China’s Magical Creatures Reflection #2

• Lauren B
• 0
• on Nov 03, 2022

I remember at the beginning of the year I felt very overwhelmed by what was going on around me. This was in part due to my classes, there was no true transition in my opinion. You walked into class and day one was syllabus day but that didn’t mean it was a calm day. I remember looking over the syllabuses for some of my classes and absolutely feeling overwhelmed at the sheer amount of work and expectations that would be placed on me. This was entirely different from high school where the first week was spent warming up to the idea of school and you mainly spent time getting to know each other. After syllabus day it was all work, no break or interlude to help you adjust better. What didn’t help too was that I had no basis for how college level work should be completed or the expectations of me, I had to learn as I went which was an extremely frustrating process to add to my to-do list. The best thing I could at the beginning was just do the work to the best of my ability and learn what each of my teachers’ was looking for. For this class I remember trying to attentively read every assignment and take extensive notes. Especially for the first video we had to watch, I have a very strong memory of Dr D calling it short while I was there thinking that thirty minutes wasn’t short. For that video it took me around an hour and a half to finish watching and record notes for. This length of time was in part due to me taking frequent and long breaks that got me off track and my habit of overwriting which involves writing down notes that are either redundant or not useful for what we’re doing but my mind considers them important so I have to write them. Now that mindset has completely changed. I feel far more adjusted to the academic side of college and I have a better understanding of what I need to do in order to be a good student. I feel more settled than I did before and more prepared to take on the workload. Going through the semester has allowed me to learn what a weekly work schedule will look like and how it can fluctuate based on what types of assignments you have. Last week I didn’t have a lot of work to complete aside from readings in order to get ahead in one of my classes. But this was largely in part because I had finished the ongoing essays in two of my classes and my other classes gave more short term, easy to complete assignments. In fact, for this class I get most of my work done early. I try to get all the readings done over the weekend and write up a report for them as I go. The accessibility work is also easy to complete since it’s very focused on one thing at a time and doesn’t take me very long to complete. I feel like I’ve truly come a long way in how I approach work in this class and others and I’m excited to see where that takes me. 

This class stands out to me as my only class where I truly feel I can be wrong in. In all my other classes there’s this added pressure of answering a question correctly or saying something perfectly because your grade is on the line but in this class I feel like I can learn, like I can make mistakes but still understand something in the end. For weekly reports I don’t really love them, I mean who loves doing assignments, but I recognize and appreciate them for keeping me on track. Without it I’d most likely not be as encouraged to complete my readings and review what we’ve done in the class. In my social psychology class we have chapter readings and listen to lectures every week but there are times when I’m completely unsure about a topic or simply don’t remember anything even if I just read it. I don’t really remember certain things unless I’m heavily prompted but in this class it’s the exact opposite. I actually remember what I’m reading with far more clarity and even when I don’t understand certain parts I know I can come to class with questions without judgment or feeling bad about myself. Something I’ve learned about myself is that I’m not as bad of a student as I thought, not in doing the work correctly or being good overall but asking for help when I need it. When I don’t feel academic pressure to always do well I feel like I’m in a safe environment where I can grow.