Posts

My first year here at Ohio State inside and out of each classroom has been a challenge, but in such a good way where I feel like I have grown so much as an individual, I have unlocked things about myself that I knew were there, but never expanded on. I made sure to engage in each class I took as well as taking time out to go out and try new things and meet other people to build a network and great friendships with more to come. In my GE’s I learned more about theater and how much I enjoy the arts while understanding how much African Americans have a rich history in the industry that has helped cultivate the acting and sound of today. My other classes that are more towards my major taught me how I should be studying and ways to focus on getting more of a balance between school and friends, it is hard to get through Chemistry and Math at the same time while wanting to still have fun with the people around you. It is a process that I think will not be too much of a problem next year since I now know a little more on how to manage my time. Unexpectedly, now that this Corona-virus has given more time while being at home, that does not mean slack off and wake up late, as the first semester went by, I realized how helpful waking up early and getting things done is. It is easy to understand, but hard to act on, coming from high school, staying up late, playing video games, hanging out with friends, etc. It was a difficult process to transition into, becoming a morning person after years of being a night owl does not happen overnight or over a couple of weeks. As each day goes by I try to better myself, throughout the year I gained an ability to sing and be more interactive with people, building up my confidence as a person with daily working out and pushing myself to try to be the best me. Singing is a passion of mine, which is why I payed for a subscription to help me sing better so that I can make music for people because not only do I enjoy it, but I would like to be able to make people feel the same way I do about music. I constantly listen to different variations and time periods of music, and I can say I found my sound, the way I want to sing my songs, and now once the season changes to Summer and I don’t have any assignments to do I will work on my music more, and I will continue to do it while in school and see what happens. Each part of the experience at OSU has been fun and challenging, my favorite memory at OSU is when I first went to a concert through OUAB and Quinn XCII(92) had performed it was so fun and that was what really unlocked the passion that was already there, I always listen to music, but after that I started wanting to be that person on stage. Next year, I am looking forward to spending more time building relationships and building up myself while welcoming in any new challenges, because I know I will be able to handle it. Also, I will be looking forward to progressing in my music capability, that means song writing, vocal prep, hopefully already linking with one of my friends who knows how to make beats or learning to do my own, and possibly learning how to play the piano. Each year brings something new just like everyday we try to build up to that something, so that by the end of the year there is a new goal to reach.

So, I took the Enneagram Personality Test and apparently, I am the caregiver/helper which is number two out of the nine personality types that someone could be. Mine says that I tend to be generous, altruistic, and empathetic, I am also a hardworking and motivated person with a drive to connect with the world. I believe that this test is accurate because I do feel that I have some type of calling to help and connect with people in a musical way, as well as pursuing to hep with the fight against climate change so that the planet could be a better place for everyone. Even though these results are good I must work more towards my development of my dream. I will use the time given by what we are currently going through as well as the upcoming summer to build my knowledge of things that are of my interest that can allow me to follow my passion. Once I am back at OSU I will continue to grind out the school work and try to achieve a career in Environmental Science so that I can go on to get data for people that end up passing laws to help the earth. To put my words to action I will do my best to set up more mental notes and writing more of my goals down on paper. Giving myself a time period to get what I want done I will see what happens 1 or 2 years, I won’t give up on something, that fuels me and other people. Music is a universal language that is a pure art form, it compliments us, lifts us up from bad times, takes us out of the area were in and puts us on another planet or at another location in our minds or within our souls. Another way of strengthening myself would be to take on the role as a role model for some of the incoming freshmen, that way I can pass what I know to someone who I used to be. A year is a long time so, I am sure that I have at least some useful information to give.

