Six habits of Highly Grateful People

   Jeremy Adam Smith's article "Six Habits of highly Grateful people"  explained that their is more to gratitude than we know and there are different ways to make oneself more grateful.Smith shared with us 6 tips in which we could become more grateful people. The six tips included: thinking about death to realize life without someone,appreciate the little things, realize that things are not just given to us when we are born, be grateful towards people and not just things, be specific when showing gratitude, and be grateful for the things we never thought to be thankful for(Smith, Six Habits of..). I have to say out of the six habits, I have practiced four of them and I am lacking in two of them. I have occasionally thought how life would be without a person and it instantly makes you feel more grateful about having them in your life. I sometimes stop to enjoy the little things, but not every time, and this is something I need to work on. I have always appreciated the things I have because I know that they did not just some up when I was born. I am always grateful for the people in my life and am always specific when it comes to thanking someone. The one habit that I have never incorporated in my life was to thank the things that have harmed me. I now know that even if they seem horrible in the moment in one way it is helping me in some aspect in my life.
    Before reading Smith's article "Six Habits of Highly Grateful People" I though that I was the most grateful person on earth, but in reality I am not. I thought that all I had to do was to be thankful for the people who are in my life and that I love, but I never really appreciate the little things. TLU is a beautiful school with  big trees blowing and squirrels running around, yet I never really appreciate these things. I thought gratitude was only about being grateful for th life that you have and I now realize that I was wrong. I now feel that it is important for myself to be grateful and to be grateful in the right way. I have to work on being grateful towards things that I would have never been grateful for before and realize that even then I should be grateful. Life is so much more enjoyable when you are grateful for the things in your life.

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Works Cited

Smith, Jeremy Adam. "Six Habits of Highly Grateful People." Greater Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life. University of California, Berkeley, 20 Nov. 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.

what is my purpose?

   I wonder what my purpose is? I think about this everyday. In fact I have thought about this since I was in elementary school. It's like I have something deep inside of me telling me that I am destined to do something, but I just don't know what. Now that I am in college and I am on my way to becoming a teacher and I  still ask myself what is my real purpose is. I hope to find out one day what my purpose is and to fulfill it as well. I know my purpose has something to do with helping people and whatever my calling is, I'm sure I will be happy about it.
      My number one strength identified in the VIA strength assessment was my spirituality and it honestly make a lot of sense. I am very in tune with my spirituality and it is very important to me. There are some thing s that just can not be explained and those are the things that I live for. Like, why did God choose us to be the ones who could communicate the best and rule over everything else? What is beyond the universe I live in? Was is fate that brought me and my husband together or was it just something that happened? Well I honestly believe that we are meant to be together. I mean I had a crush on him my whole high school years I never spoke to him, even though we had the same group of friends. Then one night at a party BOOM we talked and the rest is history, I later discovered that he had liked me for a while too and had asked my friends about me. It is just to amazing to not be fate.
   I think that it is important for everyone to realize that they are on earth for a reason and that they are important. I may not know what my exact purpose is but I know that I am where I belong at the moment. I just want everyone to be at peace with themselves and where they are. I know that that everyone has a purpose that they are here and they should find out what it is. I think it is easy when being a students to think of your career as your purpose but it is important to remember that there is an even higher purpose than that.

Gratitude

   There is not a day that goes by that I do not thank God for all that I have. I am so grateful for the family I have and all of the opportunities that lie ahead of me. What is there not to be grateful about? I have an awesome opportunity to further my education here at Texas Lutheran University and I got got scholarships to attend the school as well. I have an apartment to live in that is provided by the school that was fully furnished and I never have to worry about any bills that need to be paid( well besides my phone bill, gym,bank,food, etc.). I mean how awesome is that? My husband who does not attend TLU but a college in San Antonio  is able to live in the apartment with me, and that is something I am really grateful for. I am grateful that my parents did not chastise me for wanting to get married at 18, but instead they gave us their blessings. I am blessed to have parents who are so supportive in everything I do and they encourage me everyday to be strong, study, and to believe in myself. I am also grateful for my mother in-law who is supportive of me as well and she is always there to spread some wisdom. Something I am grateful for is the fact that I attend a school where there is a chapel Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I was missing something in my life, but since coming here I feel a little more at ease.
    I think gratitude is a must have for students wanting success in college. It is important to be grateful for what you have because then it makes everything worth it. When you are grateful for something it is more likely that you will work harder, because you feel like you owe it to yourself. I have always been taught that it is important to always give thanks for what you have and it is what I live by. When I was born certain things were give to me, the love of my parents, a home, etc., and it is important that you are always thankful for that. There are some people who face way more struggles than I will ever know, With this being said I know that sometimes you just want to feel bad for yourself, but that is no good. Gratitude is something I cannot go a day without and I think it is something everyone should have.

