Thanksgiving break

So for the Thanksgiving break it turned out the my parents and I did not attend the cowboys game on thanksgiving day. We decided that we would have a thanksgiving feast with my sister, he husband and their kids. My sister wanted us to attend because her husbands family were the only ones going over to her house and she wanted some of her family members to attend. It was not a large group of people (but a big amount of food) we watched the Dallas cowboy football game while eating around the dinner table. After we all ate and after the cowboys game we started to play Mexican bingo. Mexican bingo is a traditional game in my family, it is bingo but except for numbers we use objects or things and we win money. There are four ways of winning at bingo, objects covered on all four corners, a straight or diagonal line, the four middle objects covered and lastly the whole entire page covered. Whoever wins, receives the money. You pay a quarter for each round you pay and if your not lucky enough to win one of those rounds and you run out of money then you can no longer join in the game. Thanksgiving was such a fun time with my family and I, even though it was a small crowd it was beneficial. One because that meant we all got more than one serving of food and two because we got to bond closer to the ones that were there. My thanksgiving break was filled with laughter and joy from both family and friends. I didn't realize how much I had actually missed them. I would never trade anything for my family and friends, they mean the world to me. And also during the break I got exciting news, my parents will be moving out to a ranch were we will have cattle and horses again, and this is do exciting for me because I absolutely love the country side of life

Excited but not really

So I am so excited because I have two more days to go back home to spend time with my family and my friends. I have several plans going on during the Thanksgiving break, on Tuesday I will be going on a date with a special guy, Wednesday I have several things going on which is taking my car in to get the oil changed then I have a eye appointment and then lastly I have an appointment with one of my doctors. Thursday, I have a Thanksgiving dinner with all my close friends and then have a huge sleep over. Friday I have a dinner with my family and the boy. Saturday, I am going to a "gathering" my friend is putting on at his house then Sunday I am sleeping all day. I am so happy because I am busy enough to not be bored at home but then again I will have NO time to rest and relax on my time off. :( Other than that, nothing really exciting is going on, just having fun with friends and slowly starting to study for my finals. I am sort of sad because I know that for my birthday I will have at least one final and I was hoping for a free birthday to spend it with family and friends. I don't know what I really want for my birthday, because I don't truly need anything. I am excited for softball season start but then I know that school will be a little harder because I will be traveling a lot. I am only taking a total of thirteen hours so I won't be taking much which I am happy about. Another thing I am so happy about is that on Tuesday I will not have any classes and on Thursday I only have one class which starts at one through four. During the day from two to seven I have softball practice everyday, so I know I won't be free during the evening but I will be free during the morning so I get to sleep and also do my homework. I can't wait to go on the Thanksgiving break, even though I will be busy the whole time.

Thanksgiving

I am so thrilled to finally go home for longer than two days, the fact that I get to sleep in my bed and be with my two favorite dogs in the world makes me miss home more and more each day. For school nothing exciting is really going on at the moment, just more homework just more studying and more class. School so far is much more different than I thought it would be, its nothing like high school but I don't mind that at all. Softball is going well, we aren't practicing at the field anymore but we are still having morning practices every week day. For thanksgiving, the softball team is not required to practice or do insanity like we do every morning which makes me really happy but also nervous because I have to work out on my own to keep up with the program and stay in shape. This year for thanksgiving we are doing nothing like we usually do, which consist of having dinner with my three siblings there and then another dinner with my mom's side of the family. This year we are going to the Dallas Cowboy game the day of Thanksgiving and we aren't having dinner with our family. At first I was really excited about the game because I am a hard core fan for the Cowboys and I will be at the new Cowboy Stadium for the very first time. But then as time went on I started to think about the fact with not being with my whole family, the fact that on the day of Thanksgiving I will be surrounded by strangers (minus my parents). If I don't think about it much I can get through the day and be fine with it, but I really care about my whole family and always enjoy the moments we have together. Because of college now I rarely see them as much as I would usually would and honestly I want to have that time back, and Thanksgiving is one of those special moments. I am very excited about the game, don't get me wrong, but I would also be thrilled to have my whole family together so now I am stuck between a very hard spot and a rock.

