Book 2/50 Thriving At College

Ok, so I made this goal (that I thought) was realistic to read 50 books this year. So far I've read two. We shall see how this goes.

Today I finished perhaps one of the most helpful books I have ever read, Thriving At College. Written by Alex Chediak, this book is written to help the Christian college student navigate the academic life. It is divided into "Mistakes" as chapters and deals with the subjects of making your faith your own, keeping an organized lifestyle, and how to make the most of your academic career. I'd recommend this book to anyone - and I wish I had read it before I completed my freshman year.

Thriving At College focuses a lot on how to have a balanced life, which is something I tend to have a hard time doing. Besides that, this book also gives the reader tips on studying. It had never occurred to me until reading this book that I should be studying consistently year-round, not just when I have an exam. This is something I plan to change next year, and I am excited to see how it will change how I perform in my classes. Chediak also touches quite a few important topics of relationships, and how the way you choose friends is very detrimental to your character. You become who you hang out with, he says, and I think that is an excellent point.

This book changed how I viewed my academic career and helped me realize how important it is to set a decent schedule for myself and to budget my time wisely. I definitely suggest that every freshman read this book before starting college, or while attending, it can greatly benefit your life.

Say Geronimo

I am quite nearly 1/4 of the way through college. I realized this while talking to a friend yesterday about when we were leaving campus (nor not leaving campus in my case) after our final exams. Yes, finals week is upon me and the last two weeks have been nothing but stress and drama. Upon coming to college, I assumed that the general population would be significantly more mature than my youth group friends but upon approaching spring semester, I soon realized that is not true. Evidently my expectations for my peers were way too high.

Presumptuous or not of me, I have been a little surprised at the reaction of people older than myself to relationship problems and have been shocked at the lack of discretion some people seem to have. Currently, I am going through a little bit of heartbreak due to a situation with a guy, and apparently a friend has spread the word like wildfire, with intentions still unknown. This surprised me because I am not used to having to explain that something like a relationship problem is best left quiet. I have always assumed that this is common curtesy. How wrong I was, and it has led to a number of rant sessions and tears on my part as a result.

After going through a period of struggling with going back to secluding myself from my friends because of the guy situation, I soon realized that I was letting everyone control me. I am my own person, I am not defined by my quietness or my heartbreak. Letting people speak for me is ending this year. Basically, I'm done. I'm jumping off the high end of my college career and being me for once in my life. I realized that I am free to have the friends I want, dress the way I want, and I am free to like whomever I want. So say "Geronimo", because I have passed the point of essentially, caring. (The song by Sheppard has been my anthem this week). I'm done caring about what others think, God has called me to be myself.

Probability and Stress

A famous person (or not) once said, "Don't count your chickens before they are hatched.") This person, (famous or not) knew a secret about life. This week I discovered that I would not be able to choose where I am going to live next year for school. Apparently all of the rooms have been filled up and my roommate and I have been moved to what is referred to as a "waiting list". Needless to say, this is quite stressful and very annoying to the average person (me), who does not have much patience and tolerance for this sort of seemingly unfair treatment of first-year college students.

This has required me to do a lot of praying, and also learn that God does not answer us exactly when we want with exactly what we want. He always has a plan, wether or not we can see that at the time of the trouble we are going through. As of now, I do not currently have a place assigned for me to live next school year. But I know that God will figure it out all for me, I have done all that I can and it is in God's hands, not mine.

It also has been a week of learning humbleness and trusting other people, and of discovering what it means to truly start to "like" someone and care about a particular person. I have learned what it is like to be jealous, to realize why I am jealous, and to keep my attitude in check. I have learned that I care too much about probability and exact results than I do about what is right, which is an aspect of my thinking that I need to change. I have also learned a lot about communication with guys, but that is a story for another post.