Hey, guys. I have not blogged at all in the last few weeks. I’m slightly disappointed, but I’ve been busy with school. I also couldn’t blog during Thanksgiving break because my cousin threw a medicine ball at me and jammed my finger. It was swollen for a week and it hurt to type. (I got an X-Ray, and it’s not sprained or fractured, so it should be fine.)
This is going to be a quick college update, which I do once or twice every school year. My finals are this week, so I have to prioritize studying until the break starts, but I wanted to give you all something to read.
Past College Updates:
- 1 Month Into College Update (Freshman Year)
- Mid-Year College Update (Freshman Year)
- Reflecting On My Freshman Year Of College (End Of The Year Update)
- The Glorification Of Busy | One Month Into Sophomore Year Update
//What It’s Been Like Moving Out
I wrote a post about a month after moving into my dorm about that experience. You should give it a read. I wrote a lot about the emotional transition of it all and I cried so much writing it. After the first month, the emotional transition was fine. I was finally able to relax while living on my own and didn’t have to drive back and forth in the middle of the week to visit family. I am not a person who takes naps and I had to take naps to function in that first month.
I started missing my family more near the middle of the semester. I miss Mysoon every day because he can’t talk on the phone, but I don’t usually miss the rest of my family because I talk to them every day. Even so, I look forward to seeing them at the end of the week and want to go home by the time the weekend comes.
I still drive back to Atlanta every weekend because my work and business are there. I would go back anyway to visit my brother, but that’s the practical side of why I go back so frequently. My mom also gives me food every week because I don’t have a meal plan. That certainly makes things easier for me. It’s surprisingly easy to live on campus without a meal plan. There are ways to make it much less expensive.
I really like my roommate. She’s really sweet, but we don’t see each other that much because we’re so busy. I’ve learned that it’s very easy not to be friends with your roommate. She and I are actually friends, but I can understand how easy it is to live with someone and not have to talk to them. We literally have to make definitive plans in order to hang out together. I’m pretty sure I mentioned that in the post linked below, but that part hasn’t changed.
Related – What It’s Like To Move Out For College
//Living On Campus Vs. Living At Home
The biggest difference between living at home and living on campus is my social life. It’s amazing to be able to go out on weeknights without having to let anyone know (I tell my friends or mom for safety reasons, but I have a lot more freedom to go out at night). When I was commuting, I couldn’t go to any of the school events or join any clubs because they were all held at night. My commute was way too long to go back twice a day, so I wasn’t able to do much while I was there.
Now, I can join any clubs I want, go see a free movie or go to a roller skating or karaoke event. Near the beginning of the semester, I did things like that all the time. I’ve fallen out of that habit in the last few weeks, but I want to start again next semester because it’s so much fun!
That’s definitely the biggest difference between living on campus and living at home. I have much more of a social life.
Related – How To “Survive” Living With Your Parents In College
//Why I Haven’t Been Blogging As Much
I think the reason I haven’t been blogging as much is that I haven’t been a very good student. School has not been my top priority. These last few months have been about transitioning into a new university, hosting visiting family, getting used to a new work routine…the list goes on. This is very much a college-centered blog, so not having much to write about relating to that topic gave me less motivation to write.
I also took 17 credit hours this semester, which was a lot, and when it came between the choice of studying or writing, I chose to study.
So that’s pretty much it: a mix of studying and writer’s block stopped me from blogging. But that’s not the only thing. I had plenty of other topics to write about. It’s just that I fell out of the habit of writing regularly. In 2017, I posted 2-3 times per week consistently. But that’s the thing. I did it so consistently that it became a regular part of my routine. This year has been blocked off by a bunch of major events that cut into my writing time, so I would have chunks of weeks with free time and chunks of weeks without.
It’s like exercise. When I work out every weekday, it’s easier to go to the gym. But after a long break, I fall out of the habit and don’t have a lot of motivation to go to the gym. When it comes to working out, I can force myself to go and it’s easy to fit into my schedule.
Blogging is another story. Depending on the post, it can take either hours or days to write (I’m too long-winded for my own good). So when I’m not posting consistently, I stop feeling the need to post at all because I’ve already missed a few self-imposed deadlines.
This blog post is hopefully the start of me writing again. It’s finals week, so this may not have been the most convenient time to recommit to blogging, but I really miss writing.
//Transferring To A Different University
People keep asking me if I like my new university better than my old one, but I think it’s unfair to compare the two. I lived at home for my first two years of college, which is a completely different experience compared to where I am now. I’ve already mentioned that I love the social aspect of living on my own, but let’s talk about the academic transition that comes with transferring universities.
First off, you’ll need to spend some time catching up on credits. Thankfully, I’ve been planning on transferring to another university since my Freshman year (I got into the college I’m in now in high school, but I waited two years to transfer), so all of my credit hours transferred. I had to get a few advanced level classes approved near the beginning of the semester, but that was cleared up pretty quickly. I’m pretty lucky because a few of my friends who have also transferred need to tack on an extra semester.
Even though I’m all caught up, there were still a few random prerequisites that I needed to fulfill. I decided to just get them all over with this semester, so I only had one class related to my major.
Needless to say, this semester wasn’t that fun. I loved all my classes, but I wasn’t really passionate about them. I also learned that some courses are considered at the same level, but the content is different. For example. I took American Sign Language I & II at my old university and took ASL III this semester. All three courses used the same book, but the class here was ahead by a few units, so I had to learn all that vocabulary on my own in the first few weeks of August. That made ASL harder than it usually is.
I only experienced that problem with my ASL class. Oddly enough, I was actually ahead on my Psychology Research Analysis course. At my old university, it was paired with Psychology Research Design, so I had already learned the first few units.
My point is that there was an academic transition as well. I had an easier time that some of my other friends who have transferred, and I have officially completed every other random science or comparative literature requirement I need to graduate. I only have a multicultural requirement left, which I’ll knock out next semester, but basically the next year and a half will be about classes I’m actually interested in. I’m super happy about that. That was one of the things I missed about my other university: I was able to take advanced 3000/4000 level classes without a lot of prerequisites.
Overall, the transition has been fairly smooth. I’m probably going to get A’s and B’s this semester, which I’m fine with because it’s been a very interesting four months. I’m cutting myself some slack.
That’s it for now. I’m going back to studying for finals. Here are a few finals week tips for you:
- The Ultimate Guide To Surviving Finals Week
- 8 Ways To Practice Self-Care During Finals Week
- 10 Best Study Tips For College Students
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What has this semester been like for you? How are you preparing for finals this week?