With only six more weeks to go till the end of the semester, I am beginning to glance ahead and take a look at the spring semester. In the Cronkite School it is mandatory you meet with your advisor. My advising appointment was today. I woke up early this morning, got ready and as I drove to school, my head filled with questions I wanted to ask. Now, I bet many of you are just like me and have a need to know everything, especially information regarding your future. My plan is to try and graduate early. Yes, that’s right I want to have the full on responsibilities of an adult. See, the thing is my “roommate” and I want to buy a house of our own. You’ve most likely figured out by now that my “roommate” is actually my boyfriend. The tricky part of wanting to own your own place is the money that it takes. So, the sooner I graduate, the sooner I can have a career, the sooner I make more money which makes it sooner to have a house. Pretty rational thinking I’d say.

Back to my advising appointment; when I asked my advisor about graduating early she gave me a look of pure puzzlement, as if I was crazy! The downside of my plan I discovered, is that because the Cronkite classes are set up in order it may be difficult to graduate early because I would need to take classes differently than the curriculum is set up. The good news, however, is that I can take my general studies classes during the summer at the chance that graduating early can happen and just at the fact that my course load would be lighter for the fall ’08 semester. Honestly, having five classes right now isn’t too challenging that I couldn’t do it again, but I would like to spend a lot of focus on my journalism courses since that is where my future lies.

Senior year in high school I changed my mind kind of late in the game on where I wanted to go to school, so I ended up registering late for ASU. This made me register late for classes and it is harder to get a great schedule that way. I advise you not to do this, but do make sure you are a making a decision about college that makes you happy. Anyway, I still have to fulfill my math credit. That class along with English 102, French 201, Sociology 101 and JMC 201 are what, at the end of my advising appointment I knew I had to register for. Wish me luck I beat the crowd when its enrollment time.


P.S. Don't forget you guys can leave comments. I'd love to hear what you guys have to say or any questions you have!

Walking around ASU not only are your eyes observing everything, but your ears are also working hard. In high school, the only things your ears wanted to hear was latest gossip or the two-minute warning bell walking to class. College however is a little different. Many times as I have walked from class to class I have almost run into someone or worse, got run over. Luckily though, my ears were with me all those times. I know, I know, I sound a little crazy, but it’s true, every sound is important when walking around campus. The sound of a bike’s tires being peddled faster and faster is an excellent tip to turn around and see if you need to get out of the way. After a while, you will get so used to hearing bikes that you will easily be able to determine how far away the rider is and even what side of you it is on. Bikes aren’t the only thing to hear for, but also rollerblades, skateboards, cars and feet. Although it can be difficult to hear the wheels of a skateboard on the smooth cement, try to pay attention because you don’t want to collide with the other person. I never realized how handy my ears would be walking around in college. The day I realized that I needed to step out of my own world and listen to what was going on around me was when I was just minding my own business walking to my car and then as I started to cross the street, I almost stepped right into the path of a bike. What stopped me was my sudden halt. It was then I realized my ears could stop this from happening again. Another reason it is important to hear your surroundings is that you don’t have to make a car wait for you but you can notice where they are and walk accordingly. Now, you may be thinking this all seems a little extreme, but I swear just giving your ears more of a job than listening to gossip you will save yourself the humiliation of running into someone and ending up on your butt.

The past two weeks have been fun-filled with studying, school, and homework, studying, work and yes even more studying. It is that wonderful time of year known as midterms. With five classes, four of them all having tests around the same time it is kind of a challenge making sure you know everything that you’ve been discussing in class. As I have shared with you before, French is my most challenging class. Amazingly however, I managed to get an 87 on the test. It was a test filled with writing. Looking at the test at first I was thinking there was no way I was going to do well. But, I took it one section at a time, remembered to breathe and dug way into my brain. A helpful tip for tests jot down everything you remember that you know will be on the test, such as in a foreign language class I always put the new verbs with their conjunction and new grammar rules down so I don’t forget about them when it comes to the writing part of the exam. Not only did we have a written test, but we also had an oral part as well. Now, it was not like in high school when you have a group of people and you memorize a conversation and present it in front of the teacher. No, for this you had to schedule an appointment with the teacher, know all phrases and situations is the chapters you have learned and are expected to respond to whatever the teacher says. The only preparation you can really have is just to review everything.

For my history class there was a lot to take in for the exam: lectures, PowerPoint’s, reading and online information. I thought I studied pretty well by reading my notes and looking back in the book but I was wrong. I realize now that I should have really understood every reading assigned and took more oral notes from the teacher. My goal for the next exam is to be better prepared; also going with your first choice for an answer really is most likely always right. Next was my JMC 110 class, a class fully about the history and principles of journalism. The class is lecture style with PowerPoints. I’ll have to admit I was actually a little bit of a rebel in this class because I don’t have the book that accompanies the course. I do, luckily, pay very good attention in class and take all the notes including talking the professors do. (Unlike history these PowerPoints are more straightforward) I read my notes over and over and even made flashcards for some of the important dates and names. (Quick, what was the name of the first American newspaper and who published it? haha.) During the test I referred back to my history knowledge to help me out; I ended up getting an 88. Not too shabby, I think. My English 101 class doesn’t have a midterm or final exam so the only test I had left to sturdy for was JMC 194; a class purely on English grammar. You would assume that a journalism major would know good grammar but the class is actually a little challenging. My teacher, who is an editor, puts the lectures from each class online so we can review them and really understand the concepts. For studying, I looked back on all the lectures and printed out the review so I could look at it the day of the exam before class. I also used other references to practice and study with. Although I don’t have the results for that class yet, I feel pretty confident I did well. I’m still crossing my fingers.