In my first semester of college I am most excited about making new friends and adjusting to the increased independence. I expect time management and organization will be my biggest challenges this semester. Other time commitments I have currently are the swim team and the health sciences community events. I do plan to look into clubs once I find a balance in my current life. I spend 20 hours a week training with an additional 6 hours a week of mandatory study hall. HS events will not be a huge time commitment with times varying. In highschool I was on the highschool and club swim team, in National Honor Society, environmental club, and Key club. I would like to join the environmental club here at ODU. My hope is that I’ll be able to benefit the surrounding environment in any way I can.
My intended major is Nursing. I chose this major because I like helping people, enjoy fast paced working environments, and wanted to go into healthcare. I would like to say that I am hardworking, compassionate, and eager to improve my skills. I feel that these characteristics make nursing a good choice for me. I have a little bit experience from lifeguarding and hearing my parents who also work in healthcare talk about what happens and what they do at their jobs. My career goal is to be a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist. I will have to work for at least a year before I can apply to CRNA school, which will take about 3 years. I intend to do emergency medicine in the time before and hopefully during school.
I expect the biggest difference between high school and college to be the time I spend studying and doing homework. There is sometimes a difference between studying and homework. Though it is possible to better grasp a subject or concept while doing homework for a class, manypeople mindlessly fly through homework to get it done. When you are studying, there is a conscious effort to absorb and better understand the material. I am in Sociology, Interpreting the American Past, Chemistry, Chem Lab, and Health 101. I expect to spend at least 5 hours per weekon each class. History will likely take more due to the length and density of the readings. I plan to do most of my studying in study hall. The distractions I anticipate are the other people around me if they talk loudly or try to talk to me. I plan to put my earbuds in and play music to drown out these external distractions. I feel I study best at night because it is when I have the most time to sitand be with my work. When I am interrupted it is harder to refocus. I try to write most of my notes, so it helps to read information I already wrote out and thought about. Repetition also helps me remember things.