The Past

Because softball is not in season I have been able to take the opportunities to go back home, which is only two hours away. I have gone home every weekend which had its ups and downs. The ups of going home is I get to see all my friends and my parents and of course my two dogs who I am in love with. I also see the one thing I miss dearly, which is Katy football. This weekend I went to the football game against our rival, who we beat 38-7. The down grade is that while I am at home I find it hard to concentrate on my studies and homework. I can never get my work done and I come back to the campus to find a whole lot of work still to be done and on sunday I always stay up later than I want to because I am working on the work that should have during the whole weekend. During the weekend I can never fully relax because I know I come back to the dorm with work needing to be done. I try to always get work done on Friday and Saturday but procastination sets in and I always have the thought "I can do it Sunday, thats what Sunday is for". I think to solve this problem I need to stop going home as much as I do and stay in a college evironment so I can have the ensentive to get work done. Another way of solving this solution is that I can also set a time on Friday and Saturday where I do nothing but homework, with no cell phone around (because this is also another strong distraction). I feel like I can really do this because I am pretty good with organizing time and knowing how much time a certain subject takes to study or to do homework. I know these solutions will be hard and I probably will fail with the attempts at first but I know eventually I will get the work done and learn from my mistakes during my weekend trips home.

Softball Meeting

This past week the coach decided to have an idivisual meeting with each player on the team and tell them how they are doing on the offseason and were they stand on the team, if they will start or not. He also told you what you could improve on and what he thinks of you as a person and as a softball player. When he had told us that he was going to meet with us privately, I instantly got nervous and wondered how I could possibly "skip" out on it. He had scheduled the freshman first, meaning I would be one of the first ones, well it turned out that I was the fourth freshman to be met with. I met up with coach on Tuesday around 2 o'clock after one of my classes, and as I nervously approached his door I saw another freshman on the team, her eyes were red from crying and her head slumped down towards the floor. My instant thought was "holy cow, I am toast". He welcomed me into his office with a delightful smile and as I sat down he instantly got to the point. He had told me that I was a very hard worker and that I would be the starting first basemen but also I would be playing in the outfield. He said that I was a "born" caption and he was very happy that I had decided to join the TLU program. He stated that I could improve on my hitting but also that the whole team could always improve on this part of the game. As I started to hear him say this a slow smile came onto my face because I didn't know why I would ever be nervous about this. I have been playing softball for practically my whole life, since I was five years old and I grew up around this sport with my brothers playing baseball all their lives, you could almost say that a softball/baseball field was my second home. As I walked out I had called the most important people in my life, my parents because without them I would not be here. As I told them the great news, I thought to myself I was such a lucky girl to be attending a good school and doing great in the one sport I love.

Studying and having a life

I have found that it is harder than I expected to have a life outside my studyings. I am taking 5 classes, two of them at least 3 to 4 hours each to study. One requires at least one to two hours and the other two require 30 minutes a day. Each of theses classes require that each day to keep up with the material and be at the top of the grades in the class. Each day that is a total of at least a minimum of 12 hours per day. I don't know any student here that will study that much a day. But we have to do what we have to do in order to be good students. With all this study hours per day it's hard to be a sociable student in college, and it even hard to be a sociable athletic student. But we have to learn how to juggle things and how to handle stress at it's worse. I have learned these tips gradually but I admit that I need to work with this more than I have. I have told friends of mine that are younger that school means everything, with out school you won't have a real high paying job and you won't be as successful as other people who actually went to college. One of my friends was mentioning to me how they thought college was going to be so easy just like high school was. And I told them that it was much different from high school, were the teachers actually ask for your work and persist you to turn in work. Where in high school you can actually not read the material they had given you and pass easily, in college you can't do this at all. At first they thought I was just joking around with them but one day I came back home and showed them my notes that I had done outside of class and how we never originally never went over this material in the classroom.

No more softball

Sadly our offseason for softball on the field has ended and we can no longer practice together as a team with our coaches. This a both a negative and a positive, first the positive is that I get to concentrate more on my studies and get more rest and finally I get the opportunities to go home and visit my boyfriend, family, and friends. The negatives of this is that I won't have as much bonding time with my teammates than I originally had and because I can't have my "get-a-way" from my studies or anything in life that would stress me out. I have played softball pretty much all my life, since I was 5 or 6 years old. I have also played other sports but I choose softball because one it was the sport that I enjoyed the most, two I think I was better at this sport than any other sport and lastly because my other siblings played either softball or baseball so I have grown up around it all my life. Each weekend since softball gas ended I have gone home and visited with the ones I hold close, which I enjoy and I also get home cooked meals that I have missed greatly. The dining hall at the college is not bad at all but my parents cooking will always be the best to me. I have missed my dogs the most probably because they are my cuddle buddies while my sleep. Being home doesn't make me home sick like I've heard it does to other students. I have adapted really really well into college and I never really miss anything about home, I think because my hometown was originally small so I have been used to growing up in smalltowns. And I also think that being home has kept me out of trouble while some of my friends are staying behind and going to parties and not studying, which benefits me in the long run.