Tomorrow I have to present my information with my partner about a society. For my History class. I never met with my partner and we only communicated through email and I am a little scared for tomorrow. I know that it is really  important that I do well on the project, but I am not that confident that I will do that well. I have studied my information but I am afraid that we will not share the same information or that things won't sound right. I know that my partner is very capable but I am not sure if we will present the information good. I want to do good, but I am just afraid of failing. In high school I never had to worry about any of the projects that I had, because the projects were just so simple. I was never afraid of not doing well because I always did well. Now that I am in college, there is always pressure to do well and I don't want to suck. I really want to do the best of my ability and to succeed at what ever I am doing.
My project is about a gay society and it is during the time of world war two. Gays did not get the same rights that the straight people had. Many gays did not get the same benefits that all of the straight people did. They would often force them to leave the military, as soon as they would find out that someone was gay. For a long time there was the "Don't ask, Don't tell policy"and now that is gone. It has been a struggle for gay women and men to get the same rights as straight people. I really like the idea of having a gay society being present during a time where they were discriminated against. Even though I am straight I still believe that we should all be treated equally. I hope that everyone in my class understands what me and my partner are trying to explain. I wasn't everyone to know that it was not an easy time for gays at that time period and that it was rough for them to go what they went through. I hope everything goes well tomorrow, and I will be happy when my presentation is over with.

October

October has came and next week it will go. It has been a long month that has challenged me in different ways and kept me on my toes. I had my first mid-terms and I got a new job. I am glad to say that I will be ending the month a better student then at the beginning of the month. I don't mean necessarily that my grades are a whole lot better, but I think that I have become a better  student because I have become more organized with my school work. I have dropped my first class ever, my math class. I tried my best to stick with my math class and to pass the class, but things just weren't planning out. After getting my mid-term grades I was shocked to see that one failing grade made all my other grades seem like they weren't there. It was really hard for me to see that my GPA was so low, to low for my scholarship requirements. I really didn't want to drop my Math class, but it was just a level of Math that I could not learn at. When I was in high school I was just as horrible in math, but I managed to pass my math classes. Actually I passed all of my Math classes with really good grades, but that is because I had time to do my homework. I knew that College Algebra was going to be hard for me, but I never expected that it would hurt my confidence. It didn't matter how much I tried on my assignments and homework, I could never achieve the grades I wanted. It was a really big wake up call for me when I realized that I just couldn't handle my Math class. I always thought that I was smart and had something to offer, but since I have joined Texas Lutheran University, I have realized that I am a tiny fish surrounded by sharks. I know that I have a shark somewhere in me and it is starting to some out in me. I will do what ever it takes to succeed and have good grades, and nothing will stand in my way. I have one goal in sight, to become a teacher, and it is the one thing I want most. Some people tell me that the Education program is really hard to get into at Texas Lutheran University, but I know that I will make it.

