“I Don’t Want A Treat, I Want A Trick To Fix My Grade!”

“Nice job in that class!” “ Oh that’s so good” “WHAT THE HECK?!”

Yea… sorry mom. Midterms grades came out and what do I see? Pretty much of what I expected, except for one little thing that brought my whole GPA down. What’s it called? Math. The thing is, I was actually really good at math as a young kid, so what happened? Beats me. As I stared at the screen gazing at my grades I couldn’t help but to feel so aggravated and frustrated as I saw every grade that I wanted but math; my academic weakness, and not to mention that I also knew that my only academic flaw was going to bring my whole academic GPA down, even though I worked hard throughout the semester. So what now? Back to the beginning of course! That’s probably the hardest thing to do in any problem-solving situation, find out what’s wrong with your original plan/agenda and try to modify it. Another factor to count in is that since it’s October, almost everyone got use to his or her daily schedule and though humans can adapt, they usually dread change. But of course life is an ever-changing environment which the need to resolve daily problems is essential to all of us.  My goals for the rest of the semester is to improve my math grade by going to tutoring and finding more time in my schedule to use it to study for test and quizzes.

"Move Out The Way! I Want to Lead The Pack!"

Who has ever heard of a freshman leading a team workout? Especially in college! The thought of a younger athlete leading the pack is not very commonly accepted throughout college teams because of the sense of seniority from older kids but at times there are some freshman that dare to challenge the hierarchy, when that happens it tends to be very controversial. I got lucky; my teammates acted more accepting then what other teams would usually act like when a younger athlete or maybe “inexperience” athlete would take leadership in practice, they encouraged me to keep going though they said their “competitive” nature was aggravated and turning on but when they said to me it made me wonder if that’s really a bad thing to turn on your competitive nature? I mean when you start competing within your own practice wouldn’t that help you way even further during real championship competitions? I think so. At the beginning of the year I let the juniors (who are basically the top swimmers in the team) know that I wanted to stay close to them during practices, at first they made it seem to take it as joke that how could someone that hasn’t gone through the practices they’ve done for 2 years now could keep up with them, but as the practices went on and they assigned the lanes, to their surprise they saw that I could keep up with them but just recently I tried to lead the lane, it was extremely hard but I’m sure it’ll pay off at the end.

My Project

The video!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esp3mJBzTQw

"For A Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic"

            “What seems to us as bitter trails are often blessings in disguise.”  -Oscar Wilde

You want to know what my title for my blog was going to be before I changed it on the last possible second? You already know it I promise, just look above the quote posted above. It is the title of a song from one of my favorite bands “Paramore,” and to be honest that song is not one of my top ones from them, it’s just the title that trapped me in. This week has been a drag, and no it was not school related nor friends but it was because I just kept receiving news after news from home that just pummeled me down every second counted on my phone from the calls. At times this week I got to admit that it was hard even when I talked to my close friends at home about it but as much as I was down for some strange reason I couldn’t help but to keep reminding myself of what I’ve been through and experienced before. I don’t know why, but I kept doing it and to my surprise it was actually uplifting to think about my past and then knowing that I am still here. I feel like the quote that I picked described exactly what happened to me this week, the paths that I took that were my worst nightmares were the ones to actually throw a rope to the bottom of the barrel and lift me up. So my closest cousin is going to rehab and my parents are getting separated, it’s depressing but I have to be optimistic not only for my family but for my own sake. I’m sure I’ll look back one day and know that it made me stronger.

And again

What seems to us as bitter trails are often blessings in disguise.

"What the HECK is a PM?!"

A teacher? A friend? A student? What exactly is a peer mentor?  Most people would say that a peer mentor is a teacher’s assistant to help them in class but is that really what it is? I can’t help but to think that a peer mentor has to be something much more meaningful. There’s a vibe that comes from the peer mentor in which the younger students who haven’t been here long pick up the sense of comfort in which they can lean on, especially since they’re not really an authority figure. To the teachers, I’m assuming they’re some sort of helping hand that help encourage doing the work that need to be completed from the class. Personally, I think what works with the peer mentor is that they are just in middle ground between teachers and undergrads who might still be in “high school” mode, while the mentors are in the fully realized “college mode,” the exact perfect transition guide to turn off that high school switch off and flick the college one on. The peer mentors add to the class that extra reach for the class to understand the importance of what the teacher really is saying, not to mention the power to be more personal to the students since 90% of students often feel awkward getting on a personal level with teachers/professors. What I have learned from my peer mentor Kaitlyn is that you can basically do anything in college, more specifically is to make yourself better of you didn’t like what you were in the past.

