Week 15: The Last & Final Blog

Good morning, afternoon, evening, or whatever time of day it may be for you as you read this. As shown by the title, this will be the last blog I do for the fall semester here at Georgia Southern and is possibly my last blog. Now I know what the title of this blog entails, and it may seen quite depressing as another thing in my life comes to a close. Despite this. this blog will be a time to look back at my takeaways, good times, and interesting moments from my first semester of college and my experiences in my FYE class which I have been referring to every single week throughout my blogs. Hopefully, I hope that all who may be reading this take something away from the blogs that I wrote about whether it be something funny, intriguing, or maybe even controversial.

The focus of this blog is going to be around two particular weeks/blogs, and the particular weeks from the semester that I will focus on are picked based on two things: The week that helped me towards planning and having the right mindset for the remainder of my college career and the week that left a spark in regards to touchy or impactful topics. The two weeks that follow the previous descriptions were weeks 9 and 10. Week 9 was a continuation of the previous week as our class tackled a topic that we did not know we would be dealing with in the semester. The topics and questions that we were asked in the classroom troubled some, but the conversation held in the classroom and the blogs posted that week presented a lot of different perspectives about the current matter within our university's campgrounds. If you are not aware or are confused what I may be talking to, I will let the words of fellow student Michelle help you out a little bit: "These past two weeks at Georgia Southern have been very impactful with author Jennine Capó Crucet visiting to speak about her book and the events that came after". So yeah, the few weeks after Crucet came and spoke on campus about her life and experiences was filled with interesting topics as every single person in the class had their own views of what went down and how they felt about it. Typically I do not like to join in on these conversations because I do not want to word something wrong so here is a snip of my view on the Crucet incident: "I also have felt a bit embarrassed and disappointed in both sides of the book burning controversy because it is burning bridges and relationships between the university staff, students, and many other people. I know there is a reason for everything in this world, but I would like to move on from the series of events that has taken place the last few weeks". While I did feel a little uncomfortable throughout those talks in class, the talks and the situation with Crucet left an impact and can not be ignored when looking back on the highlights of the semester.

Jumping over to the week after the Crucet talks, our class jumped to a topic a bit more relaxed. Despite this, I felt as the conversations and the activities from that week left an impact on me and has a spot in my heart. The conversation on Monday started out with talking about 'DegreeWorks' and looking over the curriculum sheets that set the path of each and every one of our college careers. After looking over the college planning sheets, our class "participated in an activity that helped us determine what values are important to us as values help set ourselves up to be the person we wanna be". This activity allowed me to set my mind on what I needed to focus on personally in order to make progress towards the person I want to be in the future. Some of the things that I am even doing now contradict the values and characteristics of the person I wanna be. The activity also made me do a gut check on why I was on college and why I was doing mechanical engineering. I kinda related to how Matthew felt about engineering before college: "I only chose it because it sounded cool and would impress my friends and family". I started thinking about mechanical engineering initially because I was good at math, the career field had solid pay, and it dealt with the fast cars I watched growing up. Stepping into the college world and getting a feel of the atmosphere it provides allowed me to set up a plan for my life. As I start to march forward in my college career, I am continuing to set my purpose and my goals so that I know what I wanna be and what I wanna do with my life. As I said in my week 10 blog a few weeks ago, I believe that "a big part of who I am is wrapped around the idea of being able to be as successful and efficient as I can throughout my life in order to have a family of my own one day," and I want to do what it takes to make that happen.

In my introduction blog at the beginning of the semester, I said that "even though I am only forty minutes away from home, I am still able to live out the full college experience". With my first semester in the mirror, I can truly say that I was able to live out the full college experience as I was able to stay on track with my classes, make some great friends, and not be locked up in my room for 15 or so weeks. I have had a lot of talks with my parents in regards to how my semester is going and what my direction is going to be in the future. I tried to do the best to keep my family back home at ease by powering through some of those rough classes and long days. I have struggled and fought through these first weeks of my college career, and I am hoping for the best when grades come back Sunday. I want to thank everyone who has been with me through every step of the way, and I can not wait for what the next semester holds. Thanks for listening!

Sources

Sydnor Intro Blog
https://sydnorcollegeexperience.blogspot.com/2019/08/introduction.html
Sydnor Week 9
https://sydnorcollegeexperience.blogspot.com/2019/10/week-9-extended-make-your-home-among.html
Michelle Week 9
https://michellegibson25.blogspot.com/2019/10/week-9-discussion-on-past-week-of-events.html
Matthew Week 10
https://matthewahonorsfye.blogspot.com/2019/10/week-10-degree-engagement.html
Sydnor Week 10
https://sydnorcollegeexperience.blogspot.com/2019/10/week-10-degree-engagement.html
Images
Time-to-say-goodbye-1200x628-compressed.jpg
Picture of that person is me lol

Week 13: Diversity & Inclusion IV (Motorcycle Diaries)

Good evening or afternoon or anytime of day that you may be reading this. Since this blog is up after the 9 day Thanksgiving break I had and two to three weeks after the last time I posted something, I will spill out of bit more detail of how the last few weeks went including the semi-relaxing Thanksgiving break.

Before the break, every class was starting to approach the conclusion of their respected courses. Throughout the week for my English class, I was working on brainstorming and setting up for my big first draft for the third and final major assignment in the class. Along with preparing a big paper, I had to prepare to a huge Calculus exam on Thursday. Ever since the beginning of the semester, Calculus has presented a lot of challenges to me which is odd since throughout high school I enjoyed Mathematics. With the Calculus exam behind me, my mind was excited for the Thanksgiving week ahead. The Saturday leading into the break presented some anxiety and stress before my actual break could get started. On Saturday, I spent several hours trying to complete my rough draft for my final assignment in English. After being drained of my mental energy, I fortunately had an entire week to gain back my energy and stock my belly up with some nice Thanksgiving day food. I got to contribute somewhat to Thanksgiving by making Pumpkin pie which turned out a lot better than I expected. The Friday after Thanksgiving was not filled with Black Friday shopping but with Christmas preparations. I got to put Christmas decorations on the Christmas tree we just got. After Friday, I made my journey back to Georgia Southern to prepare for the final two weeks of the semester. Now to do the usual, I will go over the few weeks in my FYE class sessions.

Over the last four FYE classes, we have been going over the same general area of topic dealing with the film of Motorcycle Diaries which came out 10 or so years ago. We watched the beginning portion of the film in class, but we as students were tasked with watching the rest of the film during our free time. The film 'Motorcycle Diaries' is essentially about two guys from Argentina journeying by motorcycle and various other ways of transportation up the countryside in order to go through places like Venezuela and Chile in order to journey up South America's western coastline. Aside from watching the film, we learned about the main character who essentially is 'Che' Guevara who was a major figure of the Cuban Revolution after Che saw many injustices throughout his countryside trip. In one of our classes before the break, our class was presented a TedEd video that displayed both sides in regards to supporting and opposing Che Guevara's actions as a human being throughout his years in cultivating the Cuban Revolution and sparking many different places to fight against their governments, flawed systems, and countries. As usual, our class was presented a handful of questions regarding Che and the movie we watched. Some of the questions reflect back to our current day society in modern day problems like justified armed conflicts and the even the use of firearms in today's world. While we were not able to tackle all the questions, the questions gave the class and me a chance to reflect on the amazing lives that we are given in this country and not take what opportunities we are given for granted as we have it so much better in the United States than billions of people do around the globe. Thank you for reading and I'll write since again in the near future.