North Central College Media 200 Class

My favorite part of being in college is the feeling of productivity. It is not always easy to be productive, but there are a lot of ways to help yourself get organized and efficient in your day-to-day life. After a couple months being here, I can say that I have established tips and tricks for myself in order to be as productive as possible. My holy grail is my planner that I use every day. It can be a small one, a big one, a random notebook, or anything you can write on really. Everyone told me that I need to get a planner before I went to college and now I completely understand why. Personally, after I plan out my day and write it all down on my planner everything I want to accomplish seems possible. Additionally, crossing assignments off on your planner is really satisfying. Whenever I write down all of the assignments I have to do and how long I want to spend on them, I find myself completing everything I need to. When it comes to being productive, planning out your day is definite...

Without even realizing it, we all depend on a lot of things while we are living with our parents in high school. Some examples may be our parents doing our laundry for us when we are busy at work, depending on our class schedule to tell us what to do for eight hours, coming home to home-cooked meals after school so that we have something to eat for dinner, etc. Going to college kind of forces you to be independent right away, as what you will do every day depends completely on you and your choices.  I remember my second or third week at my college my friends invited me to go to Chicago with them over the weekend. After thinking about it I realized I can just go wherever and do whatever I want now that I am not living with my parents (responsibly of course). And so my friends and I got train tickets and went to Chicago, and it was such a fun experience especially because I just met all of them and we all just randomly decided to go Me at Millenium Park I'm not saying that making spo...

Since I've been in college, I have started using a method to help myself be productive and content with myself. This method is called goal-setting and it is really beneficial to someone who is in a new environment or adjusting to a life change. Before I left for school I read about how setting goals for yourself is one of the best things you can do to motivate yourself, and so I decided that I will do it as much as I can while I'm at school. Why Setting Goals is Important! The first goal I set for myself was for the first couple of days I was at my college. I promised myself that I would try to be outgoing and make friends during the first days of welcome week. I went to all of the events with my roommate, and as I have mentioned in my previous blog, I made three new friends the second day that I was here. I achieved my first goal and I felt really good about it, so I decided I was going to continue to set goals for myself. There are sections in each week of my planner called ...

A lot of relationships that start in high school tend to end the summer before college starts. Whether it be because of distance, or the need for a fresh start, most high school relationships end at the same time, with the same fate. Of course, there are relationships that make it through the transition, and mine was one of them. My boyfriend was already in community college when I was a senior, and I ended up going to a college only 45 minutes away from our hometown. These two aspects were in our favor since he already knew where he was going and what he was doing, and my top college happened to be a short distance away. Another element that helped us is we talked about me moving to school a lot, and we started talking about it a while before I moved into my school. Communication is very important, and it eases a lot of built-up stress on both sides of the relationship. Any relationship can make it through the high school to college transition, as long as both parties communicate and ...

 In my family, I have four parents and three sisters. Before going to college, I lived with my mom and my stepdad Donny (my older sister lived with us too until June). I also see my dad, my stepmom, and my younger step-sisters as much as I can. I have always really enjoyed spending time with family, and I value the time I have with my parents. Although school can be overwhelming and it might take away all of someone's time and energy, I make sure that my family knows I'm here for them and that I miss them while I am here. Since my older sister moved out in June and I "moved out" in August, my mom and Donny are now empty nesters. The good news is that they adopted a dog in April that they love and she keeps them company. Since I left for school, I have gone to my house to bother them as much as possible. I stop by on some weekends and I always make sure that I stop in to say hi or do something with them. My mom and I have a tradition where we get our nails done togethe...

All of my teachers in high school said comments to the class like "if you think this is hard, wait until you start college." After hearing this statement multiple times in high school, it made college classes seem very intimidating. I won't lie, walking into a college class for the first time is scary, but when you think about it walking into a classroom your first year of high school was scary too. After the first couple of days of going to class, I got used to the new aspects of attending class at my school. A Classroom at my College At my school, we have four classes per semester, and these classes either meet on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays or Tuesdays and Thursdays. A nice part of college is that you are in each class for a short amount of time during your day, and any free time you have to spend on homework. I personally do not participate in a sport or have a job this year, so I have more free time than other freshmen. The amount of homework I have for each cla...

I'm going, to be honest, living in a dorm is very different from living in the childhood home that you grew up in. There are so many different elements of living in a dorm that affects everyone in unique ways. It might be the communal showers, the twin bed, or the lack of closet space, but it definitely takes some getting used to. Of course, there are positives that I will cover as well. First, let's talk about the roommate situation. At my college, we choose roommates online through a process that strangely felt like an online dating experience. I made a profile and met Alexis, and we immediately hit it off. I asked her pretty early in the process just because I knew we would get along. Everyone's finding-a-roommate experience is different, but mine went pretty smoothly I will say. You do have to be careful though, as the person you choose will have to live in a pretty small space with you, so make sure you do some social media stalking just in case. (Nowadays you can tell...

In high school, everyone has their set friends that they may have had their whole life. During my senior year, my friends and I were so excited about choosing our colleges and having a fresh start. My two best friends decided they both wanted to go to a school in Iowa, and after they made this decision they immediately distanced themselves from me. I was okay with this because I was going to spend most of my summer working and saving up money for school anyways. I also knew that I was going to move away soon myself, and I was really excited about the idea of making new friends. I grew up in a small town and my friends had been the same people since first grade. Meeting new people was definitely going to be good for me, and I knew that.  A More Detailed Guide on How to Make New Friends! After I moved into my dorm, my roommate Alexis and I went to the football field because it was the first required event of the day. There were events one after another scheduled for the freshman, and...

Moving away from home is intimidating, especially because you have lived there your whole life. The ideas of a fresh start and living in a new place are the exciting concepts that I focused on right before move-in day. I spent all of the week before the official day packing, and I made a checklist to make sure I remembered everything. I watched videos and read about what to bring and what not to bring to college and that helped a lot as well. The day before, my whole family came over and we had dinner and they put all of my stuff in the back of my stepdad's truck. We took group pictures and we all talked about how much fun I'm going to have at school. I have always felt better once I have my family's support, and they helped me through the process. An In-Depth List of What you Should Bring! I woke up around 9 am and got ready for the day. I put the rest of my stuff in the truck, and I was starting to get a little sad about leaving home. I drove my green SUV (which I named P...

Graduation; May 25, 2021  Hi! I’m Bree and I’m a freshman at North Central College. I have been living here for about a month, and it has definitely taken some getting used to. The transition from high school to college is such an unfamiliar part of life that has a lot of ups and downs. When I was a senior in high school, I had no idea what to expect when moving into college, and I wish I took the time to read about or listen to someone else's experience before I moved in. Everyone’s freshman year of college is different depending on how big the school is, how far away it is, if you are living there or commuting, etc. Some background information about North Central College is that it is a smaller school that is 45 minutes away from my hometown. I decided to live on campus to gain some independence from my parents and to get the "college experience" that everyone talks about. I want to share my personal experiences of the intimidating transition as well as share random mom...