“High school graduation day was a very exciting day at my house because I was going to be the first in my family to hold a degree achieved in America.”
The end of Senior year of high school is a very exciting time for almost all of us. The weather is getting nicer, graduation is fast approaching, and you have chosen what college you will be attending in the fall. This was me at the end of senior year in high school. I was very relaxed. The workload was winding down quite a bit which meant more free time and more hanging out with my friends. High school graduation day was a very exciting day at my house because I was going to be the first in my family to hold a degree achieved in America. That summer, before freshman year of college, was one of the best summers I had. I got lots of travelling done and spent a lot of time with my friends before classes started. Towards the end of summer, I made a resolution to myself, that I would focus, study hard, and not procrastinate so that I could achieve exceptional grades. I thought that since I was having a very relaxed summer, I would be able to focus better once school started.
The summer flew by and before I knew it, the first day of my freshman year at the University at Albany had arrived. I looked forward to starting this new chapter of my life, but at the same time, I was very nervous since I was a new student at a huge, confusing campus. Little did I know that freshman year was going to be a year of many ups and downs. From what I have seen, freshman year of college does not go as planned for many people, and that was the case with me as well. I kept telling myself I was not going to procrastinate, but that ended up happening anyways. I tried my best to stay focused, but with all the hanging out with my friends and travelling over the summer, when summer was ending I didn’t want it to end, so the laziness carried into the semester. I was also unsure about what I wanted my major to be. I had many different interests but I was having a hard time picking one. All of these factors, combined, were making me very stressed. My studying habits from high school carried over as well, which was definitely not enough for college. Throughout high school I earned grades in the nineties without putting in a lot of work. I knew college was going to be harder but it didn’t hit me until I got to the midterm point. When I saw my midterm grades I knew I had to change something.
I tried making a schedule to balance out free time from study time. I was able to follow the schedule for a few days, but I ended up getting lazy and procrastinating again. However, I was able to get all my work done, and during my finals I was able to salvage all of my grades by a good margin. And just like that my first semester of freshman year ended.
I learned so much about myself during that semester. I realized that I would have to study so much more than I did throughout my high school career. I also learned that procrastinating was messing up my time for everything else. I was doing things last minute, which meant late nights and loss of sleep. I knew I had to fix myself or college was not going to be an enjoyable experience for me. Sometimes resolutions do not go as planned but it’s okay because every experience is a learning experience. I was able to learn from my mistakes and make better decisions.
Please Note: The views of our student bloggers do not necessarily reflect the views of the UAlbany Advisement Services Center. These are their stories and their voices.
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