High school to College

   In High school you see the same people everyday, but in college it is a different story. In High school I would see my friends all the time and I was always with them, but now it is rare that I see my high school friends. I always thought that I would stay in contact with all my friends from high school, but I have discovered that it is hard to find the time to do that. Everyone is going to college and working, so it's hard to find the time to hang out. Any time that I am in San Antonio, where I am from, I am mainly there to wort and I never have time to see my friends. It also doesn't help that they are working as well and they don't get off until late. People that I thought I was going to stay in contact with have gone with the wind. Sometimes I'll find the time to call one of my high school friends and it won't be a long conversation because we both have things to get done. I wish I had more time to enjoy being young and not always worrying about what I need to pay or what assignment is due next.
   Time management is completely different from high school to college. In high school I always had free time to do whatever I wanted and I never really had to worry about any deadlines. I always had time to do anything I wanted and I never felt any pressure to anything. Now that I am in college, I always have something that needs to get done. Everyday there is some new assignment that is due and I never have time to just sit down and relax. I never knew how much things  would have to get done in college and it has been a wake up call. I know that it is all worth it and it is just stuff that I need to get done. I hope that I will soon have free time to do things that I want to do. I never had so much things to do in high school and I sometimes wish that I could go back in time and enjoy more of the free time I had. I need to manage my time better because I need to incorporate some fun into my life. Even though sometimes I want to go back in time, I know that it is better to stay in the present.

from high school to college

The pressure to do good in college is overwhelming and it is at sometimes scary. Every grade we get is important and it scares me if I get anything below an 'A'. When I was in High school there was barely any pressure because it wasn't hard to do well and it isn't that hard to get into colleges. Now that I am in College, I am more stressed than I have ever been because I want to have the best grades possible.I have managed to have pretty good grades at my college, but I want to do better. Their is so much on the line and I am afraid to fail. I know that it is important to fail sometimes because in the end it will help you more than it hurt you, but I just hate the feeling of knowing I failed at something. It was so easy in high school. I never really knew how much of a difference their is between high school and college, but now I do. My "AP" classes in high school were no where near as invigorating as they are in college. In high school it was just a little more work in the advance placement classes than in the regular classes. I love being in college because there are so many things to get involved with and organizations and you can meet all kinds of people, but it's still hard. I not only have to worry about my grades, but go to work, and make sure I have groceries, and essentials needed on a daily basis. Since I have come to college I have gained more appreciation for my parents and everything they have and continue to do for me. Whenever I am in town to work, my mom will make lots of food and have it packed and ready to go for me. They help me out if I don't have enough money, and they just reassure me that I am where I need to be and that I need to stay focused on my goals. Some day I will look back at my college days, and I will be proud of what I accomplished. I still have time management issues, but slowly I am getting better at setting a schedule and getting things done when they need to be done. It is different and exciting to be on my own, but it is for shure not as fun or easy as I thought it would be.

   The Krost was different than I though it was going to be and it was something I never experienced in high school. I enjoyed all of the presentations, but the presentation by Naomi Shihab Nye because I thought it was really interesting. Not only was what she was saying interesting, but she herself was interesting and her back ground was as well. I loved how her parents thought that it was important to understand the arts and she definitely loved the arts herself. I also though her little story about her grandfather and how he lived a lonely life because of the way he thought, was a sad but interesting story. She said at one point in her presentation, "Even a turtle knows where he wants to go", I really liked this saying because it made me realize that we all have a direction we're heading and it's up to us which way we go. I know that I to understand where I am heading and how I am going  to get there. I hope that I will gain an understanding of where I am heading and if that's the direction in which I want to go in.
     Naomi said " Playing relaxes the spirit". I know this is true because every time you just relax and enjoy your time, you usually feel better and more relaxed. I think the cure for feeling overwhelmed is to play hide and seek or tag with kids, and you will instantly feel better. I learned from Naomi that night that if I am having trouble writing, then I probably need to lower my standards. I thought that was the best thing in the world, because I critical in the way I write and I always thing to much about my writing and I usually do better when things flow easier and better. The lesson I got out of Naomi's presentation was to give up words that don't help me. busy, tired, bored, are just some of the few words that I can live without and probably should live without them. All three are all based on me just having excuses because I just don't want to do anything. I hope that I will learn how to live without those words, because I want to know that I can and that I don't need excuses because they only hurt me and don't help at all. I am glad that I attended the presentations for the Krost because it was a great experience to learn some life lessons.

