My first year at HPU
1. GPA's in High School and College are completely different
I remember coming into college and thinking that if I had a 4.2-3.8 through all of High School why would college be different. Now that I've been at HPU for two semesters, I can say that even maintaining a 2.0 which is what you need to be academically eligible is hard. When I was told that to keep my scholarship, I needed to have a 2.75 cumulative gap, inside my head, the thought that was running through was "who wouldn't be able to have a 2.75 that's a piece of cake." Halfway through first semester is when it hit me that It was harder than I thought. After completing my first semester and being placed on academic probation, I just thought about my scholarship and how I needed to do my best the following semester to keep it. It definitely humbled me and made me realize that GPA's aren't the same.
Another thing that was different with the whole gpa aspect is that in college you have minus and pluses which can boast or degrade your gpa, because they are all weighted different and not to mention we also have to remember the credit amount.
2. Naps can either be the best thing in the world or your worst idea yet.
One thing you learn first in college is that naps are essential to you being able to survive. Now that doesn't mean take a 4-hour nap (I'm guilty of this) because then the rest of your day is gone. You might ask "Why is that bad?" well when you take very long naps it not only misses up your sleep schedule but also takes away from time you could be working on homework/projects. Then you're up again the whole night, which is the whole reason why you now need a nap, which then creates a cycle that can be very hard to break.
The good side to naps is that you can get a quick 30-minute power nap and feel refreshed and ready to work or if you're like me go to your next class. They make you feel good and are very rewarding after finishing all your work early or after a nice shower.
3. OFFICE HOURS ARE FOR YOU!
The one thing they repeatedly tell you at orientation, hall meetings, class time, success coach meetings is to go to office hours. You would think that people would take that win and follow directions but sometimes professors just spend the whole 2 hours dedicated for students, working on other things because students don't ever go. I have personally never been to an office hour and not felt good after the meeting. This is a perfect time to discuss struggles and goals from the class material. It also helps the professor understand you more and it can even help them be a bit (not always) more lenient with you and your situation.
One of the reasons why I would barely go to office hours is because I would prefer sleep or do anything else but take 10 minutes out my day to discuss how I'm doing in the class. Whenever I did go though it helped me be more confident about the class. This also goes for emails. Communicating is key, if you don't communicate professors will not understand what's going on. (trust me I've been there)
4. Procrastination will have you thinking at 5:30am in the morning that it was a bad idea.
Procrastination man, you know you would think that you'd learn from experience, but you don't (I say as I'm typing this essay at 5:30am in the morning). Honestly this is one of the hardest habits to get rid of. I mean you could literally do your work early one day and say "ah it feels so good to be done with everything" and then two days later you're up crying because you didn't get to study for your bio test but the math homework is due before your 7:50am class. It is one of those things where you really have to dedicate yourself to breaking the bad habit and continuing to stay away from it.
You can procrastinate and get everything done and even get a good grade, but the problem is, is that you have limited time and sometimes limited resources. It ends up hurting you more than helping you in the long run.
As for me, I still. procrastinate a lot but I am taking summer courses this summer and I'm going to work on breaking the bad habit.
5. It's easy to lose yourself, and harder to get back on track.
I know this last one sounds very pessimistic but it's the truth. College is all about exploring and figuring out who you are, yes very true. With that being said that you have to be careful not to become someone you're not, within two months of being in college. Yes you want to make different friends and you want to party and socialize, that's all great but knowing who you are and not letting go of yourself is important, because if you figure out that how you wanted to be is not what you want anymore it can be hard to get back to what you were before. This does not mean that it's impossible, but it becomes harder to find your way back. This goes for academics as well, yes you can fail a class or get a bad grade in a certain class. It happens we're humans but don't go and fail all your classes because this will put so much more pressure on you for your following semesters and classes. Try to find a balance, which can be hard but not impossible. You can explore but still keep parts of you. I may have to make some adjustments to myself after this first year because it taught me a little about who I am but also the aspects that I want to keep from before college.
In conclusion
It's been a very stressful year, but I've been able to learn from mistakes and challenges, this year has prepared me for next, and Dean's List I'm coming for you!
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