As the end of another semester nears, I look back at my first semester at Blackburn College. Although this was not my first semester attending college (I am a transfer student), it was a semester that I will never forget.
Over the course of my four-year college career, I have attended three colleges. Each first semester was one to remember. Southwestern Illinois College was my first semester right out of high school and it was a learning curve. First of all, I was attending a new school, something that I hadn’t done since the second grade, while there I knew absolutely no one. Over that semester I learned that high school did not prepare me for that first semester. Classes were a lot harder than what high school told me they would be. I had to study for tests by reading textbooks and there were no study guides like in high school. I couldn’t just walk into class without reading the material first and hope that another student was more prepared; the professors expected me to know the answers. I was expected to do work for the class that wasn’t assigned as homework, unlike high school where I would be given homework due the following day. It was a learning curve, to say the least.
Two years later, I graduated from the community college and transferred to my dream school, Wyoming University. The first semester there was a shock. The classes and workload was not so much the shock as being on my own. I moved 16 hours away with no way of getting home unless it was on a plane. There was no family to help guide me in the mountains as I had during my time at community college. It was a hard semester for me since I had no friends when I started in the fall and I did not get to go back home until Christmas break. That was another experience I will never forget.
After a year in Wyoming, I decided it wasn’t for me, so I transferred back closer to home. I chose Blackburn for many reasons, and in my opinion, it was the right choice. Back in Wyoming, I changed my major because they didn’t have the exact program that I wanted to study, but Blackburn did. I also was looking into Blackburn because of the work program. I wanted to attend a school that would do more than give me a degree for showing up to class and doing my homework. I wanted a school that could prepare me for life after college.
Over the last 16 weeks I can look back and say that this semester has not been the easiest, but it has been the best first semester of my college career. Just as with the other first semesters, this one had been a learning curve. I have learned to balance classes, work, social life and family. I have learned that it is okay to fail sometimes during a class. I have failed plenty of times, but I have found that there is always room for improvement to succeed. I have learned more during this first semester of my fourth year of college than I have had at any other college or university. I have learned that I do not need to be great a something right away as long as I learn, and continue to learn, I will get better and succeed in the end.
During these semesters, I have learned so much about myself, and I would not change any decision because each has gotten me to where I am today. A student of Blackburn College.