12 Days- Life Just Got A Whole Lot Easier!

When it seemed as if the stress of the semester was about to get so much worse than it had already been, my professors threw a curve ball at me. Since both of my final exams were going to be December 20, 2010, my professors decided to save us the pain of waiting so long and both of my finals were made take home exams! Shrieks and gasps of excitement filled the room. This meant that I would not have to wait until the 20th to be done with school. I could be done as soon as Wednesday December 13, 2010.

Dr. Cai and Professor Simpson have made my last few weeks of school a lot less stressful than it could have been. I would like to thank these professors so much for everything that they have taught me. I have had both professors on numerous occasions and they have taught me so much. If you are a student at GMU I highly recommend taking one of their classes.

So this is it, just a few more days to go and just a few more assignments to finish until I am done. I am so glad that I have take home exams instead of huge finals because now I can concentrate on getting them done and then say, "See ya school!".

13 Days- One More Thing To Stress Me Out!!!!

The stress of my semester continued this morning when I got locked out of my house for 45 minutes. I woke up early this morning to take my brother to an appointment. He took my keys to get something out of my car and when I asked him to give them back to me, he proceeded to throw them at me. When leaving the house I went to check my pockets to make sure my keys were there. Of course they weren't, but before I could say I did not have my keys, my brother shut the door.

So here we were, locked out of the house in 34 degree weather, according to weather.com. The weather outside was not as cold as snowmageddon from earlier this year, but it still was pretty cold. Many different things were going through my head at this moment. After about five minutes of yelling at my brother for shutting the door, I started calling people who could possibly give us a ride. After about 20 minutes I was finally able to reach my father who came and picked us up.

When I got in the car I felt like my fingers were about to fall off. However, we were finally able to reach our destinations on time. The morning may have been crazy, but it is now behind me. So hopefully I can make this day much better than the morning was so that the next two weeks won't be so stressful.

14 Days- The Importance of Groups

I am now at the two week mark until I finally am done. Over the last few days I have been trying to think of things that I have learned while in school that will actually be useful in the real world.  Two words that college students dread to hear is group work. The reasons people dislike group work are because it can be very time consuming and if you end up with an unreliable group it can make it even harder.

The communication department at GMU likes to focus heavily on group work. This semester I have had to work with a group for at least three projects. Yesterday I was trying to think what the reason behind all the group work was. I believe that there is so much group work because our professors are trying to prepare us for the real world. In my field of study, communication, most of the jobs require that you work with people. By working with groups it prepares you for the teamwork that is needed in real life. If I am going to be a manager I have to learn to work with people, and group work helps with that.

Group projects may not be the most fun, but they are there for a reason. I may hate working on group assignments now but when I am in my field of work and required to work with people on something I will be thanking my professors for all the group work and experience that they gave me.

16 Days- What To Do Next?

Time is coming down to the wire; I am both excited and terrified. The reason for these feelings is because once I graduate I am out on my own and I then have to decide what I am going to do with the rest of my life. I am currently a weight loss consultant, and I would love to stay with the company that I am currently with and work my way up in the field. I want to eventually become a manager so that I can gain the skills that I need to move into an HR position sometime in the future.

I was thinking earlier today about how the classes I have taken while in school have really helped me prepare for my future. This semester I have been taking an interviewing class, which has really helped me prepare for future interviews, as well as how to conduct a good interview myself. This is good for me because I would like to go into the field of HR so interviewing is a skill that I am going to need. One of the projects that we were required to do for this class was to work with a partner and be both the interviewer and the interviewee in a job interview. This assignment really made me feel more comfortable in how I present myself in an interview. So if I take what I have learned from doing that project, I see no reason why I can’t be successful in years to come.

17 Days- Never Say Never

Well 17 days remain until I am finally done with school. When I look at that number it seems so far away, but I know it will be just a matter of time before I can say I am a graduate of George Mason University. However, the path to get to this point in my life was a long and windy one. I attended three other schools, Virginia Intermont College, Northern Virginia Community College and Shepherd University. However, none of those schools were right for me.  I had to return home from VIC after four days because my mother was in an accident and was severely hurt. So I attend NOVA for three semesters before transferring to Shepherd. I then attended Shepherd for one semester while taking care of my grandmother and aunt who were both pretty sick. That semester both of them passed away. That is when I decided to transfer to GMU. After it seemed as if all the odds were stacked against me, never in my wildest dreams did I think I would graduate college, let alone with honors.

When I was in high school I was the kid who did not really care about school. I was lazy, never studied and barely got my homework done. My teachers and friends never thought I would make it anywhere in life. However, I proved them wrong because here I am four and a half years later graduating with honors. However, I am not about to stop here. I will continue to push forward and succeed in everything I do in life.

18 Days-Mental Meltdown

With just 18 days left until I graduate college, stress has started to take over my life. I have less than three weeks to complete group papers, exams and projects. As well as being a full time student, I am also a part time weight loss consultant, which takes a lot of my energy. So with school and work, my stress level has hit the roof.

Yesterday, after a day full of group projects and meetings, I then had to go to work for a few hours. When I arrived at work I saw that more than half of my appointments for the night had canceled. This caused me to have what I like to call a mental meltdown.
                                                                                                                 

When my co-workers tried to talk to me I snapped at them. I did everything in my power to not let all my feelings out right then and there. After about an hour of freaking out mentally, I got my act together and landed back to reality. I realized that stressing so much over everything going on in my life at the moment will not do me any good. According to Education-Portal, when stressing about college it is best to take deep breathes and relax. These next few weeks of school and work are not going to be easy, and if I want to get through them I am going to have to relax. When I finish that last final I am done for good, so no more mental meltdowns for me.