Just Pointless

As a freshman college student, the hardest thing to do is manage time. Having so much free time is something that we weren't used to coming out of high school. During football season, we didn't have too much time to do homework due to practice. Now that the season is over, I have a ridiculous amount of free time. Instead of spending this time with homework or projects, I would rather catch up on sleep or go play basketball. I don't mind doing homework and usually I do spend a good amount of time on homework, but I would rather not do things that are pointless. Now that the semester is over, I can honestly say that these blogs that we do every weekend are absolutely pointless. The amount of time that we spend on the blogs could be invested into something else more productive. From what I notice after reading other blogs, a lot people haven't even been practicing good grammar or correct English. Also, people have been posting pointless subjects. I could understand if the blogs had a particular subject and was graded by how the student answer the question. Some the blogs that have been posted talk about their friends and the parties that they went to the night before. If I ask that the blogs change at all, I think that their should be grammar checks and each particular blog should be graded by itself. I also noticed that a lot of people didn't take the time to do the blogs. That really frustrated me because I worked hard on getting most of my blogs on time and noticing that other people weren't putting in the effort made me mad. Hopefully the way these blogs are checked changes and the have more meaning because right now these blogs are just pointless.

Sigh of Relief

On Friday, in my Freshman Experience class, we took the day off to work on choosing our schedule and classes for next semester. To be honest, I was really glad that we were not really doing any work because I'm tired of all the classwork and homework. Not to mention that we just finished an essay for the class. Anyway, while I was completing my list of classes that I was going to take, Professor Barry explained to us that this was a big step for all freshman. I really wasn't focusing on what she was saying because it seems like all professors have the same thing to say. Now that I'm sitting in my room thinking about what I want to do for the rest of my time in college, I think she was right. Choosing classes for our second semester of college was a huge step. So far I've seen a couple of people drop out and it was somewhat scary and motivating for me. I've also seen a lot of people skip classes which causes their grades to drastically fall down to D's and F's. Some of these people happen to be some of my close friends. I had to separate myself from some of my friends just because I didn't want their bad habits to rub off on me. Every week, I call my parents just to bet words of wisdom and encouragement from them, especially during or after a tough week of college. They always remind me that I worked too hard all of my life to be just an average guy or a failure, and I agree with them. So watching all of these people do bad in school kind of makes me proud of myself. I took the time to get up and go to every class, attempt every homework assignment, and even did extra credit work whenever the opportunity was given to me. I can actually say that I have worked hard for everything so far in college and what I get is what I deserve. So Professor Barry was absolutely correct, choosing classes for second semester of freshman year in college is a big step. If a college student can make it through the first year of college, they are blessed.

Krost Symposium

About three weeks ago, I was informed that TLU students have to go to the Texas Lutheran University Krost Symposium. The first thing that I thought was maybe I would skip it, nobody will notice. Then, my Freshman Experience professor said that it was mandatory for her class and all other Frex classes. That was frustrating information and I was mad because I felt like it was going to be a waste of time. A bunch of professors talked about how good and even how useful the information might be for us. I didn't believe them though because it seems like every professor says that when they want their students to attend something. Those three weeks passed and it was finally Thursday, November 3rd, 2011, the day of the Krost Symposium. I just finished taking an Elementary Functions test and it honestly drained all of my energy. As I was walking out, one of my friends reminded me of Krost and it ruined my day. We walked to Jackson auditorium and Krost had started already. The speaker was Daniel Solove, which was ironic for me because last week, I read one of his articles called The Future of Reputation. So fortunately for me, I knew a little bit of  his ideas and thoughts before I listened to his lecture. I listened to more of his ideas and I really learned a lot. He talked mostly about how the internet can destroy a person's reputation depending on what is said about them, or what they have done. People lose friends, jobs, and even lives because of the internet. One of the most important things that he talked about was the Rutgers student who committed suicide because of a video put up on the internet by his roommate of him having physical intercourse with another man. I am writing a paper about this college student and his presentation got into more details about him. I'm actually glad I went to the Krost Symposium and I never thought I would say that. I learned a lot from it.

