Hand Middle School Visit

I expect my experience mentoring at Hand Middle School to be interesting. The school itself seems like a well rounded school with a good bit of diversity. Out of this experience I hope to learn something new about myself. I know that when you are mentoring someone else, you really have to look at yourself so that you can help your student. I also hope to get to know someone and get their perspective towards life. I also hope to make a good impact on my student. One big thing is I hope we could talk about music and may be able to help him find some good music or learn how to play somethings on the guitar or bass.

This experience will be both fun and challenging, as I do have to learn how to communicate and identify with someone who is much younger than I am. I always had that problem, so hopefully after this experience I will finally be able to do that.

Mentoring

I'm pretty nervous about mentoring a 6th grader, mainly because I don't like being around kids. However, they are 12-13 so it won't be so bad, at least I hope. I am hoping that this will help my transition to college, as I have learned that the best way to learn something is to teach it. So hopefully through mentoring both the student and I can learn something.

Expectation wise, I am hoping for a student who loves music, as that way we have something in common and I can give him some good music, depending on what he likes of course (none of the metal stuff though, I don't want the parent to call complaining about that, which is pretty lame). Actually thinking about it, maybe me telling him about some good music, such as Explosions in the Sky and Jesu, may help him in his transition, as it did help me in tough times.

LASSI

The LASSI was pretty pointless, at least to me. Some of the results I disagree with, especially attitude and concentration. My attitude about school isn't bad, sure some classes I don't like, but I do believe school can be fun and is very beneficial to me. Also, I can concentrate pretty well in school (I made it through a two hour lecture!) and I know when I lose focus and how to get back on track. But some things pretty much told me what I already know, such as my time management. I know from one side it looks like they are bad, but to be honest it works for me. Procrastination helps me get my work done because I know it needs to be done then or I'm in trouble. Study Aids didn't make sense to me on how they measure it, mainly because not everyone uses study aids. I just practice the concepts a lot, I'm not big on using study aids, mainly because I feel that practice makes perfect.

Community Service, or lack thereof

To be 100% honest, I have never done community service. The only time that I volunteered to work for no money was at a rock concert selling merchandise. And to be honest we didn't do much, we just hung around because people just went straight into the stadium. I never volunteered, mainly because I didn't have time, especially my last two years of high school, where I was going to school and working 30-40 hours a week. I don't have a strong passion for any communal issue, which I guess also contributes to my lack of service.

There was one time that I fondly remember. When I was younger my dentist died in a hit and run accident where he was riding his bike. There was then a massive bicycle marathon in the area that was in his memory and helped fund the charity organization that he funded. My dad and I participated in it. I wouldn't actually call it community service though, as it was more for charity than doing an activity that directly helped the community.

Organization

My plan to keep things organized at USC is to write all my assignments and their due dates in my planner, so that I can keep on top of them. I also plan on keeping all my typed papers and homework in folders on my laptop so that I can easily access them. To be honest though, I'm a fairly unorganized person. Throughout grade school, my book bag was full of papers and I occasionally lost some of them. Binder checks, where my teachers would check if our binders were organized, always went bad, I would always have a bit missing. I'm hoping to change that, mainly by doing things electronically, which I keep way better track of.

Time management was also a big problem for me, especially in high school when I worked. Everyday would really be go to school, come home for an hour or two, then go to work until ten at night, and pass out on my bed. Then on weekends, when I finally had free time, I would just chill and hang out with friends. I found that if I don't get enough time to just chill, then I'm constantly burned out and can't get any work done. Now that I'm in college and my classes allow for more chill time, I can really focus on my work when I need to do it.

The Student Organization Zoo

The Student Organization Fair was insane. People would just run up to me and yell "WANNA JOIN _____ CLUB!! ALL THE COOL PEOPLE ARE DOING IT!!!" It was fun though. I got to see all the clubs and student organizations on campus. The big one for me though was WUSC, the radio station. I met someone during my first week who worked at the radio and talked to her about music. She said I should really try to do it and that I was completely capable of doing it, so at the fair I signed up for it. I really do hope that it goes through. Another big one was the metal club, which hasn't come into existence yet, but I did sign the petition to get one started and got some other people to sign it as well. Soon we will probably get everyone together who signed it to draft a constitution and then get it started. I was considering the skydiving club, because I always wanted to skydive, even though I have a fear of heights. I really think that skydiving would help me overcome my fear of heights and other things as well. The Pastafarian club seemed interesting, but friends of mine told me about how they are really one-sided and not open-minded.

My hobbies are music and games. I love listening to music, playing music, and talking about music, which is why I'm extremely excited about the metal club, as a lot of people who listen to metal usually play an instrument. I used to play games all the time, but now I just play them from time to time, though I still love them.

Carolinian Post #1

I was born and raised here in Columbia, SC, and practically lived in the same area my whole life, up until now that is. I grew up in Northeast Columbia, living the typical suburban life. Played soccer when I was young, lived on a cul-de-sac, my neighbors were all friends of mine. Not much out of the ordinary to be honest. I went to Windsor Elementary, then E.L. Wright Middle, and then Spring Valley High. It was in high school that I truly discovered my love for music and when I learned how to play music. I expected USC to be a lot bigger than it is. It seemed so big coming from high school, but now that I'm actually here, it doesn't seem like such a big change. I expected long walks, but they are much shorter than I had anticipated. The past few weeks have been interesting. I have met some really cool people and been very social, something I wasn't back in high school. The classes are more difficult than I expected though. Homework, is more complicated and takes more time, but having breaks in between classes helps me stay on top of it. The Carolinian Creed really holds value to student life, especially when living with a roommate. You do have to respect their privacy and property. Being open minded to diversity is important here as well, because there is so much diversity among students and faculty. You really have to understand what their customs and lifestyles are and respect them.