4A The Big Decision

There are only a few things in my life that I have found to be worth waiting for. The number one thing I found worth waiting for was getting into college. I worked my hardest all four years of high school. I was an athlete, I sang in the choir and I was involved in many clubs. I knew exactly what I had to do to get into college, apply. I knew the college I wanted to apply to and I believed I could get into them.  Applying was the easiest part of the entire process, especially since most of the colleges I applied to used the common application. Once I applied to college waiting was the hardest part. I ran to the mailbox every single day to see if any acceptance letters came in the mail. I waited over two months for the first letter to come. When it did and I opened it and it said I was accepted I fell to the ground and cried tears of joy. In that moment I knew that I was smart enough to get into college. I finally realized that there was a place for me after high school.  

The funny thing was the first acceptance letter I got was for a college I had never even step foot into. It was one of those schools where I decided to apply because it was in New England and it had the program I wanted. Once I received more and more acceptance letters I realized I had two options to choose from. My two options were here the lovely Southern Connecticut State University and Assumption College in Worcester Mass. That was a very hard decision for me to make. I went to both of the accepted student days. After that I knew what I had to do. I decided to come here. I felt after going to the accepted students day that Southern was absolutely for me. 

3B Motivational Singer

Singing is the one thing in my life that I always have time for. I don’t care if I have three papers due the next day. I have to go to a practice room every single day at least once and sing. I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember. When I was 2 years old I took a mommy and me music class. They said I was so advanced that I could be in a class with a bunch of three year olds. Consequently every time I went to the three year old class I would fall asleep because it was the time of day when I would normally take a nap.  Music and singing is something that just came naturally to me.

            I do have to work at my craft of singing. I am pretty sure that there is no one on this planet that always sings perfectly on key for every single note all the time without his or her voice cracking. I know there are people in this world that have perfect pitch but they still have to work at that craft.  I have struggled over the years as my voice has changed and become the voice that it is today. But since I have never really cared if I have a crappy day of singing I just keep going. I may laugh at myself and think wow that was awful but I never give up on it.

            I need to be able to motivate myself like this in college. In college if I do something wrong I always feel down on myself. Like if I fail a test and I worked really hard and studied my butt off trying to ace it I am going to be disappointed. I may not want to work as hard because of it. I need to be able to have the mindset like I do with singing to keep going and keep achieving as a student.

            I really need to think about my schoolwork like this. I was student of the month February of 2012 at my vocal studio. I was also a nominee for artist of the year. I achieved these things by working so hard as a musician. I think being in college is a bit like that. Instead of being nominated for artist of the year I feel the end goal is getting my degree and getting into the masters program for communication disorders. This is a challenging thing to do. It is definitely not as easy to do as singing. But if I keep the mindset of singing in my mind I can achieve this great goal. 

3A Thinking about thinking

"There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so" – Shakespeare

Whenever I write anything I always overthink. I have actually edited this blog post about 10 times now just to make sure it’s perfect. This blog post was probably good the first, second and ninth time I wrote it but because I am thinking about it too much, here I go again.  This quote connects to different types of thinking in our world.

The definition of a fixed mindset is a person who believes their basic qualities of intelligence or talents are simply fixed traits. If you have a fixed mindset and all you do is think I can’t learn anything else, your thinking is bad. They believe that whatever they do in school their brain will never change. On the other hand there is a person who has a growth mindset.

The definition of a growth mindset is a person who believes that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work.  A person with a growth mindset has more of a positive way of thinking. They believe that everything they learn will have some meaning within their life. Growth mindset is very different from the thinking of the fixed mindset.

I believe extrinsic motivation can affect your thinking in a good and bad way. For example if your motivation is to do something you enjoy your mind will be positive about doing the work. But on the other hand if you live in an abusive household and your parent tells you they will beat you if you don’t do your work, your motivation is bad. You would probably be so scared that you would end up trying to get the work over with because you know if you don’t you may get beaten later.

Both mindset and motivation can really change how your brain thinks. If you try to be a positive thinker though you will have the ability to succeed.

3I My Study Space

The place I found best for quiet time is the lounge on my floor. There is a core group of girls that sit in the lounge every night. We do talk on occasion but it’s mostly just to ask each other questions about work we are doing. I found that I am more distracted in my room than I am in the lounge. I think this is because there are not as many distractions. When I am in my room for some reason I always find one thing to do other than my homework. I’ll end up turning the TV on and watching that, then I’ll get up and grab a snack. It’s a never-ending cycle of procrastination. I am happy that my lounge is as quiet as it is.

3V Motivation at its finest

The dictionary definition of motivation is the act or process of giving someone a reason for doing something. My definition would be a goal so that you are able to complete a task. For example whenever I am doing homework I will give myself a reward for when I am done doing my homework. A reward such as, watching an episode of a TV show, going to the gym or just hanging out with my friends.  Motivation for me is always something I enjoy doing. I believe, every person has a different way to motivate himself or herself.  Some people its food; some people its watching a movie or even writing a song. Motivators are what help people complete their work every single day. Without being motivated to do things I don’t think our country would be how it is today.