Done for the year

Since this is the last blog of the semester, I guess I’ll do the normal thing & reflect upon my first semester here at Virginia Tech. It has definitely been filled with it ups and downs. I can’t pretend that I’m not excited to be going home in a week. When I lived in Hampton, I remember thinking that I couldn’t wait to get out of that place. It was a city with a small town feel. I had been in classes with the same kids since elementary school and I was definitely ready for a change. Sadly, a lot of my friends decided that they wanted to stay close to home & go to schools in the local area such as Old Dominion, Christopher Newport, & Thomas Nelson. They are still doing the same things that they did in high school & can go home at any point on time. But college is a little different for me. I am stuck in Blacksburg unless I plan to go home for like a week in advance.
It has also been a big culture shock. My high school in Hampton was mostly black. There were a good number of white people but it was by far mostly black. It has been such a culture shock for me not to see that many people who look like me in my classes or walking across the Drillfield. It’s not easy being trapped 5 hours away with no one to relate to. So it took some time for me to adjust to this. I have recently started watching BET because I miss black people so much, which I never did at home.
Another big adjustment for me has been making friends. I had my set group of friends in Hampton & I never really had to make new friends. One reason is that because not many people actually move to Hampton. Most people have lived there all their lives & probably will never leave, which is their choice. But I can’t imagine living there until I’m 89, which is why I came to Virginia Tech; I was more than ready to experience new things. But anyways, I never really learned how to be outgoing & make new friends. So coming to Tech with no friends meant that I had to make all new ones so I wasn’t a recluse who stayed in my room all day. I do think this made me pick up valuable social skills that I’ll need later in life. But for right now, it was pretty uncomfortable. A lot of people seemed to come here with friends from high school. I didn’t have that comfort zone to stay in when I first got to Tech so I pretty much just hung out with my hall mates all the time. I still hang out with them a lot because they are amazing people but now I’ve made friends outside of my dorm so school is a lot better.
Now my grades aren’t looking so hot. I am not doing well at all. My goal for this semester has officially become to not be on academic probation. That’s all I can hope for right about now. And it makes me angry when I hear about the things that they’re doing at other colleges! They’re learning about high school stuff & I’m stuck learning about a cells intermolecular membrane, stuff I could care less about. It’s so frustrating that other people are taking classes that they actually like & care about. But not me, at least not until next semester. I just want to save the environment or teach environmental science in high school. I think that may be one reason that I did not do as well as I expected, I am not interested in any of the classes that I’m taking. It’s very hard for me to put my all into something that I don’t care about & know that I will never need in the future. The bigger problem is definitely my study skills & study habits or lack thereof. I have never studied more than a day in advance of the test. So this pretty much screwed me over in most situations. Especially in biology where I didn’t pay attention in class or study that well. I am just hoping to get a D out of that class. It wasn’t so bad in chemistry because I had seen half of the material before so it was easier for me to pick some of that stuff up. I think I can pull a B- out in that class but the more realistic thing is a C+. I knew coming into college that I would definitely not do as well as I had done in high school. I’m not one of those people who sets goals really high so I just expected that I’d do about the average my first semester of college & then gradually get better. I have definitely created a big hole to dig myself out of for the next 3.5 years. So I used my one free pass this semester & all of the rest I really have to put the pedal to the metal. I have set my goal for next semester to become so much more motivated. I can’t have this whatever attitude about school anymore. My parents are paying thousands of dollars to send me to this great school & I would feel horrible if I screwed it up.
All in all this semester was one big learning experience. I learned how much I appreciate my mom & how much she did for me. I never had chores or a curfew so I could pretty much do what I wanted. I also miss how easy high school was. I could do nothing & still get an A. But college is a complete turnaround from this. The most valuable thing that I have learned is that I can either sink or swim in this place & no matter what happens, it is completely my fault. I have no one else to blame.