Chemistry/softball

This week chemistry has really kicked my butt, I can't get a grasp of the material and I have gone to SI and asked for help from other students but still I don't get it. I asked for help from my peer mentor and she agreed to help, I'm still worried cause I need this course and then I found out that I can't drop this course cause I wouldn't have enough hours to be considered a full time student. I am really worried because me and my parents had an agreement that if I contained a 3.75 they would buy me a brand new ford raptor truck, which is my dream truck. I have pretty high grades, most all B's except this one class I have a D and my coach for softball was concerned about this grade and I tried to ensure him but that didn't go well. Softball season starts next semester and if I fail this one class then I don't think I'll be able to play, and that would be horrible, not only for me but also my teammates. I'm praying that I do well in this class. At first I didn't believe this class was going to be hard but I was wrong, this class and Human A&P will be the classes that I need to put most of my work in. I am doing better in Human A&P than I thought I would be doing, on the last test I made a low B which was good for the class I was in because 20 people had failed that test and only 5 people made an A and 10 people made a B like me. Softball for me is a "get-a-way" from everything that stressed me out and sadly out offseason on the field is up and we can't practice as a team anymore, we can only practice by ourselves without the coach. We are still working out early in the mornings, which is exhausting, but it's good for me cause I am awake for my classes through out the day and I would rather work out in the morning rather than later in the day. The morning work outs are nice now, because it is nice and cold in the mornings, and I love the cold weather.

Softball and school

This weekend we had a softball tournament and for the very first time of playing other teams we did really good and our coach was surprised. We will probably have two teams, a varsity and junior varsity and I think I will be starting for first base. I am really excited to see where our team will be for next semester. I think that the new freshman on the team are really good and they will help out our team in the long run but there are still some things that we need to work on to get better as a team if we want to make the playoffs and win the conference. Outside of softball I have made several more friends and it was more difficult this week on the school work. I had homework for almost all my classes and had a least 3 test which really taught me how to organize my study time and how much I needed to study for each topic. On one of my test (Human A&P) I really should have studied more, because I studied and learned all of the bones but none of the "notches" of the bones which was on the test. I am not really freaking out because there was more than two sets of the test and on one of the sets I did really well. On my other test which was in chemistry I was really prepared and felt confident going into. When I got there and looked over the test I realized that it was a little harder than I thought it would be but I still think I did really well. My midterm in frex I am feeling confident because I know what is going on in the class and I have stayed up to task with what is going on. I probably have to annotate more chapters to be on the safe side, so I can feel confident on the in class midterm. On the take home test I have already finished half of it so I don't procrastinate and fall behind and have to do it all on one night. I have started reading all the chapters again to prepare more. I don't want to under-study for the midterm. This up coming week I only have the frex midterm and then the Comp paper that is due which I have already finished, which I hope is good. I have had other people read it and they said it was fine so I think I will be fine in that class.  

So Excited

Well for this coming up week (October 3-8) I am so excited because for softball we have been going really hard on our offseason. We work out every morning from 6-7 am, meaning I have to usually wake up at 5:30 am and then on Thursday's through Sundays we practice during the days, for a very long period of time. On Saturday we usually practice from 9 am to 7 pm and have a long lunch break. Well on this week Coach Wilson has decided to give off the morning practice to give us some nice and relaxing time to sleep in. I am so excited because I get to sleep in and take more time on studying and on my school work. As far as school wise I think I am doing pretty well with juggling my time and knowing how much time to work on things. This coming up week I have a major test in Human A&P and I am super nervous but I am determined to do my best because this class means a lot to me (not saying the other ones don't) I have been studying for at least 1 to 2 hours a day and breaking down every paragraph in the book and analyzing the text just like Frex class has taught me so far. At first I didn't think that this would help for Human A&P because it was a strange text, not your normal english text. But I was wrong, and this helps a lot and I understand the words more. For Chemistry class I have a exam on Friday and I feel pretty confident on this but I know I still have to study like usual. I really like my professor for my class and I know I can always go to him for any questions I may have about the course. I am not a huge fan of math but knowing that I have a good Chemistry teacher makes me feel happy and confident with math. I am still loving college here and I am excited to meet new people, I don't really mind all the hard work you have to do, all the homework that is assigned because I know in the long run this will help me out in the future. I am excited about my future and I am so curious of how my life will plan out, but time will just tell, but time needs to speed up.  