During the three day weekend on November 10th, I went to the Columbus Museum of Art, saw some pretty cool art that really seemed interesting to me. If you like art and just want to go somewhere to interpret what you think of someone’s creative piece of their imagination then go for it. It is always interesting to try and figure it out if you do not know anything about the painting or painter, and if you are super into it and know some of the art works then that’s cool too. When traveling to this location and coming I ended up realizing that of course, I still have so much to explore outside of this campus. Why is it so easy to get caught up with doing the same routine and just going back to the dorm? This little trip I took with my roommate was pretty cool, however it got me thinking that I should start visiting other areas that interest me that i might just be curious about. Things especially like food, I am going to start visiting some good restaurants recommended by some of my friends who are from here. Realizing that I do not want to that boring guy that just sits in the dorm and studies and does homework made me want to just get up and do other things. This semester kind of flew by and I did a couple of things here and there, but I still feel like I did not take hold of the opportunities that I could or should have. Even though it may not be the first place to go on someones list, it is still a nice area to visit, plus it is not that far away from campus, it is about the same distance as cosi. I would recommend the Columbus Museum of Art as a way to get in touch with the city a bit without having to go too far. Something I also learned was that getting around is not hard at all, especially since being a student with free bus rides you can go anywhere, whenever you make the time. It is a bit hard most of the time when having assignments and exams coming up, but once you catch that window of not doing anything on the weekend or something then just go out into the city and see what happens. I would advise going with at least one friend or group, especially if it is somewhere that is quite far, but if you think you can handle it then go ahead trooper. In most cases though on this campus it is fairly hard to get people to go out and do things sometimes, most are not free around the same time, assignments or exams might be coming up for them and not or something. People have stuff to do, it just happens to be like that sometimes.

On October 28th, 2019 I interviewed Brittnee Halpin, an Alumni Environment and NAtural Resource Scholar who has already completed her masters and working on her PhD. Her major is Environmental Engineering with a minor in International Studies. She told me that her time in the ENR Scholars program was fun and had a nice family feeling that came with being in the program, with all the resources and support from the staff it really feels like a family. We both could relate to the fact that you get meet and create relationships with so many people it can get kind of crazy if you are trying to spread yourself out. Talking about classes was a different story, since she was an engineering major student she had felt like she wouldn’t be able to do anything else, but focus on her studies. However, she said that she wished she would have joined a couple organizations or clubs because really she had time here and there, but ended up being too focused on studying to get out and join any groups. She did inform me that she did go on a study abroad trip and she said she loved it, in which this granted her a bit of experience with outside world going into any interviews for jobs and internships. She let me know two tips for interviews are to 1) Be Yourself and 2)Don’t devalue yourself, make sure you talk about any and everything that makes you valuable to the company. Even on a resume, make sure you know how much skill you can bring, because even though I may not have any internships or research experience under my belt right now, I can still list a few things such as organization skills, communication skills, hard working and horticulture skills, as long as I dig deep and understand what I do have rather than focusing on what I don’t. Within the job market Brittnee let me know to make sure I advocate for myself because no one else knows what you have going on, or what mental state you might be in. So, when needed  push the issue that I need a break, or if I feel like I can do more then put myself out there and prove that I should get that raise or promotion. Communication is very important, whether in the workplace, on the job, or for yourself. Doing this interview allowed me to open my eyes a bit more to why connecting with faculty and putting yourself out there for people to come to you is so important. Sending that one email, making that one phone call, going to that one meeting or one hour of office hours, can possibly open doors that you didn’t know about. I will make sure to focus on school work, that’s always important, but the connections made from joining an organization and/or doing a research study program with a professor, can then possibly lead to a paid internship and the connections made from the internship if well communicated correctly with whoever you are working with can then lead to an interview with a company possibly, all because I am going to communicate, connect, and advocate.

On September 22nd, I had visited COSI with a couple of my friends, we had an amazing time, bonding, joking around, as well as learning a couple things. While exploring this new area I had almost rekindled my child like spirit for a bit, paying attention to the wonders of dinosaurs, anatomy, birds, etc. Since it was my first time being there I learned what it was like to regain the child like spirit of having fun, while learning about science. Truth be told at first I thought this a kids place, I said to my self for a moment “what are we honestly going to do?”, but then I realized that acting that way would just be boring, so we went all over except for areas where we had to pay extra and bonded. My friendships got stronger, that’s not all we did though, we then went to this pizza place and together we ate a giant pizza. Sadly, I can’t remember exactly how many slices the pizza was, I believe it was about 48 or 50 slices. We ate most of it and it wasn’t too bad scarfing it down since there was 8 of us. I would highly recommend going there if you are a sucker for science as well as seeing other little kids have fun and enjoy themselves. Chilling with friends at any place is always the move on the weekend so I had to do it since I wasn’t going to do anything else that day. In addition after the pizza place, I went to Kroger and got some amazing chips, Ruffles brand, the flavor name is “All Dressed”, I love them. Well that was my time out on the town. Hopefully this is a bit helpful to anyone if read.

Welcome to u.osu.edu. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!