Pace Yourself...

Coming into college I knew that I was going to be responsible to making sure I got my assignments done. My professors weren't going to tell me if I was falling behind; it's up to me to know how well I am doing. All I have to say is so far, so good. Every once and a while I have gotten stressed out by an assignment because of its difficulty and not because I was falling behind. Surely this is the kind of stress I would rather deal with than realizing my 10 page paper on quantum mechanics that I forgot to do is due in an hour... That would be exceedingly stressful. I would probably cry.

On my Student Engagement Plan, which we henceforth shall refer to as SEP because I am too lazy to type it all out, I had the following goals (that I can recall):

1. Maintain at least a 3.6 GPA.
2. Start a study group with classmates.
3. Work out at least 4-5 times a week.
4. ... something something something. (I will fill this in if I can remember.)

I chose 3.6 for the GPA because, being honest with myself, with things like Arabic and English (writing was never my strong point), I can realistically get straight A's, but I also don't want to put too much pressure on myself. B's are good, too.

Of the aforementioned goals, I suspect the hardest will be either starting a study group or working out 4-5 times a week. The study group will be hard because I am shy to the point that it is excessive. I have already talked about it with some of my Arabic classmates, but nothing as materialized as of 10:18 PM on September the 15th. Working out 4-5 times a week shouldn't be too hard, but as my schedule seems to be getting piled up with assignments, mentoring (k), and the occasional extra curricular activities, I don't know if I will always be able to find time. Maybe the goal should have 'when possible' added. The good news is that by being a member of the tennis club, that covers two days, and my roommate (Monica) is insane about keeping fit (and I mean this in a 'I wish I could be like that' way), so I'm sure she could help me in my endeavor to try to make working out a priority.

As for my 'Personal Challenge' it is going to be learning Arabic and getting an 'A' in the course (though a 'B+' is also acceptable). I chose this because I love learning languages, but had never tried one with a different writing system before. So far it is very challenging because it has many sounds that English (and German, for that matter) simply lacks, and there are many rules about when to write certain things certain ways. Did I mention that there are four different letters all representing different ways to pronounce what we write as 'th' in English? ...What? Similarly there is more than one letter to represent the English 'h' and 'd' and 't'... and others, I am pretty sure.

To accomplish the goal of an B+ or A grade, I will just keep doing what I am doing. I need to make sure I dedicate at least 2-3 hours to each assignment so that I can take my time to practice writing, listening, and pronouncing the new words. When there are quizzes (every Monday! ... lame), I need to continue to quiz myself on the vocab until I can go through the list multiple times in a row without any errors. As for tests (I have my first one on the 24th... AHH!!!) I am not sure yet since I am not positive of the layout and how the questions are formed (matching, multiple choice, listening, etc), but for now I plan to just review my copious notes and my vocab flashcards.

!!تصبح على خير

Holland