"Mr. Everything’s Setback"

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Well to be honest Mom, Dad, and the rest of the world. I simply don’t know. I’ve always been known to be the kid who’s the “All- Around” player, always been average or a bit better then other people in not only in academics but almost every aspect of my life (except in math, the numbers and I just don’t get along.) Don’t believe me? My freshman year in high school I was called “Mr. Everything” by the local newspaper as my old coach said “I can put him in anything and he will swim it, he’s so versatile,” ok it sounds like I’m bragging but there’s a point, I promise! The thing about being “All Around” is that yea you’re average/good at almost everything but of course as someone once said, “ For every action there’s an equal but opposite reaction,” and to me that reaction is that I don’t really excel at one thing. That to me is a big price to pay, especially if you’ve been known to be indecisive to situations like these. Now I’m in college, the place where you really should’ve already narrowed down your choices and either you’ve picked a major or have a gist at least of what you want to do for the rest of your life, the pressure is felt everyday. There is a positive side to all of this mess, as we are almost through with this semester and getting ready to pick classes, I for example can finish all of my graduation requirements and explore possible interests for a career at the same time! 

"Blog Schlmog"

Does anybody want to tell me what the definition of a good blog is? Of course there’s the usual like putting links and pictures but even if you add those elements to your blogs does that really make it interesting? I wonder what those professional bloggers have that catches the attention of thousands, is it just luck that people happen to like about what they’re talking about or is it something else? While going through various INQ blogs of students I saw that many people have a completely different writing style then others but even though they were talking about the same thing, some had comments while others didn’t. Is it correct grammar? No I don’t think so, is it pretty pictures? I guess that matters at times, like for example Mike’s blog had such a symbolic picture of a person sitting in front of a computer screen with the guy’s feet turning into a tree’s roots, that picture just totally blew my mind. Is that it though, pictures make a good blog? No answer yet, so I decide to look through more blogs. Oh what’s this? A video? Awesome! I’m not going to lie for a second I was confused when I saw the link to the video, don’t judge me, I was just in shock someone did something different! Jacob’s blog was the first one that I saw with a video so I became a follower of his blog. Something just raced passed my mind. That’s it, I know what it is the definition of a good blog (except this my opinion of what a good blog should “look” like.) The definition IS…….. Well there is no definition actually, a good blog consists of various factors and most of them you manipulate them to support your voice on the topic that you’re talking about.  Even though every interesting blog out there have similarities to other good blogs, the major difference is that they all have a different taste in how to support your opinion and not to mention they are very “out of the box.” Writing is almost like water; it flows, curves, and changes its state depending on how you want it to be, the thing is you just have to find a way to change it in a way no one else has done before. I dare you to me tell it won’t catch an audience.

"Endless Battle Between Genes And Practice"

How’s practice going for you? How are your performances’ going during games and/or meets? Are there people who just seem to just play or have better times then you, despite your effort you put it all on the practices? Or am I completely wrong and it is the exact opposite. You barely or put no effort in your work and you seem to get by just fine or do absolutely incredible in your performances, eclipsing others with less strain then any of your buddies or athletes. Either way your life plays out with you, this question has been asked by countless athletes and not to mention its also closely linked to the subject of “Nature vs. Nurture” in which scientist have debated which one affects us the most for years or decades. Our perspectives of everyday views are constantly changing these days but it seems that we have forgotten some topics that are lingering on an everyday basis in athlete’s lives. So what to do? We have to start somewhere don’t we? Why not start here in Southern? In the process of learning the answer to my question: “Talent Vs. Hardwork: Which one affects our performances more?” I’m going to have to go around the campus and talk to experts (Mainly coaches), students and team captains, the reason why I’m doing this is to look at the view of undergrad students who are either enrolled in a sport who are in the present time, captains who have more experience then the newly enrolled freshman, and of course the expertise of coaches and professionals who know athletes inside out. So where is the answer? We are going to find out.

"A Crowd Or A Family?"

All you see is a crowd, not really a crowd but more of a mass of colors just moving almost in sync. You see it all over the place: on their hair, on their face, some even on their whole body. A combination of white and blue, which together symbolize the Southern Connecticut State University’s Owls, and just to make the excitement rise to a new level they began to enter the field; The Owl’s Football team. The crowd’s roar felt like an earthquake, the stomping just re-enforced the sensation. The cheerleader’s tricks supplied the fuel to continue the crowd’s level of excitement to be endless, and I stood there watching and absorbing the vibe from everyone as I myself had my hair sprayed with white and blue colors. After about 10-15 minutes of watching the players continuously tackle each other and trying to find a gap that would give a lead; it suddenly came… TOUCHDOWN, the ground shook violently and like a reflex I was soon standing and screaming at the top of my lungs.  The score? 7-0 with the owls leading the game, and within another few minutes another one was scored. The crowd was relentless, and I was totally a different person. There was one last goal that I saw, and now we are winning 21-0. I watched my school, everyone so united, I asked myself: Is it only because the game was in National TV the reason that everyone showed up and was in this mood? I thought about it and started to think back, all the encounters with everyone, my swim team, the students, even the staff. The answer? The constant pride of the school runs through the school like it was its own blood, since the first time I’ve been here the community has had shown support to this school as if it was there own home, who am I kidding? We are  home.

           

Picture by Alexis Petrone