Friday, January 30, 2015

High School Vs. College

Dear High School Senior,


As you’re getting ready to graduate high school and thinking about college there’s a few things you should know. Graduation day is something you’ve always looked forward to since being a freshman but when it comes time you’re not quite ready to leave. The future scares you because more times than not you have no idea what you want to do with your life, and that’s completely normal. When transitioning from the ways of high school and college you could find yourself in a slump. The work and teaching methods become a lot more different when you enter college. “The Transition to College Writing” says it best. In high school you are assigned many reading assignments but more times than not you get class time to read it and review. College is completely different, you are expected to have read prior to class and be ready to discuss. If you come to class unprepared you are usually just asked to leave. They expect you to grow up and take responsibility. Also when coming to college you aren’t given half as many second chances with your professors as you could with teachers in high school. In high school your teachers often got on your back and pushed you to turn in work even if it was late, in college they don’t. When you get to college your professors do indeed care about you and your success but they won’t force anything upon you. If you don’t turn in your homework, you just won’t get a grade, if you don’t type a paper than you’ll get a 0. They don’t give you time to turn it in late. You are expected to turn your work in and if you don’t, you don’t. Since coming to college I’ve realized a few changes that you just figure out as you go. When it comes to classes, they don’t force you to come. You have to take responsibility for your learning and education. If you don’t want to learn then that’s exactly how it will go. You don’t have your mom and dad forcing you to go everyday. Also time and prioritizing everything is much harder. In high school it was just the same thing everyday. College is not like that. Between having class, and homework it will seem like you have a lot more free time because you don’t have class 7hrs a day. Although you think you have all this time, you don’t. Being a college athlete, going to class, doing homework, and getting a good amount of sleep isn’t that easy. You have to prioritize everything much more than you use to and that can sometimes be hard.  Yes high school and college are very different but college is a great experience. It takes time getting use to but you’ll catch on. This is the time to find yourself and see what it is that you want to do, make the most of it.

Sincerely,

College Student 

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Poe

Poe had a very dark depressing life. He didn’t have much of a father figure and his mother died when he was young from tuberculosis. He had some siblings but a few of them also died from illness. Throughout his stories you could tell he was a sketchy guy and his life was far from perfect. Death is a common theme in most of his stories. For example “The Masque of the Red Death.” In this story, a country is haunted by a deadly plague called the Red Death. It sweeps across the nation quickly, much like the Black Plague did in Europe. If you were to catch the Red Death, you were quarantined and shut out from the help of others. The disease is very similar to tuberculosis, which was a huge part of Poe’s life. His mother, foster mother, and wife all died of tuberculosis. I think the loss of his loved ones influenced his writings in a huge way. In “The Black Cat” the main character ends up killing his favorite cat the only animal he ever liked. Poe had a hard time dealing with the loss of his loved ones, turning him mean and angry. The man also killed his wife in this story showing his unwillingness to feel anything. Poe had gotten to the point where he could no longer feel the pain and I think that had a huge impact on most of his writings. 

Friday, January 9, 2015

Booger Blog 1

Somehow I woke up in jail this morning with no recollection of how I got there. As I got out of bed I started looking around. While looking around I found money, cigarillos, drugs of some sort, a beer cap, and a lighter. I started to remember my night piece by piece but not completely. I remember planning to go down town Detroit, to a drug deal where I would pick up all I needed and continue on to a party. At this party I got together with some friends and we did things we knew were bad but we didn't care. We got plastered, smoked weed, and popped some pills that we shouldn't have. Soon after we were to far gone to know any better, we got involved with a county gang and decided to have a brawl. The cops were called and they arrived within minutes and checked us into the county jail right away. I soon realized that the money I found was left over from what was not spent at the drug deal, the cigarillos were for what we rolled our weed with, the left over weed and pills were for another night, the beer cap was for my collection at home, and the lighter was of course to light the blunt we had rolled. I never was use to being a rebel but for some reason that night I wanted to show my friends that I wasn't "lame", I just didn't like others knowing what I was doing. My actions from that night led me to jail but as the teenage motto says YOLO (you only live once) so I thought it would be an okay idea.