failure

   Since I have started college, I have had more failures than I've ever had before. I always thought that I had not time to make mistakes or to fail at something, but now I am learning that it is okay, I guess. I should start with math and how much of a failure I am when it comes to that subject. I am currently failing my math class and I never understand anything my teacher ever explains, and the homework makes me cry, literally. I am also not doing the best in my history class, because I never speak up and I never share my opinion, I mean I want to but I feel as if my opinions are wrong, which is not the way I should be thinking about it.
   Mistakes have played a huge role in my life because I have made a lot of them. There have been a couple of times where I made a mistake and I though it was the end of the world, but in reality it helped me grow. One time at my work, I made a mistake in how I was making the chips, my boss corrected me, and I learned how to make the chips right. I know that this doesn't sound very important but it helped me learn that if I didn't know how to do something, then I need to ask someone how to do it right way.
   How can I make peace with my imperfections? This is a very hard question for me because I just don't like thinking about my imperfections, because I know I have a lot of them. I hope that I will soon learn how to deal with my imperfections and learn from them because I don't want them to hold me back.
   I need to understand that there are going to be things that I am just not good at and I will have to be okay with that. I hope that I will learn how to deal with failure, so that I can reach my goals and so I can be able to help others understand that failure is okay. I don't want anything to get in the way from reaching my goals. I know that it will be a difficult journey for me to understand that failure is okay, but I think I can do it. I have a list of goals and one of them is to learn how fail, and fail gracefully.

high school to college...

   Well , I have to say that I am really running out of things to say about my transition from high school to college. It is just as hard as everyone said and it is different, but in a way it's not so different. College in a way is a lot like high school. Hein Dinning Hall for example portrays high school the best here at Texas Lutheran University. When you walk in Hein at lunch or dinner time, it is obvious that the seating arrangements are the same as they were in high school. The baseball boys sit with the baseball boys, football with football, and so on and so on. Other groups sit together as well, and you should hope not to sit on accident at their table because it is theirs, and you might get a few faces for doing so. It amuses me that it is similar to high school, but I mean it's not like we were in high scool a long time ago, but instead recently. This is just one of the examples I could share today, but I'll save them for another time. The work may have gotten harder to figure out but the students are easy. It's not like after leaving high school, that we all grew up instantly and had a new view on things, but instead we most likely see things the same as we did when we were in high school.
   It is really hard to keep you fridge full and to have time to actually cook the food you buy. Even though I have two jobs, I still struggle with the money I have and making it last until the next paycheck. In high school, the only worries I had was getting into colleges, and deciding whether or not my boyfriend at the time would stay my boyfriend when I went to college. Just so you know, I got accepted to every college I applied to and, that boyfriend I have, is now my husband. I've had fun being in college since August and I hope it stays being fun until the end. In high school, by the time I got to my senior year I just wanted it to be over with and I never truly enjoyed being a senior. I hope I will enjoy my time here at Texas Lutheran University, and I hope it will be one of the best experiences of mylife, as I've heard many teachers in the past say it was.

Summit Moments

   Sometimes it's hard, keeping the end goal in sight when the work you are doing seems so pointless. The best scenario would be loving all you classes, having free time to have lots of fun, and having time to get the recommended eight hours of sleep a day. Right now I have two jobs, I dislike most most of my classes and, I rarely have time to do fun things and just enjoy myself. It's hard for me to keep my goal insight, when I feel that some of the class work I am doing may not prepare me for the career I want in the future. I've heard that the first two years in college are pointless, and I can't say that I completely disagree. I mean yes, I am getting a whole new experience and I am making friend and enjoying being in college, I sometimes just feel that writing certain papers will never help me accomplish my goal, but instead just give me work to do. I know that I need to change my attitude into a more positive on, but it's a work in progress. Even though some of the work, or home work I get feels useless, I may not be understanding just how much it will help me in the future.
   Things are never they way you think they are. I had a completely different vision of my high school graduation, and in reality it was no where near as exciting. No one cried, it was quite boring, I was hungry, and it went by slower than I expected. The first day I moved into my fgirst apartment at Texas Lutheran University, was completely different than I imagined, and my first day of college was not very exciting. No one was there to help me move in or greet me and I thight I would see people around everywhere, but it was dead around my apartments. My first day of college was nothing out of the ordinary and I wasn't as nervous as I though I was going to be. I also though I was going to get a boatload of homework on the first day, but I was surprised when I got none. In the end it will all be worth it. I know I have no other choice but to do the work I am assigned and to get through these four years of college to have a different life.

