any characteristics of having any self discipline?

The whole lesson throughout this class, I really thought.. "Maybe the child who exhibits such lack of patience will be the one who comes out to be most successful?!" The child who just can't seem to wait at all for whats coming, and needs it at that exact second will display the most success in the future. That child could potentially be the one who is the hungriest to become better at what they do, the one who is most determined to go out and win on a sporting field. Maybe impatience is good.

4A: Well Worth the Wait

                Delayed gratification is the ability to put off instant gratification, showing your own personal self-discipline thus leading to the fact that you possess one of the most important virtues.. patience. Middle school was around the time when all of my friends were first starting to get their first cell phones, and I was that odd man out. My mother insisted that I was far too young and irresponsible to maintain the oh-so sacred cell phone. She decided to make me wait until my freshman year of high school to get my first phone, the Blackberry Curve 360, and boy was I cool. Though in sixth grade I wanted the phone right away, instant gratification, just because my friends had it; it was well worth the wait because the phone I had gotten going into high school was the newest phone on the market. Patience was a virtue.. It almost was like the marshmallow test except a far longer wait period for the reward I had received.

                Being in an era of the smart phone and Apple technology, we as American’s are seemingly growing to lack the virtue of patience and maybe even hard work itself. We are so used to instant gratification and knowing exactly what’s happening at every exact time, that if that was taken away from us I don’t think we would function very well. Take Siri for instance, Apple’s voice animated information provider, anything you don’t have an answer for you can simply ask Siri and twenty seconds later you have the desired answer.. seems like instant gratification to me. If one hasn’t experienced delayed gratification before in their life, I feel as if they were put into a situation in which they’d have to experience it they wouldn’t handle it very well. Instant gratification has taken over today’s people and the advancement of technology is the number one cause of it. 

                Technologies provide us with almost instantaneous relief to any problem that we are seemingly faced with; there is almost a technology for everything. Take the App Store on the iPhone for instance, there is over 100,000 apps that are designed to instantly gratify us.. thus because we live in a world of instant gratification. 

3B: 14 Years Strong

              Never having played another sport until my freshman year of high school, gymnastics was my absolute life. I loved everything about it.. still do at that. Practicing more than thirty hours a week at the age of twelve was something I loved doing, I loved practicing and training hard simply because I wanted to be the best. That was really the only motivation I needed to get up every morning before school and go to practice from 5 a.m. until 7 a.m, the only motivation I needed to go back to the gym after school and train from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. For fourteen years, I was motivated by victory and the love of the sport. Middle school was a time when kids were truly starting to find themselves, make friends and hangout; not for me, middle school marked a time where I started nationally competing and was in a different state every other weekend. I could say that it was purely the self-motivation that kept me going, but it really was the gold. The gold medal kept me going, winning my first national championship at the age of eleven in sixth grade was really the reason I was so motivated. I loved the feeling of being on top; from the age of ten until my last national competition in Seattle, Washington at the age of sixteen the top was where I was. I was a five time national championship and didn’t know what a silver medal was.. so if that’s not motivation enough to want to keep something going then I don’t know what is.

                It’s been nearly three years since I’ve been out of the sport and the love that I have for this sport will always be there, it grows every day. Gymnastics was a sport that instilled so much discipline and focus into me that during those years I was nationally competing my grades were higher, I was more respectful, kinder, and I was off of my ADHD medication. Though the physical aspects of gymnastics don’t help me with much in college (except for on the football and baseball field), the discipline and focus it instilled have helped me through high school and prep year. It taught such great time management skills at such a young age that those skills I learned at the age of thirteen just seemed to carry over to high school. My coaches’ motto was “If I can’t make you the next Alexei Nemov, I’ll make you well focused and disciplined young men who respect others and most importantly respect themselves.”  

3v: What is Initiative?

To take the initiative is to step up and be responsible and handle something before someone has to refer you in the proper direction in getting said thing done. To take the initiative one needs to be someone who shows characteristics of being that of a leader, that of which is able to stand out and constantly do whatever it takes to make the right moves towards perfection without having to be constantly reminded. Though this isn’t the exact Webster definition of initiative, but coming from someone who plays sports and is faced with having to “take the initiative” every day, this is what I feel initiative truly means. 

3A: The Good & The Bad

“There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Shakespeare once said these words and they seemingly get at the fact that deep thought and thorough logic behind certain subjects lead us to believe that they are in fact good or bad. He is stating that if we didn’t think and over analyze such ideas of certain things we would never be led into believing things are good, bad or hold a negative or positive weight. This quote directly relates to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation because intrinsic motivation is self-driven motivation; and if one is simply self-motivated then outside interaction does not easily affect one’s direct beliefs one what exactly is good or bad. One who is intrinsically motivated then they will come to making their own decisions on what is good or bad. One who is extrinsically motivated is someone who is easily influenced or motivated by an outside force.. so for this person any little outside force that possesses a good or bad thought on something will potentially lean towards this decision. When thinking about a growth mindset and a fixed mindset one potentially already has a predetermined decision on what he or she truly believes is good or bad if one possesses a fixed mindset. A fixed mindset is the concept that knowledge is fixed, already possessed when one is born. While on the other hand one who possesses a growth mindset may be more open and susceptible to forming their own belief and opinion on to what exactly is good or bad. A growth mindset is possessed by those truly deep thinkers; those who are willing to step out of their comfort zone in order to learn and try something brand new. Those are seemingly the people who stand alone. In my own opinion, someone who even possesses a growth mindset or fixed mindset or someone who is intrinsically motivated or extrinsically motivated will still have a preconceived thought as to what is good or bad, so their own thoughts and logic won’t even really matter. We live in a time in which everything is so structured that as soon as you are born you are being told what is wrong and what is right; you’re told what is bad and what exactly is good. The way things are now is deep thought really the reason why we think things are good or bad? Or is it the preconceived concept of good and bad and right and wrong that is forced upon us at such a young age?