My Foundation (3B)

I wish I had a wider variety of sports I played so that I’m not constantly talking about cheerleading. Unfortunately the only sport I did in high school was cheerleading and it became such an important aspect of my life, as you can see.

When I was younger I dreamed of trying out for cheerleading and becoming one of them. They were always so popular and pretty and they had a good reputation at school. I couldn’t take that opportunity when I was younger due to financial problems, so I let that dream slip away. My sophomore year of high school I moved to Madison, CT. I took that as a brand new start in high school, kind of like a do over. This was my chance to tryout for their Cheerleading team. I walked onto the mat and the coach began asking me what I knew about cheerleading. With a sad look on my face, I said “nothing” shamefully. The coach was very optimistic and believed in me. I did some of the stunts that she asked me to do that required lifting girls up in the air and I did them with no trouble at all. I listened so intently at what she had to say because I wanted to work my way to the top.

That year I made it on Varsity. That was a big deal for me because I had gone through so little training and was just as good as the other sophomore girls. I always had a love for cheerleading and now that I made it on the team I would stop at nothing. I loved to work on stunts and my technique. Any advice I got I would take that and use it to my advantage. After practice I would go home and go over what I learned with the team. I would look up tutorial videos and watch the college teams perform and so really cool stuff that blew my mind. My life revolved around cheerleading, and working to get better was something I wanted to do for myself. At times it was defiantly hard but for the love of the sport I did what I had to, and got beat up a little in the process but it was all worth it.

Cheerleading helped me find out what I wanted to do with life, and this is become an elementary school teacher. The high school cheerleaders had the opportunity over the summer to volunteer their time to help out the little youth cheerleaders. They ranged from 3^rd to 8^th graders, and it was so much fun helping them and teaching them all the cheers we knew. That was when I knew I wanted to work with young kids in my career. I can’t wait to get my job as a teacher in an elementary school. I know it doesn’t have an outstanding salary like other jobs but I am more interested in being around kids all day and being an inspiration to them. That’s what I want to do in life.  

Spectrums of Motivation (3A)

Cheerleading taught me valuable lessons that I apply to real life. Shakespeare’s quote reminded me of this one time where my cheer team was having a horrible practice. Nothing was going right, and no one had the motivation to get better and fix the mistakes we were constantly making. I was on the brink of just completely giving up until one girl made a suggestion. She said “Just don’t think, and do the routine.” Our problem was that we were overthinking our steps, and technique that it was all falling apart. Everyone stopped thinking and did their job. The moment the music starting playing I had a feeling inside me that we would execute this routine with excellence. When we finished the routine with huge smiles on our faces, we all looked at the coaches’ faces and we knew that we showed them what we were capable of.

Thinking applies to everything we do. I interpreted this quote in the way that people are only as good as they think they are. In other words, how much you believe in yourself will demonstrate your capabilities. The type of student that strives to always to good in school and accepts the fact that there is room for improvement has and intrinsic motivation. These types of kids don’t settle for the bare minimum. They want to exceed the teacher’s expectations for their own satisfaction and eventually a good grade in the class. They will keep trying to improve their quality and or quantity of work because it’s their work ethic.

On the other hand we have students that don’t go above and beyond like student I talked about before. Some will just do the work because they have to in order to get good grades. They will do the bare minimum and hope for the best. This type of motivation is extrinsic.

I also think that taking risks is part of it. Taking risks means your coming out of your comfort zone to try new things, and that can apply to anything you desire. Nothing is good or bad you have the power to make it go either way and I don’t think people realize how much power they have within themselves. 

Showing Some Owl Pride (2I)

The Southern Football Team had their first game of the season today. Many showed up to show support for their team against the Crimson Hawks from Indiana. It was nice to see the school come together and support their football team. Everyone was hyped up to watch their friends and classmates play on the field. It was a close game 30-20 and even though The Fighting Owls lost, it's not the end. It's only the beginning of the season and we will have our victory very soon.

I was a cheerleader in high school, and there's nothing I would rather be doing than cheering our football team as they went on to the state championship game last December. This year I will be in the fan section cheering on Southern's football players. Southern is my new school therefore I have a new team I'm routing for. I will be at all their home games showing my owl pride.

Another Step Forward (2V)

Initiative: ability to access and initiate things independently

This is the time of our lives where we step into a new chapter. A new chapter full of new opportunities that we must take and make it into something we can be proud of. Our parents are providing us with the opportunity to go to school and get educated so that we can become successful in our future. In order to get there we need some sort of initiation to get of the ground and being soaring through the sky. I am the shy type of person. However throughout the years I have came out of my shell. I'm still not completely outgoing but I have worked my way to a happy medium. Now that I am in college I believe it is important to come out of our shells even more, and if possible come out of our shell completely. In class I want to participate and be confident in myself. Doing so will create initiative which is an important quality I soon hope to have.

2 new vocabulary words:

ubiquitous: existing or being everywhere at the same time; constantly encountered

Niche: a situation or activity specially suited to a persons interest, abilities, or nature.

Heading Down a New Path (2B)

My biggest problem these first week of college was managing time between completing homework and going out and hanging out with friends. I was so excited to have fun and put homework on hold. I soon came to realize that things needed to change. That is why this weeks new goal was to finish homework at a reasonable time and to stay focused while doing it before I went out.

This summer was full of excitement! Going out and doing things with friends and having a good time is what I live for. Being in college and having so much more freedom I was even more excited to see what exciting things were in store for me. The only difference now was that I had responsibilities to complete homework, and a lot of it.

Setting this goal was already mentally tough. I was so used to setting work or projects aside for last minute. So this goal was a tough one to do. I had to set my priorities straight. For example, instead of going to the cafeteria to socialize and eat, I got my food ate and went straight to my room. I opened my books to see what I had to do and go right on track with my work. After an hour I wanted to take a break and leave homework behind but instead I took a 10 min break and started again with homework. I tried to resist the temptation of doing something else like painting my nails or texting my friends. There was no stopping me when I was focused and working diligently. Id have to say the hardest part was saying no to going out one night when I was loaded with homework due the following day. I knew that if I went out I would not come back and finish I would be too tired and lazy.

In the long run I learned to be more disciplined when it comes to completing homework. I’m more motivated to get it done because if I get it done early enough I will be able to go out. This way I am getting what I need to do out of the way and it gives me plenty of time to enjoy my nights on campus or out on the town. 

Useful Tips (2A)

In this weeks reading I gathered a lot of very useful information that I will most defiantly put into good use. I don’t know about everyone else but at least for me everyone has been throwing information at us left and right. It began to get overwhelming because there were so many tips for success.

Each of the articles brought up really good points. In the article title “What is College?” the author talked about how there is a lack of academic interest n the students. There is no point in college is we don’t value knowledge and understanding. I agree 100% with that because if you, the student, don’t put in the effort to take the knowledge and process it and apply it to your work then it’s just a waste of your time. 

In the article titled “Work Hard or Work Smart” it talked about how you must set goals and then stay determined everyday to accomplish them. I great point that everyone should do. Setting goals is easy but actually getting to them is the hard part because we tend to hold them off for long periods of time. If everyday we worked hard and smart to reach our goal we could accomplish our goals.

These two tips really stuck out to me and I am really going to put in effort to make it work for me. There’s nothing you can’t do if you set you mind to it. Starting college I want to set better goals for myself and this would be a great start. I know that in the past I have set goals but never fully completed them. This time things will be different because reaching my goals will make me feel good about myself. Once I have that motivation I will set harder and larger goals for myself.