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.