Feeling Responsible

Last weekend, the TLU Bulldogs football team played McMurry War Eagles. We lost big. To be exact, we lost 60-16 at our home stadium. Since we lost this game, we were knocked out of the playoff talk. That really disappointed us since that was our major goal when the season started. Also, that was our biggest lost of out season. Since we couldn't qualify for the playoffs anymore, we decided that we would beat every team left on our schedule no matter what. This weekend we had Hardin Simmons on our schedule and we knew that we need to bounce back after the huge lost. I made it my mission that I would do whatever I had to in practice and in the game this weekend to make sure we had a chance of winning. Turns out that I would be starting this weekend because our starting Tight End was hurt due to a sprained ankle. It would have been my first start as a college football player and I was really anxious when I heard this news. Our first practice to prepare for our game against Hardin Simmons was on Tuesday. Everybody was practicing hard that day and that was a good sign that we were going to have a good week of practice and even a better game against Hardin Simmons. Unfortunately though, in the middle of the practice, I took a wrong step and heard something in my hip pop. It sounded bad and I struggled walking, but I tried to ignore it and practice anyway. The coaches saw me limping up and down the field and told me to sit out for the rest of the day. After practice, I got checked up by the medical trainers and found out that I had a hip pointer and was out for the rest of the week. It was such bad news for me because that means I won't get to start anymore. Since I couldn't play, the coaches had to change up their personnel. Come Saturday, game day, the team traveled to Abilene, Texas while I stayed in my dorm room. We ended up losing 67-17 which to me, was worse than the lose last week. I was disappointed because I felt if I would have played, it possibly would have been a closer game. i hope to never get injured again.

Stressed Out

Since school started, college has had it's ups and downs. Sometimes I have a great day and it makes me proud of myself. Other times, I have a horrible day and I feel sorry for myself. Unfortunately for me, I felt like that for this whole week. On Monday, grade reports came out and I was excited because I felt like I have been working hard and excelling in all of my classes. But when I opened up the website, I saw that out of my six classes, I had three A's, two C's, and a D. Those grades were upsetting. Even though I wasn't happy with my grades, I plan to use them as motivation to work harder. Since my grades weren't up where I wanted them, I had to really work hard this week to attempt to pull them up. The bad thing was that this week was the hardest week I've had based on how much work I had to do. I had a midterm test in Freshman Experience, a test in Contemporary Wellness, and a huge essay due for English Composition all due on Wednesday. Studying for the Frex midterm kept me up all night for the two nights I had before the week. I also spent a lot of time studying for my Contemporary Wellness test. Each day, I was going off of at most five hours of sleep. The only positive that I had was that I have been on track with my essay since the class started it and I had it completed before the it was due. On that Wednesday, I took my two test and turned in my essay. The midterm in Frex was frustrating because I put a lot of pressure on myself to do good. That's is the class that I have a D in and I am striving to pull it up to at least a B. I hope that I did well on that test. The Wellness test was really easy for me due to all of the studying that I did to prepare for it. I was one of the first to finish. Last, I turned in my essay and I felt accomplished that I got through this week. As soon as I started to feel relaxed, we lose our football game to McMurry 60 to 16. It was the worst margin that I have ever lost by since I started playing football. It was a depressing game so now the focus next week will be all football. I'm not ready to have another stressful week.

Weekend Back Home

Since August 10th, the first day that the football players were to report back home, I have never been back home. It's not like distance is a problem, I live in Houston and that's only a 2 hour drive on a good day. I guess I've just been too busy with football and schoolwork. A lot of my friends and people in my residence hall have been back to Houston, multiple times. It was kind of depressing that I haven't been back and I really missed my family and friends. Since this was football bye week, I knew that this weekend was the weekend that I would be able to go home and see my loved ones. I found a ride back on Thursday, packed my bags, and headed out on Friday after I was done with my classes. When I got back in town, I was greeted by my girlfriend and it felt special. Besides my family, she was the one I missed the most. I went to eat dinner with her and friends at Cheddar's restaurant. I was greeted with open arms and it was a warm feeling. I decided to spend the night with some friends and not go home until Saturday morning.  On Saturday, I showed up unannounced at my house and surprised my mother and my brother. My mom was so happy to see me, I guess it's because I am a mommy's boy. I got acquainted in my old room and took a nap on my old bed. That evening, I went to watch my high school play their homecoming game against one of our rivals. We won 27 to 7 and improved our record to 5-1. It's cool knowing that my high school is one of the best teams in Houston. My weekend was great, but what annoyed me the most was the weather. It rained all weekend long and it flooded in some areas. It honestly looked like a hurricane was striking Houston and that frustrated me because I felt like I was limited in what I wanted to do. Sunday, I went shopping and got some things essential for college. After that, I made my way back to TLU. I was happy that I finally went home, but I realized that I have a lot of homework due next week. This is going to be a longer weekend than I thought.