confidence

What is my level of confidence? Outside of my school work, I would say pretty good, but if your talking about in school, then I would have to say no. When I was in high school, it was completely different because I had too much confidence. I had the perfect grades, I had a good relationship with all of my teachers, and I got accepted to all of the Universities I applied to. When I first arrived at Texas Lutheran University, I had all the confidence in the world that I was going to have great grades, and great relationships with my teachers. Now that I have been here for about a month, my confidence is at an all time low.  I have been getting steady B's in my FREX class, struggling horribly with math, and I have not managed my time well. I mean it is 11:36 on Sunday night and this blog is due at 12:00. When I start off m y day I am not excited nor do I feel confident about the classes ahead. Their are definitely some changes that I need to make, so I can feel ore confident in my school work and in myself.
What should I tell myself in the morning when I first get up? I think it would be beneficial to tell myself that I belong to be at Texas Lutheran University and that I am capable of doing the class work I am assigned. I need to tell myself that I will love class and that I will enjoy every minute of it. I also need to explain to myself that I can do anything I want, if I set my mind to it and to manage my time better. What should I stop telling myself in the morning when I first get up? I need to stop telling myself that I don't belong at Texas Lutheran University and that I am not smart enough. The most important change is that I need to feel capable of doing my classwork and that I have all the potential in the world. It has been such a change from me to go from be super duper confident to having absolutely none. It is only in the class room where I feel inadequate and that needs to stop. I want o feel confident in school and want to feel excited about the day ahead. Tomorrow when I wake up, I shall say," You got accepted at Texas Lutheran University, because you are capable of achieving greatness."

From High school to college

   High school is different than college. I've been at Texas Lutheran University for about four weeks  and I am still transitioning from an easy life style with practically no worries to a life style where everyday is packed with things to do and I'm lucky if I get to take a nap during the day. One thing that is different is how much I am sleeping; in high school I could sleep during my classes, home, and during lunch if I was just that sleeping, but now in college I have things to do so sleeping won't do me any good. The only time I have to sleep is at night, and even at that I will stay up doing other things. My sleeping habits have changed since I have entered college and no one is to lame except myself.
    In high school if I forgot my homework at home, my teachers would most likely let me turn it in the next day with no penalty; in college if I forget my homework the day it's due then I would get either half credit at most or a zero. In high school if you were one of the "smart" ones who did their work and did good on all their work, the teachers would let us turn in work whenever we wanted because they knew that we could do it and would turn it in, this is unheard of in college. It doesn't matter if a professor really likes you or not because when a paper is due , then it's due that day. Another change is the amount of homework I get and how complex it is. I have never been good at math, and this has never been as apparent as now. In high school the only year I actually learned something in my math class was my Junior year and now in college it shows that I don't know certain things pertaining to math that I should know. Even though I was bad at math, I still managed to pass the class with a 95, but that didn't mean anything because I still didn't learn how to look at math in a positive manner. Now in college I have to go to math tutoring because I not only want to pass my math class, but I want to have a better attitude when faced with anything pertaining to math. In high school I had no hope or desire to be good at math, but now I want be better at math for the sake of knowing that I can accomplish my goal of understanding math better.

focus

   There are so many daily distraction when I am doing my homework. There's my phone, the television, computer, and well anything actually. All it takes is for something to catch my eye and I will completely disregard my homework and by the time I know it thirty minutes have passed and I have made no progress on my homework. It's really hard for me to stay focused on one thing for a long period of time, so even if their is nothing to distract me, I would probably still find something to look at or just get distracted by the thoughts in my head.
   Orlick's distraction plan gave me the hope that I could complete my homework or studying without any distractions. First I made the list of my distractions and then I identified how I responded to the distractions. When I did this first part I realized that the way I responded to the distractions would keep me away from my studying. My main distraction is my husband because he'll try to talk to me when I'm doing my homework and I am the type of person that needs complete silence. I've even tried to listen to music while studying because I thought it would help and that turned out to be even more of a distraction because I would make up little scenarios in my head. Back to what I was saying, my husband distracts me and every time I would tell him to be quiet I would end up having a conversation with me and this happened every single time. So with the final step I took a different approach to how I studied and it turned out that I could stay focused longer than I thought.  The next time I had homework I went to the Library to do my homework instead of my apartment and the quiet environment helped me to finish it faster than I ever did before. The word I used to stay focused was "focus", I know that's not very creative but it was the only work that helped me finish my homework without distractions. I would say that the only low to my experience was that I was the only one in the library at the time doing my homework and it made me just want to go outside and see actual people. I have to say that the next time I do my home work I will definitely use this method again.
  

