#studyingforuni

[studyingforuni]

Sept 18 2017. First day of college and I feel like I’m already drowning in homework! Hopefully by consistently putting in work I won’t get behind and I’ll retain more of the content. Doing some of the reading I need to do for my art history class, so excited to learn more about the field!

[studyingforuni]

Sept 25 2017. Finally using my school's library! I'm in one of the quiet study areas so my background is just one of those little cubby things. Not aesthetic at all, but functional in limiting some of my distractions which is very much appreciated.

[studyingforuni]

studyingforib --> studyingforuni

I changed my url! I figured studyingforib wasn’t super accurate anymore as I have finished the IBDP, so here we are. Studyingforuni is more accurate for the next journey in my life and I look forward to all the fun I will have! Along with the url change I have made some changes to the rest of my blog. It isn’t totally finished and if you are having any issues please tell me!

[studyingforuni]

Update: First year done!!

As every one of these updates start: wow it's been a while. So some things have changed. Last I spoke my plan was to finish my Associate's Degree in Spring 2019 and start at a four-year university in Fall 2019. I had also not decided on what I was going to major in. I now have a plan! My adviser pointed out that I can graduate with my AA in fall quarter this year and transfer winter quarter. I also have decided to major in linguistics. I'm thinking of adding a minor or double major, but I am still deciding  what. More details on how my first year of university went along with my plans will be under the cut.

My first year was not super exciting, but a good experience. IB prepared me well and the schoolwork was easy to handle so I only had to deal with the change in environment. One big changed is the social aspect of college. I live at home and go to a community college so I don't have much of a social life, but I have made a couple friends. Comparing my social life to others has been a difficult thing because it can cause me to feel isolated as they tell me of exciting late night adventures and catching up with friends, but also I know it's an isolation I've put myself in.

I have discovered more of what subjects I enjoy. The research paper based English class I took first quarter was great (although super early, 7:30 am is super intense) and I thoroughly enjoyed the astronomy classes I took. One class that really affected me was an English called Word Origins which was about the history of English. This class caused me to seriously think about linguistics as a major as well as find a new interest in my native language.

Hearing from the adviser that I could be transferring almost a year earlier than I expected was quite a shock. I knew that I could graduate early due to the credits I received from IB and had previously, but I had not realized how early. Winter admission was something I had never really thought about because it's not the norm and it sounded confusing. However, once he said that after spring quarter I only needed 18.5 credits (15 credits a quarter is standard for full-time at my college) it was an eye-opener. So now I'm doing a couple classes summer quarter and finishing up my requirements fall quarter.

The major I am hoping to do is specifically Romance linguistics. That means I will focus on one Romance language and go further in that language. Not a big surprise based on what I reblog, but Spanish will be that language for me. I have not done much with Spanish this year so getting back into that will be interesting. I started doing Spanish on Duolingo a week or so ago which is helping me get started with returning to Spanish.

For what I may do with linguistics I have considered academia because school is among the only things I'm good at. Still unsure, though. I'm also figuring out what I may want to do along with linguistics. I've looked at a couple minors (such as English and astronomy), but I have worries for each of them. My hopeful university does not have a minor in astronomy and so it would be another major and from what I've heard it's basically physics with a few different classes. Not sure if that's really what I want to do. An English minor I need to look more into. I also need to do more research in doing a second major.

I look forward to the next step in my academic journey and figuring out more specifically what I may want to do after university. It is a big change that I'm trying not to think about too much yet.

I hope everyone's year has been treating them well and I would love to hear what things you have discovered about yourself!

[studyingforuni]

Jan 30 2018. Well I haven’t really been too active on here since the beginning of fall quarter but I am still alive and am now almost halfway through my second quarter of the first year of university. My birthday is this Sunday! I may make a longer update at some point but no promises. I’ve been super on top of my schoolwork this quarter and it’s been so nice. Currently studying for an astronomy midterm this weekend! I haven’t made a mind map for studying purposes before but I felt it worked well in this case. I hope everybody is doing well <3

[studyingforuni]

I have done so many pomodoros today for my art history reading *sigh* I really need to stop putting it off until past when I should have it done...

[studyingforuni]

Update: First Week Done!

Today (Sept 24 2017) concludes my first week of college. Wow. Going in I was super excited to start because school gives me a routine to stick to and new things to learn. On the downside I found myself busy with homework every night, just like last year. I also found myself in a similar situation to how I was in 10th grade at a new school; without friends and staying silent throughout classes as nobody speaks to me. Things are different this time around though as not everybody has their classes at the same time, I don't have to show up at the same time everyday, etc. The first couple days were rough. I also recently started a new relationship and we are going to see how that will go with both of us starting college and at different colleges, he's not too far away but it is a 1.5 to 2 hour bus ride which is going to make things tough. Overall there were a lot of new changes that was making me feel out of my depth and unprepared. Luckily all of my friends and I are going through similar experiences with a lot of changes so I can easily message someone and have a conversation about how their college experience is going. Also as everybody's gotten more comfortable in classes there has been more talking and I've made a couple possible friends. Riding the city bus has also been an adventure. I don't have my driver's license quite yet and even once I get it I won't be able to use the car every day because my mom and I will be sharing a car so I've done a lot of bus riding. It's kind of annoying that on M/W/F I have a 40 minute bus ride each way for a 50 minute class, but oh well. So far I've been liking my classes. I don't want to go into much detail on those because otherwise this will get even longer super quickly. I'm still settling into school again and how things are different yet still similar so while I'm not feeling as downhearted as I was a few days ago I still feel a bit overwhelmed and unsure how things will go. Not really sure how to end this, but I told myself I would write an update this weekend about my first week and while it's Sunday night and this isn't that great of an update it has been written and I've covered most things.

[studyingforuni]

Today's my first day!! I already logged on and looked at what I need to do for my online class but now I'm waiting for the bus to go to my math class. So many new things which is exciting and terrifying, good luck to anyone else starting soon!