The Summer Bridge Program!

It was pretty cool.

Here I was! All alone, all a free! Nothing but my dorm and dormmates to depend on! I had homeowrk to complete, assignments to turn in...!!

But I didn't falter!! Oh, no.

I got it all in and, in the end, I was victorious!!

...

I find that it's becoming harder and harder to write those long, detailed blogs that I used to. Or, rather, that the longer ago an event transpired, the more difficult it is to recall the emotions associated with the events. So I just kind of ramble until I get to the end...

I hate that. But I'll start doing it now unless I speed things up.



SO! This program consisted of a bunch of students taking classes and such so we can have credit hours for our freshman year. It was pretty ballin'. We lived on campus, we ate whenever, provided our own transportation, and made our own relationships. I drank for the first time Shit went down, but it was great overall. I really enjoyed the freedom.


On the day-before-the last day, almost everyone had already finished their projects...

Except for you-know-who*.

You see, we had to write papers on our experience in the bridge program. I had finished mine the night before at 1:23 (it was due at 12:00 am on the dot!), but she [our sponser] accepted it anyway.

I learned, later the next day, that my essay was a finalist in the contest (out of two other finalists, from a pool of 20 essays), and I had to present my essay in the ceremony tomorrow (the last day) in front of my parents, other's parents, and all the falculty and guests...

You'd think I was worried...

But I wasn't! I didn't have this blog my freshman year of high school, but in that year, I too Theatre as an elective. To say it brought me out of my shell would be an understatement! It was my "blog" before my blog. The way I talk on my blog? Not how I am in real life. In real life, I'm rather frightened and afraid of everyone. Very shy. But it taught me how to be more like the me I put on paper and, as a result, I realized that I wa quite a good public speaker when I looked passed everyone (very easy, since everyone's a foggy blur without my contacts!).

So, back to the point. The day I presented my paper (which I will copy and paste here for critic), everyone had eyes on me. Everyone. I went from wilting wallflower, to "omfg where'd all that confidence come from?!". It was a glorious moment for me. I made my dad cry*** and my mom's eyes were lit up like fireworks.

But, before I finish this, back to the other matters at hand.

Meanwhile, I was hard pressed to finish not only a research paper that was due the exact same day along with my poster, that was due that night.

So, as you can guess, I was mighty busy**. So, ten minutes before the due date, I (along with this really awesome girl I developed a bit of a crush on) messily glued everything together and ran it down to where they were presenting everything.

We barely made it, and my poster was in. (I'll see if I can get a picture up, but I think I deleted all the ones on my phone for room).

That morning, we all gathered 'round to hear my speech (which was AWESOME) and hear the winners of each contest...

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

And the winner is...

ME!

Yes, me! I got first place in the written eassy competition, I got 2nd place in the poster competition (out of 20 participants) and I OBLITHERATED the competition when I read my essay aloud (the oral competition) and got1st place.

Hold your applause. I know I'm awesome.


Aaaaand that was my time there. After all was said and done, we ate a nice lunch, packed up all my stuff, and settled in at home.

I missed Playon Con, but it was kind of worth it. The look on everyone's faces when I won most of the awards was priceless.

Wilting Wallflower is no longer wilting! (still having panic attacks and spending hours in her room in the dark, though...)


Got another post where I ask for help, but, for now, Later Days.

My Essay (this is the rough draft, because I guess I deleted the final copy--I hated it. I don't know HOW it won. It was terrible. Read it yourself):

--

Reality Check

Alexander Graham Bell has been credited with saying, “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success”.

I never got this memo.

I have always been the kind of girl that shunned preparation. I mean, who needs to do now what they can put off until tomorrow, right? That was my motto and had been all through high school. “A paper due tomorrow? I’ll finish it in the morning.” “A test in a week?” Meh, I’ll study the night before.” “So we have to have all the problems done by three o’ clock? Well, I’ll just start by two and I’ll probably get it in”. That’s what I would do. No prior working, no proof-reading, no preparation. I just did it when I had to, at the last minute.

At that time, it served me well. I could hang out with friends, socialize, lay around the house, and still get my work in on time. Of course, I never got excellent grades on them, but I didn’t mind. I knew turning in sub-par work would give me a sub-par grade, but I never minded the sacrifice. I was only going to be a kid once, and why waste it on doing schoolwork all my life; especially when I could just spend the minimum amount of time on it and still get by.

I came up to the AUM Summer Bridge Program with that exact same attitude. I knew we were going to be living in the dorms, but I assumed it wouldn’t be a problem, despite the fact that I had never been away from home for more than a few days before. I assumed my classes would be cake, since I was a decent writer and Pre-Cal—a class I had never taken—didn’t look too hard in theory. I assumed, and assumed, and assumed some more, all to convince myself that I had nothing to worry about. As far as I was concerned, I was already through the program. The fact that there were so many NEW things I had yet to experience, that I was away from home for the first time, and that I had this college-level courses? They didn’t scare me. I just assumed that I would get through them with my same routine and come through at the end of the program just as well.

