Last Weekly Blog

I cannot believe this semester has come to an end already. I remember the first day in January where it was 12 degrees outside. I was worried about my classes because it was the first time being in school in a year, and I was very anxious. The semester has passed very smoothly, school wise, not outside of school at all. Outside of school I have had many hurdles thrown at me, but I am glad even when things got really tough outside of school, I was able to focus on my work and my grades did not suffer. This was an easy semester, so I am going to have to be really on my game for summer sessions and fall. Time management, as always, is going to be crucial to keeping my stress level low. Another skill I am going to have to continue is keeping ahead of my work. It has been really helpful to get my assignments done a few days before they are due. I want to make sure I keep that habit up. With exams next week I’m done with 90% of my assignments to turn in, but I need to make sure to get a head start studying for exams! I have confidence that they will go well because I feel very prepared by what we learned in class.

Weekly Blog Update

It’s the end of the semester, and things are getting pretty hectic. I have a lot of work to do for all my classes. Both my Geography based Liberal Studies class, and my Statistics class have tests next week, then the week after they have exams. I don’t like that the teachers pushed the material to the end. Sometimes I think teachers forget that we, just like they teach, take more than one class. It’s not just a math test next week; it’s also a geography test and assignments due in my other classes. I know I don’t forget that teachers teach more than one class, therefore they have a tough amount of grading to do. I think learning the material for the first time and doing the class is a little harder than grading. I am glad I learned some time management skills in my high school and in my first year of college, because I am going to need them these next two weeks!

Math Blog

This week has been an alright week at school. Nothing great or disastrous has happened, so I would describe it as “meh.” The most interesting thing I have going on is my Statistics 1220 class, Business Statistics. This is one of my favorite math classes I’ve ever taken. It goes at a very quick pace, so if you miss a day or don’t pay attention in class, then you really need to read the whole chapter sections on what you missed and make sure you have full understanding of it. What we are doing now is interesting because it is formulas and equations I know I will use farther along in business classes. I feel bad for my teacher sometimes though. I would guess about half the class is doing really poorly in the class right now and not putting in as much effort as they could. The teacher gets really upset when people don’t answer his questions in class, and I feel bad for him because he wants all the students to try as hard as they can. It would be really hard to be a teacher and have about half the class not really care about the grade or what you’re teaching. I know that I am doing all I can to get the most out of his class, and it saddens me that other students aren’t.

Reflection on my Interview

     I just finished transcribing a 15 minute long interview I had recorded with my sister for English class about her experience being 200 feet away from the bombs that went off at the Boston Marathon last year. I was worried it would take hours on end to write down everything we said. Once I found a system, it flowed and only took about an hour. I slowed down the recording to half the speed, so I could type along, word-for-word, the interview. It ended up being 8 pages long.

     That is the most recent homework I have had in English here at UNCC, but I can say that it was some of the most enjoyable homework I’ve ever done. I discussed the interview on a couple of different blog posts here before, but I didn’t go into detail about it, and I hadn’t interviewed her yet.

I had such an amazing time doing the interview with her. I actually learned so much about it and about her feelings and what happened. As I stated in another blog post, I hadn’t ever really talked to her about it because at the time of the bombings, I had some really huge changes going on in my life so once I knew she was okay and safe and that everything was going to be alright- we didn’t really discuss it again. But after the interview, I learned about what happened at that time, what it felt like being in that situation, and even a little more about who my sister is as a person. I never knew that she tried to go in to help the people close to the bomb. I was thrilled to learn how she felt about whether or not it changed her, “I mean- I think it was a really traumatic experience, but I also think that letting it affect my perception of going into group events, and not going to sporting events, and not doing this or that, would be essentially letting them win. And I definitely wouldn’t do that. I mean, I would volunteer at the same place. I’d run it. I’d do anything.” That is something that makes me so proud to call her my sister.

     I went into the interview project with low expectations and thinking it would be very boring, but I am so happy that I think it semi-changed my life. Who knew a project for class could have that big of an impact on you? I sure didn’t.