From high school to college

   Right now I live in the Bogish apartments at Texas Lutheran University with my husband, which is different than I was used to in high school. Their are so many transitions I was faced with  when coming to TLU, and the living space is a big transition. In high school I lived in a house with my mother, father, and brother and it had been that way for as long as I could remember. It was the same old thing everyday; my brother and I went to school and my parents went to work. I never had to worry about paying any bills, food, or even washing my clothes. I never had a job in high school so the only responsibilities I had was having good grades, which wasn't that hard to do. I was a care free high school student that had no obligations and really barely any responsibilities. I knew it was going to be different in college, but I never knew to what extent.
   On August 27th, my husband and I moved in to the apartment on the TLU campus and our lives completely changed. It was a big change because  was the first time I lived in a place where I was the one with the responsibilities to keep th house in order. Now I have to buy groceries, wash the dishes, wash my clothes, and make sure that my apartment is clean. It is so new to me to have so many new responsibilities that I never had before. At first, I was just a  high school student and now I am a full time college student, have two jobs, pay my own bills, and keep my apartment clean.It so different now compared to then, I can't believe in high school I didn't work and now I have two jobs. I guess it is a good transition to experience because it was a needed one. In high school I never appreciated the fact the my parednts always had the refrigerator and the cabinets full of rood and snacks and now I know how difficult of a task that is. Another transition I made was being single in high school to now being a married woman. It's a big change living with someone and always having someone to talk to whenever you want.College is so different from high school because now I have my own little family and my family back home to support me in whatever I do. The transition hasn't been the smoothest but its been fun.

Passion and Perseverance

   Diana Nyad is truly inspirational and I can only hope that some day I will have the same amount off passion for something as she did for the swim from Cuba to Florida. It is already incredible that she swam that distance, but to do it at the age of 64 is something out of this world. She failed four times and still had the motivation to attempt the swim one last time. She trained endlessly and never lost sight of her goal.
   Passion and perseverance is something everyone needs to achieve the goals they want to reach. How will passion and perseverance help me succeed in college? First, let's talk about passion, I think passion will give me the extra push I need to never give up on a dream or goal. I have a deep passion for one day becoming a principal for an Elementary school. Sometimes I'll day dream and think what it would be like to become a principal. I imagine all the kids and knowing that I have the opportunity to create a learning environment and atmosphere for the kids to learn and grow. I think about this goal everyday, and it's all I want. I want it so bad that I will never lose sight of my goal. I have had teachers who have helped me become a better student and others who have set me back, and as a principal I could hire the best candidates who would teach my students what needs to be taught. This is my passion and their is nothing more that I want than to reach this goal.
   Now we'll talk about perseverance. Perseverance is pushing through the obstacles and the rough patches to achieve success.  I am no good at math, seriously, and everyday I have Math class I push through the fact that I am compltely lost and try to understand what my teacher is doing. I am going to really need perseverance in Math class, so I can reach my goal of having good grades in college. I know sometimes I might get assingments that seem impossible t do or homework that I won't know how to do, but I will just have to push through it to achieve my dream.
   Passion and perseverance will help me achieve my goal and anyone else who has these two in mind. I can only hope that I will keep the passion I have to reach my goal and the perseverance to make it happen.
  

