Here I am, two and a half years later from my last post and I’m 22 days away from graduation. I cannot believe I have made it this far. It still seems so surreal to me that in 22 days I will be done with my undergraduate career. Again, this is crazy. I am 22 years old and 22 days away from getting a Bachelor of Science in Engineering. WOW.

So what’s next? This summer I will be interning for a company (details to be discolsed later) and I’m incredibly excited! I will be moving to a new place for three months and I’m secretly over the moon about this. I have always wanted to travel and even though relocation sucks and moving takes a lot of strategic planning I do not enjoy, I will soon be able to say I’ve lived in 3 states.

Very shortly after that I will be able to say I’ve lived in 4 states. I will be attending the University of Iowa for graduate school (PhD in chemical engineering!) starting in August. I have always wanted my PhD and I am one step closer to getting it! I have two, yes two, prestigious fellowships to help me on my journey and a great diversity program for me to get involved in and give back with.

I am so thankful for all these opportunities I have been given and I cannot wait to see what’s in store for me in the near future!

We’ve all heard the expression, “new year, new you” normally this is a New Year’s resolution mantra but I can’t wait that long. I am excited to being my sophomore year in college as a chemical engineering major. I am skimming my text books, trying to get an idea of the things I am going to be learning this coming semester. I know it takes me a while to catch on sometimes and I need to minimize that if I am to succeed.

Here’s a publically declared list of my actions for the rest of the month of August:

• Skim and take brief notes from my calculus and organic chemistry texts. If I have an idea committed to memory, however weak, of what my professors are talking about in class or even when I read the text the night before, the more likely I am to actually learn something instead of just absorbing information.
• Get excited! Have a positive attitude about school. The more positive my attitude, the more likely I will be to keep my head up.
• Try to see my friends who have encouraged me and were there for me when I needed them last year. I know that with their encouragement I can do well.
• Get packed and settled into my new apartment within the first two weeks of school. The longer I have to wait and fret, the worse my school performance is going to be.
• Enjoy life. It’s hard, and I’m not succeeding at this all that much quite yet, but I will continue to try.

So, with a 2.993 I got a scholarship contingent on me raising my GPA by the end of first semester. Part of me is still really nervous about this because with that D+ in Physics 2 still sitting in my transcript and affecting my GPA it seems a bit unrealistic. However, I got my first text book (Calculus aside) and I’m really excited to read it and get into it. I feel that this is a good sign and I hope this enthusiasm continues once classes begin.

It’s my last week here for the summer and I couldn’t be happier. With everything going on at home I can’t wait to get back and just be there for my friends. It’s such a hard thing to want to help someone you care about but being unable to.

That said, I have only until Friday to prepare for my Calculus final and finish my final project for Written Professional Communication. It’s going to take a lot of will power to get through these final few days but I am confident that I can do it. I have done excellently so far and I hope that will continue with me throughout the rest of my college career. I just have to keep my focus on what matters and not forget that I’m doing this for me, for my future, and there are no times for breaks or discouragement. I have to get up every time I fall, without hesitation, without thinking. I must do it. This is for me.

I have 10 more days to figure out series. Everything else in Calc 2 is going spendidly well right now. I think I’m still letting them scare me, but on the flip side I seriously look at them and just think “how am I supposed to figure out what this even means?” So, they’re a bit frustrating right now. I did homework problems for a while today and I got most of them correct, the problem is that I’m still guessing for the most part and have no idea how to make a connection between my guesses and what I need to know. I’m going to the park to take a break for a while…

Hopefully, these will make sense by the final.

What is studying? How do you study? More importantly, how do you know if you’re doing it right?

I think this was my problem throughout the two semesters, I was putting the amount of time I was supposed to in my classes, but what I did just wasn’t helping. And ironically, the classes I didn’t put the same amount of time into I got better grades. It was about the effort.

Do the work, read the notes, do the work, get the help, do the work again, take the instructors advice, memorize, sleep on it, do the work again. Will this get me those good grades I want and need? Will this give me some confidence?

We’ll see.