Invest in yourself

Part One: The reason that I chose to attend Onondaga Community College is that I want to better myself by receiving a furthered education at a college level and also I have an interest in the nursing at this college. The planning process that I went through was simple, but time consuming. First I was accepted into the college, then I was left with the obvious choice of attending or not. Deciding to attend college here opened up many tasks that I needed to accomplish, such as finding housing, loans, financial aid, and selecting the classes that are necessary to allow me to achieve my goals. I have recently graduated from high school, and my educational background is still fresh in my mind and knows how to accomplish my goals. Previously I held a position as a certified nursing assistant at a nursing home and the responsibilities of holding a job prepared me for what the “real” world is going to be like when I go to college. I have a pretty basic schedule this semester, it is not too demanding so I have learned to manage my classes and study times well. I am taking HEA – 106 with Professor Jenkins, RDG – 093 with Professor Bianchi, RDG- 093L with Professor Irwin, MAT- 114 with Professor DeFazio and ENG -099 with Professor Starkweather. So far my first impression of the first semester has been a little overwhelming at the amount of work they give you to accomplish in the small amount of time. I am a little bit worried about my algebra course that I am in because I always found math a major struggle for me. I feel that commitment is the main key to success in college and those who are not committed will not be able to achieve their goals and become successful.
Part Two: The part of chapter one that I decided to explain was the “Do Your Work” section. I think that the key to a successful graduation from college is not only attending classes, but it is also important to pay attention, take good notes, dedicating time to study and actually doing the homework that the professor had assigned. This chapter grabbed my attention because I can relate to students who have to hold a part-time job and go to school full time to achieve their success. While I was in high school I worked 30 hours a week and went to classes full time. I would always find the motivation to accomplish my school work a difficult thing to find. I found that accomplishing your work was very motivating when people would doubt that you could not succeed. I agree with doing your work is very important to your success. I also had a real connection with the section about taking control. In my previous days in high school I always put everything of until the absolute last minute; I always found something better that I would do instead. I would always find myself very stressed out because I was pushed to rush through my assignments and not able to do my best abilities on the assignments. Although I was just making it by with my poor quality essays, it was also affecting my grades on my quizzes and tests. This is when I realized that working so many hours was not an ideal thing to be doing. This is why it is very important to set up a schedule and to get into a routine so you don’t have the chance of getting far behind. Now that I am in college and I see how much this is costing me if I procrastinate and don’t do well in my classes and I am seeing the importance of getting into a routine and sticking with a schedule.