Hello! It’s been a week since I last spoke to you. I miss you already! This week has been interesting. I received both exams taken last week and did well on them, which is a plus. I am finally starting to get into some sort of rhythm with college. My computer decided to be cantankerous last weekend as I was trying to bust out a paper, so that was really fun. The problem is fixed now and my technology is up and running again.
I wanted to take this week and talk a little about my academic experience. College classes are harder than those in high school, at least for me. Not because of the overwhelmingly difficult material, but because of the amount of it. I was fortunate not to have to do much homework in high school; that all changed in college. Professors expect you to come to class prepared having read the material they will cover. One thing I had to do at college was teach myself how to read effectively. I have a tendency to read things quickly thinking I am absorbing the information. As much as I hate to admit it, the required annotating I do for several of my classes helps in seeing the structure of a piece and the main concepts. The other change I have made while reading texts is to completely focus my attention on the reading and get in the zone. I write a lot of papers for classes and that is definitely a new experience for me. I wish I would have devoted more time in high school to familiarize myself with MLA format and other formal writing. The last thing college has shown me is you should have a reason for any claim you make. In all my papers in college, if I make an assertion, my teacher will ask me to point out specific details in the text that directly support my claim or cite those same details in parenthetical documentation. I know this sounds elementary, but as Russell Crowe says in the new Robin Hood, “If you're trying to build for the future, you must build its foundation strong.” Now that I have absolutely terrified you, let me assure you college is completely doable. These are things I think might help you in the transition from high school to college.
Now it’s time for me to tell you all about the shenanigans I find myself involved in here. I capitalized on a once in a lifetime opportunity at Georgetown. The Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games are being hosted in Lexington, KY this year. The next games will be hosted in France four years from now. Seeing an opportune moment to be a part of history, I jumped at the chance along with two of my friends. We journeyed to the famed Kentucky Horse Park. I parked my car in a field located about a mile from the side gate of the park. In great anticipation, my friends and I began the long and dusty trek to the ticket booth. At the booth, the lady awarded us with free tickets because we attend the most awesome college ever! (All college students receive free tickets, but I chose to believe ours had more to do with just how cool we happen to be.) It was not until after about two miles of walking that I began to fully appreciate just how big the park is. We reached the location where the Endurance event was being held and watched for a little while. The great thing about Endurance is everyone is just chilling there waiting for a horse to come past, so this seemed like a fitting time to ‘people watch’. After overhearing several animated conversations in various languages, the three of us set out to see the rest of the park. We journeyed approximately one more mile before reaching Rolex Stadium, the main stadium of the Kentucky Horse Park. It was here that we watched about thirty minutes of cantering. It was at this point I received a text from one of my fellow classmates who had also gone to the games. She and several of her friends had ridden the bus which the college provided for students wanting to attend the games. After conversing for a minute or two about our mutual vicinity, we decided to try to rendezvous at the midpoint of our two locations. This proved to be a much more difficult task than we had initially thought, as we both had no idea about the lay of the land. After approximately thirty minutes of bumbling around, we each came to the conclusion we were lost. Fortunately, we stumbled around enough to run into one another at Rolex Stadium. At this point, our group had grown to about ten strong. We began to trot around some of the foreign horse tents. Some of the tents, such as Dubai, were even giving away free merchandise! What could be better? We proceeded through the Equine Village but were instantly distracted by a strange sight. A girl about our age was standing on top of two horses and riding them in unison. We watched her riding skills about thirty minutes before deciding to walk through some of the booths again. After petting a giant horse that was there for the children, we decided Dippin’ Dots’ ice cream would be our next stop. A quick time check let me know I had about an hour and a half before cheer practice. Our groups parted ways and only then did my companions and I realize just how far we had travelled to the opposite side of the park. We then began our long journey back to my vehicle which was parked two stadiums, one tent, three roads, one bridge and two fields away from our current location. We finally emerged from the park and headed back to Georgetown. This concluded our historic day.
I’m signing off now. Once again, email me if you have any questions, confusions, comments or complaints. I wish you all a great week! Until next time…
No comments:
Post a Comment