7B: Yesterday is History

I was taking a brief reflection of my college experience so far and one thing I considered as a little bit of a failure was my performance in my History class. This has never been one of my favorite subjects because in my opinion things of the past tend to get really confusing and repetitive. There always seems to be some sort of disagreement then a war to try and reach an agreement, which also usually comes attached with a lot of death and debt. It just seems depressing to me most of the time.

Anyways, I was unsatisfied with the first grade I got in that class. Although it’s not considered failing and most people would probably be satisfied with such a grade, to me it was disappointing. I spent a lot of time studying but when the exam came around some things seemed completely different and unfamiliar. I noticed that what I had taken notes on from in the text book had showed a different aspect then what the professor had shared in class. On the exam the questions seemed to be leaning more toward what was given in the lecture rather than what was written in the books. Since, my class is a huge lecture there isn’t much discussion like in high school, so my reaction was to just try and write down as much of what the professor said as possible. I realized immediately that my mistake was getting too hung up on every little thing that the he said instead of picking out the important points and later looking further into them in the book.

I decided to move my seat to the very front row of the lecture room so that I could clearly hear what the professor says without feeling the need to write it all down because now I’m so close that I could just ask him anything I don’t fully understand. I listen more attentively now before jotting down random things. I have also been comparing what I’ve been learning from the book with what is brought up in lecture beforehand. So that I could see how everything plays in this time instead of just analyzing two different sources of information and only trying to make sense of them on the test. I hope that I can continue to improve my study skills not just for history but for all classes in general. This incidence made me realize that certain classes require different approaches and techniques and also that college truly provides endless learning opportunities whether it be from our mistakes or from the text books.

7A: It's Not Right But It's Okay...

In my opinion I believe that failure is never encouraged and that people are always pressured not to fail. From a young age we are taught to try and make the least of mistakes as possible. We were trained how to speak, walk, write, read, color, behave, and much more, in ways that were considered most perfect. Whenever we happened to fall short of expectations we were scolded and instructed to do better. This is where the fear of not being good enough or ‘failing’ started to become instilled in us.

People never want to be perceived as inadequate or as a failure. Therefore, I also believe that there is no place where it’s completely safe to fail. However, I do think that there are certain people that are more accepting of failure than others. For instance, even though it seems that family are the most judgmental towards us when we make mistakes, deep down they’re the ones who accept us the most and the biggest reason why they react so harshly in times of failure is because they want us to have the best life possible. On the other hand, society is probably the worst place to fail because everything is a constant competition and failure can discredit you and make you easier to replace. That’s part of the reason why doctors are so ashamed of admitting their mistakes.

 
The impact is negative when we fear failure and stay in denial, because it halts progress. If we don’t acknowledge the problems then they are going to continue to happen. That’s why it is important to realize that it’s impossible to be perfect. We all have some sense of what we are capable of and it’s obvious that some plans are just unrealistic. I feel that when we set such far-fetched objectives were basically just setting ourselves up for failure, unhappiness and disappointment. As J.K Rowling mentioned “Achievable goals: the first step to self-improvement.” and “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.” Another thing that comes into mind on the subject of failing and improvement is deliberate practice. Instead of wallowing in shame we need to face our failures and continually work on fixing them so that we can eliminate our biggest weaknesses and hope that eventually we might master our work. It might not seem right when we fail but it’s okay as long as we can turn it into a learning experience and never give up.

7I.10: BINGO Bonanza!

On Wednesday the 9^th of October, I headed down to the Michael Adanti Student Center Ballroom for a night of fun provided by the Residence Hall Association. The Bingo night event was scheduled for 8pm so I went at 7:45, but still ended up waiting in a huge line. I was worried that they might reach capacity before my turn in line but luckily I made it. The entry fee was one dollar per person. Everyone got 5 cards each containing 3 games for a total of fifteen games. Although I didn’t win any of the cool prizes that they had to offer (bike, TV, beats headphones, etc.) I still had a lot of fun. They made it very exciting and played music in between games, I hope that they have Bingo night again sometime and maybe next time I’ll win one of the awesome prizes.

7V: Failure

Failure means not achieving something that you wanted. It is that feeling of disappointment we get when we’re faced with something other than what we expected. The main thing that defines failure is giving up, because something isn’t necessarily a failure if it’s still a work in progress. That’s why we should work on our mistakes and always keep trying at the things we want to succeed at because if we quit that’s when it becomes regarded as failure.

A new word I learned this week is rudimentary. It means to be basic or limited to certain aspects and facts. In college we are trying to avoid this and think more critically about concepts while expanding our knowledge and intelligence as much as possible.

Another word I became familiar with this week is vacillate. It means to ponder between options, hesitate, or to be undecided. We constantly waver through different possibilities when we make educated decisions.