Chip On My Shoulder

Since around 6th grade, my father has been preparing my brother and I for college. He is a school teacher who taught at all levels; elementary, middle, and high school. He graduated with both his Bachelors and Masters from Texas Southern University so he knows a lot about the university lifestyle and he wanted us to be prepared for college so we could be successful. He always told us what to expect and what to avoid as college student. My brother was the first to graduate high school so obviously he was the first to go to college between us. He is one year older than me so every step that he took, I was one step behind him. Unfortunately, my brother's first semester in college was an epic fail. He slept through classes, he partied a lot, and he didn't study much at all. As the semester went by, my parents insisted he tell them what his grades were. He lied and said he had mostly As and Bs. The beginning of second semester, my father took initiative in finding out my brother's grades so he called the school (Xavier University) and asked for them. That's when we found out the horrible news. My brother failed two classes, and a D, B, and an A in the rest. His GPA was below a 2.0. The bad part was that my parents paid almost 20,000 dollars for him to go to the private university. My father was so frustrated with what happened. He made it tougher for me to be trusted in college. My parents didn't want another failure and a waste of money. Because of my brother, I have a chip on my shoulder to come to Texas Lutheran and excel. I want to make my parents proud and I never want to see them as devastated as they were during this situation. Its even harder for me because I am playing football and trying to get a really good GPA, but this situation drives me to be the best student and best son that I  could possible be. I love my parents and I want them to be proud of me. The good thing out of this situation is my brother is now back on his feet and he is getting ready to attend North Texas University with a chip on his shoulder. Hopefully, he can work harder to make my parents proud like I plan to,

Hardest Week of College

So far, college hasn't been as tough as everybody tried to tell me it was. Teachers, family members, and other adults always warned me about how hard college would be and how much work professors give. After this first few weeks, I questioned if college was a challenge or not. I should have believed the people who warned me. This week has been one of the hardest weeks of school in my life. i have never had so much work to do and test to prepare for. Schoolwork isn't the only thing that is consuming my time, football is also getting tougher. Due to my hard work on the football field, I was moved up to play on the Varsity squad. It is a great accomplishment for me because many other people would love to be in that position, but it is a lot more work than just playing on JV. There's more contact, studying, and repetition to it. Working harder in practices is exhausting, which leaves me too tired to even try to complete homework, or study for test. The week I get moved up is the week all of my professors give tough homework and tests. I caught myself going to bed at 2 in the morning trying to study for test and waking up too tired to want to go to class. This week was the first time that I missed a class due to not waking up. Actually, it was the first class that I missed since I started college. I also took my first test this week, but I have a lot more next week. Not only do I have a lot of homework, but there has been many distractions attempting to stop me from at least trying to complete them. Everybody that I know on campus went to different parties and I had to swallow my pride by staying in my dorm to finish homework. It was a smart decision on my part and I feel myself maturing as a person. In high school, I didn't prioritize a lot, but it's very important that I do in college if I want to be successful. Even though there are many distractions and lots of homework, I plan to use my time wisely and finish it all. After all, it was my decision to become a college student.

