Dear Diary!

September

University so far has been interesting. There have been a few problems here and there, but all in all, it has been a really great time. One of the hardest things that I am finding is that it is extremely difficult to have a "life" that is not completely controlled by school. I find it very hard to balance friends, family, and of course my school work! It feels as though I always have homework and I have no time to do it. I have been going out and meeting new people but when I am out I am always concerned with the fact that I have a million and one pages left to read. It just feels as though my entire life is controlled by school with no time left for me. And yes that is the point of University ... but it is very difficult to get used to.

Another issue I have had is with some of my profs. I attend a very diverse University in which the students and the staff come from different backgrounds. A struggle I have been having is understanding some of my profs who are from different areas and have strong accents. It is frustrating because in the class I am focusing so hard just to simply understand the accent that I can't take in the information provided in the lecture. This frustrates me because I get far behind. Having a prof that I can't understand is also in no way a motivation to attend the class -- the first class I skipped was for this very reason.

University is a really fun life. I think the trick is to find a balance between everything in your life. School is very important, but you can't consume all your time on it. You need to resolve to still have a social life. You need to decide to do homework when it's assigned and try to stay on top of everything. The next trick is actually doing all that!!


October

I have been busy busy!

Things have been good both academically and socially. I think anyone would agree that the social aspect of university is far more enjoyable then the academic aspect. Although, I am really lucky in the sense that I truly enjoy what I am learning. That is a big help. I chose a program that I knew I would like, which helps a lot when it comes to the millions of assigned readings. My parents were actually very unsure of my getting a criminology degree. They thought "science" would be the better way to go because "that is where the jobs and money are at." I am really glad I decided for myself which program to take because I love it!

My issue with my prof with the strong accent has not gotten any better. It is by far the most frustrating thing I have come across while at University. We do have TAs assigned to the course, but there are 200 students struggling to understand the prof, and therefore the TAs do not have the time to help each and everyone of us. The TAs also only have one hour during every week that they are available for extra help. So we are really stuck on our own.

The amount of reading that is assigned is very overwhelming. Nobody could finish it all. You have to try and pick and choose the most important readings and make sure that you get them done. I know: I am struggling right now with midterms coming up shortly and I am behind in my readings. Everyone who goes through university says "you can't procrastinate". And even with everyone saying that to prepare you ... it still goes in one ear and out the other! You need to actually have a million pages piled up for you to read in order to learn you can't put off doing them. To find the time to do homework you really need to cut out the nonessential things in life. For instance, almost every student has an addiction to Facebook! So instead of checking your Facebook five times a day, do it twice!

Right now I am really starting to feel the pressure of school. It hit near the end of September. At the beginning it was all fun and games, and you don't realize how much homework you have and then all of a sudden you are so far behind! And my schedule has changed a lot! Since then, there hasn't been a night that I have gone to bed before 1 am. I have been leaving my homework until the last minute so I am usually up past midnight trying to finish it then. It isn't a nice cycle! Ha!

But enough negativity .... University is a blast! It makes you learn how to survive on your own, which I needed to do!! I have also had the time of my life getting to meet all these new people! I am really looking forward to the next ... almost 4 years!!!


December

I've been busy busy busy!

I am loving university. It's great, even though I am beyond busy and feel like I don't even have a chance to sit down. I felt I had to get a part time job because it was really foolish on my part to not save at least some of the money I made in high school. I've dipped into my savings too much already and don't want to drain them. It is hard to balance a job and school: no doubt about that. But it is do-able. You just have less time to put towards the things you really want to do, such as drinking with your friends!

At the beginning of school I found it hard to meet people. That issue has gone away. I've met so many people and have made good friends. Meeting people is something that seems difficult but is a simple problem you have to overcome yourself. You need to go out and do activities that you are interested in and find friends -- they don't come to you. The first two weeks were really hard but after I started putting myself out there more and left my house more (obviously lol), I started meeting lots of great people!

Exams are coming up and they have put the biggest stress on everyone! It is almost everyone's resolution to study early for exams and do well, but it's hard to actually follow through with the plan. You can't study early for exams if you still have assignments flying at you. Exams are so much different than in high school because they mean so much more! None of my exams are worth less than 35% of my mark, whereas in high school if they were worth 15% then I was freaking out! One thing I know that has changed for me is when I started University I didn't like the fact that my profs didn't know me. In high school I knew my teachers well, and they also knew me well. We both knew each other's backgrounds and histories. And now in University I don't know a single thing about my professors; I don't even know some of their names!!!! Coming from a small town high school to a big city university is a huge change in that aspect. I have grown to like this, though. The school and the professors do not care about individuals. It is a business. They do not intend to be actually mean, but profs sometimes have 500 students a semester, so they can't care. This makes it nice in the sense that you don't have people tracking you down and nagging at you, like a lot of high school teachers did. If you miss class, a test, an assignment .... there's no punishment. You fail what you miss and that's that. So I started out not liking this, but now enjoy the feeling of freedom along with responsibility.

I have an exam tomorrow that I better start, yes start, studying for! lol