highschool to college

   Today I attended H.O.T DOGS and it was so different from the volunteering I had done in High school. First everyone met up at Hein and their were so many people there, and in High school only some group would volunteer to help on a Saturday morning. I hadn't signed up,so I was sent to help out at My father's Farm. When I got there everyone was getting to work and seemed eager to help out. We pulled weeds out for some hours, in between getting water breaks and meeting new people. Everyone worked together to get things done and removing everything to have a clean working space. At the end of the service project, we had to do a reflection were we wrote down how the experience influenced us. Everyone had such nice things say and after we just talked. It was a really nice experience because I met new people and I knew that I was helping a good cause.
    In high school, the service projects were completely different. we got in, worked, and got out. We never really talked to the people we were helping or to each other. It seemed to me that most of the people that were volunteering really did not want to be there. Everyone complained about it being to early and wanting to go home. It really felt like people were being forced to go, instead of  free will. At the end of our service project everyone was gone as soon as we were dismissed.; no one stayed to talk about what the service project meant to them or how it influenced them. In High school it seemed like volunteering was just work that needed to be done.
     Now let's compare my High school volunteering experiences to my college volunteering experiences. The volunteering I did today impacted me much more than it used to because I got to interact with the people more and to get down and dirty. In high school we never volunteered at any places where you actually got dirty and sweaty, but instead people would use helping a teacher for service hours. The thing that was the most different to me was the fact that today after we were done we reflected on what we had just done. and that really made me appreciate the experience that much more. It just made going to college that more exciting, because I now know that the service projects I do at TLU will be more beneficial to me and everyone else.

High school to College

   College is different than High school and everyone knows this. From the first day of high school when your teacher tells you that it is time to get serious, because college is not to far away. Some people like myself don't listen and wait till the last minute to change their study habits. In college their is no time for you to make mistakes because college is the time where you sow everyone what you are made of. The first day of high school can not compare to the first day in college. In high school you pretty much know who is going to be in your classroom, but in college you walk in to a class filled with fresh faces and you realize you are not in Kansas anymore.
   First, there's move in day where you see a bunch of people moving in and it's overwhelming knowing that you are doing the same thing and that all the people you bare seeing are now your class mates and that we are now apart of the bulldog community. Then you meet your peer mentor, I wish I had one of these in high school, and they instantly help you feel more comfortable in your new surroundings. We sat in a group and played ice breakers and little by little you start to let loose. In high school I never felt as alone as I have felt at TLU. This is probably because at my high school I pretty much knew everyone since elementary school and I ran Cross Country so I had a second family at my school. It has been a wake up call to me because I have realized that I am not as out going as I would like to think I am.In high school people would tell me that I was such a people person and that I was so easy to talk to, but so far in college I do not feel like myself. I don't speak up in class and I've only made a few new friends. I didn't think it would be so hard for me to be myself in college, but I guess I just have to make the best out of my situation.
   In college you can be anyone you want to be and no one knows how you were in high school. It's easier for some than others to adapt to the college life and make a boatload of friends. I guess some people transition from high scjool to college like it is no big deal, but for people like me, it takes time to go from somewhere you are compltely at  to somewhere you feel like you don't belong.

   What does "mental toughness" really mean? I think it means that you have to go beyond the limits set by our minds, and just strive for the beast. When doing something difficult, their is always a little voice in the back of my mind questioning my abilities and what I can actually do, but it is important to shut that voice up by proving it wrong. Sometimes I get homework ,math homework, and I find it so difficult that I don't even want to attempt to do it because I don't want to feel dumb and I just put it off over and over again. It's important to overcome the obstacles that my mind has made and to be tough along the way.
   You definitely do not have to be an athlete to have mental game, because their are plenty of people who are not athletes who may indeed have a stronger mental game than an athlete themselves. One example is people who are in band, I have never been in band , but I know they have mental toughness because they'll get yelled at for being off key and then moments later they will have to continue playing knowing that everyone just saw them getting in trouble and it must be hard to continue playing you instrument. Or when you get your first job and you make mistakes and your boss gets mad at you and you just have to continue doing your job and you can't let it show that you feel like you don' belong. Anyone and everyone has mental toughness and it is something that everyone is born with.
   When I hear the term "mental toughness" I think of my best friend who is in the Navy. I mean I can't imagine how difficult it was for her to make the decision to join the Navy; Not just her but anyone who is serving this country.  I'm pretty sure their was a voice in the back of their mind telling them to just stay where they were at and they overcame that. First they had to make the decision to go and then to go through bootcamp, where people try to break down their mental toughness everytime they get the chance and they still get through it . My point is that  anyone can have mental toughness be in sports, band, the army, or just in every day life.