Guess how well that turned out.

To say that I walked through those first days of class with a bit of culture shock would be an understatement. You can say that this was reality check number one: Realizing that just because it seemed like it would be easy in my head did not make it easy in reality. There were so many things that I had yet to experience….

Classes, for one thing. On the first day of Pre-Calculus, even though I had never taken the class before, I was sure I would be fine. It didn’t look too hard and since I had always been a pretty decent student when it came to mathematics, I was sure I’d come through on top. Entering the class, we were introduced to Dr. Underwood; a man whose excitement for math was only exceeded by the obscurity of his “punny” math jokes. When I heard our first test was on Thursday—just three days after the first day of class—I wasn’t worried. When the night before the test rolled around, I didn’t even study. I went in and took the test. I was confident that I made a good grade.

Next, we had English, a class that I wasn’t too keen on either. Our teacher, a very bubbly woman by the name of Dr. Woodworth, introduced us to new writing techniques and ways of gathering information, all in preparation for a writing assignment about… ourselves! A full research paper, all about us. How could I go wrong with that? I quickly made sure to finish it… thirty minutes before the actual due date. But I had always made great grades in high school with the same amount of effort, so I doubted that college would be any different. I at back and relaxed that weekend, sure that my Math and English grades would be fine the next week.

That Math grade that I was so sure about ended up being a C. The frustration I had at that very moment was unimaginable. How could I possibly score that low? I wrote the notes down, and I reviewed them during class… Before I could think about it more, I brushed it off. I obviously just wasn’t cut out for Math, I thought. I knew that English was up next and that the A I was going to receive on that paper would cheer me up.

It was at that moment—the moment that I got that paper back with a C on it—that I knew I had to change. I would not be a successful college student with study habits like that, and if I kept doing things last minute, there was a chance that I was not going to be a college student at all. We had another test in Pre-Calculus the next week, and a two-day chance to improve our papers. I knew I had to work harder.

In Pre-Calculus class, I made sure to write down every note, all the homework, and get assistance from residents who were more knowledgeable than I was after class, days before the test. I took the next test that week and when I received my paper back, I annotated my entire paper, sure to pinpoint every part that I needed to improve. I took it to my peers to get assistance on grammar and phrasing, and the next day, I turned it into Dr. Woodworth.

That next week, I entered Math class with little hope. I knew I studied this time around, but would it be enough? When I received my Math test back, I was satisfied to see that I had actually made a B this time around. The studying paid off, I realized, and my enthusiasm was rekindled. I went down to English with a smile on my face. If it was a B, then it was a B that I worked on with all of my spirit.

My grade on that paper ended up being an A. I was ecstatic. I could now see the fruit of my labors. A little preparation went a long way. I now I had grades that I could be proud of.

This was a large improvement, yes, but it was not the only problem I had encountered during the program. You could call this reality check number two: I didn’t know anything about all the things I was so sure of before I actually started.

Living on my own—It sounded so much better in theory. However, in actuality, it was rather frightening. I didn’t have my parents around to talk to, or to be there when I got back from class. Not only that, but I had to try to wrap my head around the fact that, for the first time, I had roommates: people who were living in the same living space as me that I had not known prior to being in the room. They could be anyone, and I did not have one bit of control over it. I had to buy my own food, control how much I was eating my own food, then buy my own food again. I had to wake myself up in the morning—my parents were my personal alarm clock before—and even then, I had to make sure that I went to bed early enough that I wasn’t a zombie during the day for class.

I was given so much control over my own life and I was so unsure what to do with it. It was so over whelming and scary all at once and there were moments when I just wanted to sit in my room and try to avoid responsibility.

Though, the longer I stayed in the program and dealt with people, the better I felt. I met all the people that I was so unsure about before and I made some great friends. I knew when to use my money, when not to use my money and how to use my money in a way that wasn’t wasteful. In short: I got used to it. I could wake myself up for class, be on time, and use my resources responsibly. I was not worried about my roommates anymore. I was not stressing out and I was not afraid.

The AUM Summer Bridge Program helped me with so many things. If I had not come here, and if I had not set my habits straight before hand, I am sure I would not be able to handle school. I got my schoolwork together, I got used to living with others, and I finally realize that my old motto was not going to work for me anymore. Nowadays, I live by a new motto: Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.

--

...Corney as heck, right? Well, that's what they like. And I won. So hmph.

*Ah, Shu... never on time....
**It was my fault for starting on it so late, but still...
***This man is a football coach who fishes, hunts, and farm. He's the living embodement of manliness. I must be that awesome.