Thanksgiving Pt. 2

Since I talked about what I thought thanksgiving would be last week. I’ll blog about what actually happened this week. Sorry you guys have to read so much about my life.
I suppose I’ll start at the beginning. I went home Friday morning with two of my friends from Tech who live near me. The car ride was pretty boring because we were all ready to just get home & start our breaks. But, it was ok. We stopped in Charlottesville & uva for a second wearing all of our tech stuff. Needless to say it was pretty awkward & we really stuck out. But I don’t mind representing Virginia Tech wherever I go, even in a dreadful place like Charlottesville.
Once I got home from the car ride all I did was sleep for like two days straight. None of my close friends came home for their break until Tuesday or Wednesday so I had an extended time to myself. A couple of my friends stayed home to go to community college so I hung out with them while I waited for the “crew” to arrive. But I enjoyed getting that time with them because they are a fun group of people. The only drawback is that I am a VERY very poor college student. I did manage to spend only $20 during the whole week that I was home. Thanks to my lovely friends who love to pay for me.
Another thing I enjoyed about being home was seeing all of these great movies. While in Blacksburg, I never get to see new movies. The extent of my movie watching is like one movie every couple of weeks with my hall mates. The first movie I saw over break was Ninja Assassin. I saw it with one of my really good guy friends & he loved it. Me, not so much. It was FULL of blood. Seriously, every other scene was somebody cutting off somebody else’s head. I covered my eyes for half of the movie because I didn’t want to see all of the blood. The guy I was with had to keep asking me if I was going to make it through the movie. Another thing that bothered me was that it involved stealing children. And I love kids, so it hurt my little heart! Another movie that I saw was precious. This one was a tear jerker. It was about an overweight 17 year old girl who was still in junior high school. She had issues with being a dark skinned African American girl. Her mother was also very abusive & resented her for being raped by her father. She viewed it as Precious stealing her man. She was more concerned with keeping her man than the health & safety of her child. Precious also had two children by her own father, one of which has down syndrome. She also didn’t know how to read or write, barely knowing her ABC’s. This movie was wonderfully put together and it had an all star cast, lots of Oscar buzz surrounding this cast. Everybody played their role well & it really illustrated the struggles within the African American community, such as wanting to be lighter or even wanting to be white. And my biggest movie accomplishment was finishing the first season of the Golden Girls (I’m debating getting the second, not so sure I can afford it though :/). Not only did I get to finish it, but I also got to watch it with somebody really cool (the same guy that dragged me to ninja assassin). I don’t even remember how I convinced him to watch the Golden Girls, but he did. He didn’t like it so much, he didn’t laugh at all. But I was cracking up the entire time because these women are funny. But I guess it is not exactly the right show for 19 year old guys. Nevertheless, I enjoyed spending time with this guy and watching my girls at the same time.
Not I’ll actually talk about Thanksgiving day. It was pretty typical. My mom did end up cooking dinner because I came home & asked her to. It was just the normal Thanksgiving dinner. My mom, grandma, brother, great aunt, & I all ate dinner together at my mom’s house. It was very peaceful. And then later on that day I went to eat dinner at my paternal grandma’s house. After dinner, we all watched my beloved Dallas Cowboys beat up on the Oakland Raiders. It was simply wonderful watching them win! Normally, I wear my lucky Cowboy pants & slippers but since I wasn’t at home, I couldn’t. But they won without my lucky pants. It was really exciting, especially because I love to talk bad about all of the other NFL teams. But overall, my Thanksgiving day was pretty boring.
But the best thing about Thanksgiving break was definitely getting to see all of my old friends. It was very interesting to see how we’ve all changed! And believe me; all of us have definitely changed. Some of us have changed for the better, some of us for the worse, in my opinion. The biggest difference to me was the lingo that people came back with. I’ve met people from all over the country while here at Virginia Tech, but I haven’t picked up that much lingo. On the other hand, my friend at Howard came back & I could barely understand what she was saying. There was a legit language barrier. Another difference is that most of friends like to party a lot more. I don’t need to go out to have a good time but a few of my friends do. I enjoy spending time at home with friends; I don’t really need to go out to a club or a party every night to have a good time. Yet, some of my friends do now, so that was a big change. Before we could easily all hang out at somebody’s house & have a good time but it seems that now they’re looking for more, which is completely understandable. Overall, I completely loved my Thanksgiving break & I can’t wait to go back for winter break. I miss some of the people in little old Hampton already.