Chemistry

I have never been good at basic chemistry with the algebra 1, in high school my algebra teacher did not do his job well and so I never really learned it well. So coming here and going into problem solving chemistry is a little difficult never really learning the basics. I have gone to SI and stayed after class to understand more but it is hard coming in being behind other students. I need this credit so struggling is not making me happy. On the current quizzes I have done better than I thought I would have, but I know these grades are not to my fullest potential. What I really enjoy though is how much my professor helps me and how easily he explains things, multiple ways. I get along with him very well and I am happy that we have a good student professor relationship. My class size is small so everyone knows each other and we help each other quite a bit. His teaching methods work well, and give us a lot of opportunities to have grades in the grade book. Everyday we have homework to turn in, a daily assignment then gives us more homework that is due the next time we see each other, which will be a quiz grade on occasions. I love this class but I am not happy with how I am doing in there and wish I could do better. I talked to my teacher about the possibility of having a private tutor because I know from experience I work well with one on ones. This private tutoring may be difficult because of my schedule being busy but that is college and you have to learn how to use your time wisely. With softball practice on Thursdays-Sundays it is hard to study as much as you truly need. On Saturdays our practices run from 9 am to 7 pm and the other days 1 pm to 7 pm. My other classes are coming more easily and the change from high school to college has slowly slipped in and now I understand why they say that college is totally different from high school. The professors here expect you to be the big adult that they never expected in high school. I enjoy classes still and I still enjoy Texas Lutheran.    

Struggling

School is school, the homework, the quizzes and test are all the same but the only thing has changed is that I have started study hall as a requirement for softball. I was actually surprised, because I found out like I like this study hall on Mondays and Wednesdays. At first the thought of the mandatory study hall made me upset and I didn't want to go. But now I like this because it makes me focus on doing my homework and here there are no distractions. No phones, no tv, no best friends, no talking. The internet is strictly for school related subjects, and getting caught leads to a lot of trouble. Softball practices start soon, and I am a little bit of nervous because I know I have to be more diligent with my time and my studying. My hardest class has to Human Anatomy and Physcology, this class takes a lot of concentration, reading and understanding everything that is being said about it. The first test is next week, and I am so nervous because I want to ace this test. My other classes require a lot of reading but I don't mind as long as I stay focus and mark up the text. Frex class has taught me to pay attention to each detail in the text and to read between the lines. This has certainly helped in A&P because I focus and know about what I am reading about. Currently out side of school, I have made a lot of friends and enjoy the community here, it reminds of being back at home and I haven't been homesick yet. I have heard about a lot of freshman missing their home and becoming homesick but I am not one of them. I enjoy being here except for the really really small town with nothing to do on the weekends. But the athlete teams keeps me occupied as well as my friends. I can not wait till softball season starts because I enjoy playing, and I can't wait to play at the collegiate level. I have played softball for almost all my life, of course I played other sports but I always stuck with softball and I hope I will enjoy these last years of playing.

A new beginning

Most teenagers want to explore the world and never look back at where they grew up, but that was not for me. Texas Lutheran offered many options for me, staying close to home (Katy, Texas), playing softball, a great Physical Therapy program and a warm welcoming community. Transitioning from high school to college was a very large step for me, I was leaving behind, family, friends and most importantly the place where I grew up. College has been an exciting adventure, but one I know I can accomplish with help from the professors. Here, I have learned to be well-organized, time management and to make new friends everyday. The courses I am taking to become a Physical Therapist mean I have to read more than I ever have and to really buckel down and not be a procrastinator like I was in high school. In high school, students could get by without reading there books for class and not knowing everything the teacher taught, but here it is much different. I was a "A" student in high school, and I loved studying but here is a whole new story, studying doesnt mean for just an hour, it means for several hours and knowing EVERYTHING the professor taught you. To this new challenge, I was at first scared, just like any new college student would be but after the first week was under my belt I knew I could take it on. College means a lot of growing up for high school students, now I know why most teenagers do not make it all the way. For me, that will not be an option, I know what I have to do in order to master all my classes as well as be a student-athlete and I am willing to make that effort. Texas Lutheran is my new home, and I am liking every moment here, yes I will endure those days where I absolutely hate it and wish I could just go back to my hometown and never return. My experience so far has been exciting and I hope this feeling never changes.