1V; Digging Deeper

            While sitting in pre-calculus with one of my favorite teachers during junior year, I could feel myself moving to the edge of my seat, waiting to hear the final answer to the question. Once her voice smacked my ears, I knew my answer was right. But, I wasn't done. A monster of wanting to know more, such as how other situations like this one worked, grew inside of me. Inquiring more and more questions, the class opened up to deep discussion and finally uncovered a higher form of knowledge we could have never imagined: critical thinking.

                When I think of inquiry, I think of looking for deeper knowledge and the process of investigating an underlying meaning, thought, or idea, and later reflecting upon it. Just during the first week of college, I feel I have done this more than I ever had before. An example would be in Media and Everyday Life class. We analyzed multiple ads and inquired about the deeper meaning and the way to do this was by thinking outside of the box and making leaps to ideas we never thought would be right. We explored our minds and looked through our magnifying glass to accomplish inquiry. In our class discussion on Thursday, we talked about the differences between college and high school. When discussing an appropriate way to read pieces assigned to us, a few words stuck out to me. We need to synthesize, analyze and apply the readings to class and other assignments, and likewise, we should synthesize, analyze, and apply our thoughts and ideas through inquiry. Furthermore, the recent readings assigned, especially in “How to Become a Deeper Thinker at College,” offer tips in order to ensure the inquiry process, or in other words, “learning how to think.”

·         http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/10/24/how-to-become-a-deep-thinker-at-college/

                In Statistics this past week, I bumped into the word regression. I know I've heard it in many other classes that I've taken, but I wasn't sure of the definition. Using the dictionary, I found the noun to mean, “the act of going back to a previous place or state; return or reversion.” This weekend, I regressed to my hometown. Another word I came across this week in my Information Management class was punctual and I found this word to mean, “strictly observant of an appointed or regular time; not late; prompt.” It is in my best interest to finish this blog so that I am able to be punctual turning it in. 

1I; Into the Darkness

“You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.”- Wayne Gretsky

  Darkness filled with bright lights and deafening music. A happiness and positive energy took me by the hand and greeted me at the door along with free glow sticks, candy, sweets, you name it.

    Last night, I attended the Southern Connecticut State University “Welcome Back Dance.” I was fearful of how it would turn out, but I went anyway. One of my goals coming to college was to get involved and try new things. Dancing is obviously not a new activity for me, but I knew that if I went, the opportunities to meet new people were endless, and wouldn't you know I was right. Dancing my heart out, I met people from New York, Massachusetts, and all over Connecticut in such an amusing atmosphere. It was pleasing to me to know that I took a chance and ended up with such a positive outcome. How can we push ourselves to take risks and get involved? How easy is it for us to open up to each other without fear of being judged?

1B; New Challenges, New Material

      Reading other styles of writing can sometimes be challenging, especially when we are unfamiliar with them or disagree with what they have to offer. After maneuvering through various types of blogs, I found most to be interesting and grabbing to the reader. For instance, in the Productive Flourishing blog, they provided a catchy slogan of, “We help businesses and organizations start finishing the stuff that matters”. This helps to back up their purpose and clearly states what they are trying to accomplish in the blog.

A common trait throughout all of the blogs, whether it be on the New York Times, or an individually created dance blog, was the use of images and video, rich vocabulary, and ending with a rhetorical question to leave readers pondering. I really liked these blogs because I felt with all of these elements, the blog came alive and I was able to relate or fully think about what they are trying to get across. A stand out question came from the Productive Flourishing blog included, “What are questions you ask yourself to get you going?” and left me thinking.

 One of the blogs was alienated when I read through it. Rebecca’s Pocket was a blog that was able to leave impressions on me but was very vague and I felt as though it lacked in detail. It did provide links to enrich the blog but even though the quantity of words used doesn't necessarily matter, I felt the quality was not there. I was expecting to end the reading thinking about a new idea or thought but this did not happen when reading her blog. In my blog, I plan to be clear and concise about the topic. From this arises my goal of wanting to develop an idea through my posts and also having others being able to relate and connect to my posts. How can we efficiently connect to each other without losing who we really are?

“To prevail, you must first listen”- Sonia Sotomayor

1A; The First Stride

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.

As I could feel my heart pounding and butterflies kissing the lining of my stomach, I got out of the car on move-in day and quickly realized I was not in my little hometown of South Windsor anymore. Loud screeches and voices of excitement filled the air walking up to my resident hall and colors of blue and white along with smiles and unsure faces were all I could see.

 College is simply the place we go after successfully completing high school, to ensure the improvement of our knowledge and gain skills we will carry with us for a lifetime. But the message I have gotten through these last few days of presentations from various people, is that college is most definitely about the outcome of a degree being earned, but also about the learning process along the way. From this, I want to be able to take my peers opinions and ideas into consideration more often and follow their thought process to develop my ideas. Another goal I have set for myself should be very painless to accomplish here at Southern. We are part of such a diverse group of students and faculty and I would like to make sure to meet and learn from as many dissimilar types of people as I can. This way, going out into the real world, I will be able to understand or at least consider many diverse points of view and be able to relate to someone who I may think is someone I have nothing in common with. Of course being a freshman comes with nervousness and fear of the unknown but I know that as long as I acquire the ability to manage my time efficiently, keep an open mind, and take every day individually while managing a positive attitude, the learning will not be far behind. With this in mind, how will we as individuals, as well as collectively, decide to lay our road to success?