Time Management Issues

I was on the phone with my father this weekend and the first thing he asked me was "how is college?" It was a simple question, but then again, such a complex question. Many ways to answer that question came to my head and it seemed like I could have answered the it any different way. The first thing I told him though was that college is easy, it depends on how much time the student puts into their school work. He agreed with me and we continued are conversation. After talking with my father that evening, I thought about all the homework that I need to complete by next week. It seems like it really piled up on me. Then I thought of what I said to my father, college depends on how much time the student puts into their school work. It doesn't matter how smart that student was in high school or how high their test scores are. If they are lazy with their school work, then they are bound to be horrible college student. I wasn't the greatest high school student, but I did have a good GPA and good SAT test scores. The difference is that college won't be handed out to us as students, unfortunately. All these thoughts ran through my mind in less than a minute. You can say I was thinking critically, haha. Anyway, I have noticed that I have been procrastinating a lot in these past weeks. Maybe it's because I'm waking up early for school, practicing and playing football, and doing homework late nights. Not getting enough sleep is taking a toll on me. If I could, probably would take a 5 hour nap. I catch taking naps between classes and waiting until the last minute to do homework just like high school. I wish I could get rid of these horrible habits for a student. Honestly though, I think noticing that I have a problem is the first step to fixing it so hopefully this particular blog post helps me realize I need to work harder. It is a must that I make my family proud so I have to get rid of these bad habits.

My Football Experience So Far

Since my senior year high school football season ended, I have been so anxious to start playing football again. I was getting ready to make my choice where I was going to play football and go to school. My top five schools were Baylor, Texas A&M, University of Incarnate Word, Trinity, and Texas Lutheran University. I didn't get offered a scholarship from any of the Division 1 schools, but I wasn't going to let that determine if I played ball or not. I was still getting heavily recruited by the other three schools. I visited all the schools around the same time and I liked all of them, but some of the schools had their own bad flaws. Trinity University cost almost $50,000 to attend there and I can't afford that even with financial aid. University of Incarnate Word wasn't the that far from being the worst teams in there conference. Texas Lutheran was a small a school, but from what I heard from a lot of people was that they were on a come up. I decided to go to Teas Lutheran because I felt at home on my visit. I felt like I was already part of the team even though  I was still in high school.
After going through the candidate process, I was accepted and getting ready for 2-a-days. August 10th is when all the football players had to report for camp. It was a tough two weeks of practice because all we did from 6:30 a.m until 8:30 p.m was eat, sleep, and football. I had great days some practice and bad days other. Even though  I had a couple of bad days,  I was consistent. My problem was there is a returning starter in front of me on the depth chart so I decided to play on the Junior Varsity team so I can actually get some reps. Today was our first game against Sul Ross, and I played a great game. I had two receptions for 50 plus yards and two touchdowns. As a team, everybody played together and we won 37-6. Everybody had a great time and we walked out of their stadium with a win. My football experience has been really good so far. I hope it continues at this pace.

My First Couple of Weeks as a Freshman

Since I started high school, I knew that I would go to college no matter what happened. My parents and I didn't expect anything less. Graduation high school was a great experience, but I didn't feel like it was a big accomplishment. I was already thinking about how I would look in my college cap and gown four years from now. In high school, the teachers and faculty spoon fed all the students. Life was great. Little did I know that the teachers who were making our lives easier, weren't preparing us for college. Through my four years in high school though, everybody from family to coaches and teachers would try to scare me about how tough college was. I never was intimidated by those scare tactics because I knew when it was time for me to buckle down on my studies, I would. But during my first couple of weeks as a freshman, I can see why everybody was trying to prepare me. College is tough. It seems like I'm on my own with everything. Nobody is here to spoon feed me. My parents aren't here to do my laundry. If I don't have the imitative to get up and do it, then nobody will. That's the biggest change for me. My parents aren't over my back asking me if I have completed my homework yet. Or my teachers aren't asking me if I need an extra day or two to complete a project. The biggest change for me is having the initiative to do something for myself. In high school, I never sat down and read an extra chapter just to prepare for the next discussion. Or I never spent so much time highlighting and pointing out key points for a test. I expected teachers to do that. College is a different game. Organization is also a big key in the success for a college student. As these days go by, I find myself becoming more and more organized. Neatness in high school isn't such a big deal, but in college, it is a must. Even though the transition from high school to college is a big one, I'm having fun and doing good so far. The problem is, can I keep it up? I hope so because I have a lot of people counting on me, glad that I have made it this far in my life.