Month: November 2013

As I sit on the break bus bound for Boston, feelings of irritation and anger surge through me. The bus left at 4:30 and was expected to arrive at South Station around 8:30. It is 8:30 right now and we are still 45 minutes away from South Station. Unfortunately for me, Boston is not my final stop. I live in Maine so I have to take another bus that goes to Portland, a bus that leaves at 9:15. Over the past four hours, I have watched the bus fall more and more behind schedule and now it is official, I am going to miss my bus to Portland. The next bus that runs to Portland isn’t until 10:15 so it looks like I will be spending some time in South Station.

This was certainly not how I expected my night to go. As of this morning my family was coming to meet me at South Station, we were going to have dinner together, and then I was going to go home and see my dog and my boyfriend. Now I will not be home until at least midnight. Transportation is great in general, but on days like these, it frustrates me like no other.

When learning about this assignment, I was a bit nervous. I had never taught a class before and I am not the best with public speaking. However, after a minute of teaching, I relaxed and really enjoyed myself. My partner and I’s experience started out a bit rocky with not receiving a response from our teacher and later finding out that she was no longer able to host us. The day before the lesson plan was due, we found out that another teacher was going to host us and we were no longer teaching math, but english. This was a bit of a curveball, but ended up working out very well. The teacher that we worked with was incredibly helpful and helped the process run very smoothly. One of my main concerns going into the lesson was that the students would be very shy and quiet. If I was a 7th grader and two college students came into my class, I wouldn’t be very talkative or outgoing; however, to my surprise the kids were very interactive and full of energy. Watching all twenty of them collaborate on a Google Document together was really interesting and fun. At first the kids were having a tough time working together and the majority of them were fooling around with font size and color. After about five minutes or so they began to get more serious and ended up creating a paragraph that was very well written. Both Norris and I were very surprised with the quality of their writing.

Looking back, I find it a bit ironic that we were teaching the students about collaboration and this tool was exactly what Norris and I had to do in order to complete this lesson. Finding time to meet up and work on our lesson plan was a bit challenging, but everything worked out in the end. In addition to collaboration, communication is key to a great lesson. We worked with our teacher on our lesson plan and she really helped us to decide what was important and how to get our message across to her students. We also had to communicate with one another about who would do what and make sure we were both on the same page. One reason the lesson went so well was because we knew that we both had each other’s backs if the other got stuck. Even though the path to our lesson wasn’t perfect, I really think our lesson went well. After teaching the class, I felt very accomplished and was happy that everything ended up coming together. Not only did the students learn something, but I learned a lot about the challenges of working in groups and coming up with a lesson plan.

When I first stepped foot into high school on the first day of school, I was incredibly excited for the next four years of my life to begin. High school meant freedom, driving, football games, and many more privileges. Along with all the great things came the added stress, increase in homework, and the importance of grades. However, in general high school was an exciting change.

Looking back, I see how minuscule the change was in comparison to the transition from high school to college. When you go to college, you leave everything that you have ever known to live in a small dorm room with a complete stranger and learn from some of the best professors in the entire country. For some people, the change is even more dramatic. One of my friends decided to attend college in Tennessee. This requires a plane ride and is much more difficult to return home. Lucky for me, Middlebury is only four and a half hours away. I can come home for the holidays and even for a long weekend. Even though I took four APs my senior year and another class that was equivalent to an AP, the amount of homework and studying required to do well on tests is significantly more than what I am used to. Here, you have nobody to motivate yourself but you. You are alone and are solely responsible for how your future turns out. If you choose to party every night and not do homework, then it is your fault when you don’t get into Harvard Law. However, it also works the other way. When you work your butt off and get into your dream graduate school or land the job you have always wanted, you have yourself to congratulate. All in all, I believe college is what you make of it. I have heard many people say that college is some of the best four years of their life. To quote Eminem, “if you had one shot, or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted. One moment, would you capture it or just let it slip?

It has been almost 70 days since I have been home and it is finally starting to hit me. Going into college, I was almost positive that I was going to experience severe homesickness. I had heard lots of horror stories of people who were so homesick they cried every single night and begged their parents to come and get them. The captain of my softball team my freshmen year was an incredible three sport athlete. She was a great student and seemed like she had it all together. Come to find out, she was incredibly homesick her entire first semester of college. It got to the point where her parents were worried about her safety. My family and I are incredibly close and we do everything together, which is why I feared being very homesick.

Surprisingly, I have not felt homesick at all up until now. To be honest, I think it is due to the fact that I have no time to think. When I am not in class, I am either playing softball, doing homework, or studying for my upcoming exams. The only time I have felt homesick was when my brother turned 15 and had a family party at my house. My mom sent me videos and lots of messages telling me how much she missed me and how the parties weren’t the same without me. With that one exception, I have been doing very well. However, recently I have found myself missing home, my friends, and my brother and sister who I have not seen in over two months. During fall break, I chose to fly to Maryland instead of going home. I do not regret my decision, but I wish I could have had a few days at home as well. As exams are beginning to pile up and the material is getting harder, I am feeling the pressure. I am still trying to figure out how to balance my time so I get all of my school work done, while still managing to practice softball, workout, and have a social life. Needless to say, I am counting down the days until Thanksgiving break.