Blog Assignment 1

About Me

I moved to Mobile, AL from Bloomfield, IN, July 2009. I consider Linton, IN my "home town" since I lived there for most of my life. I have 2 dogs and a loving fiancé that I hope to be marrying in summer of 2014! I am a full time Secondary Education/math student at the University of South Alabama, and I hope to graduate in December 2014. I was on the county swim team for 6 years, and qualified for the state meet 3 of them. I love to sew, watch football, and do things with my family, which is now difficult living 12 hours away from them.

My mom has been a cosmetologist since as long as I can remember. She is also an independent consultant for Scentsy and doTERRA. She has recently decided to go back to school for business administration and is now in her third semester at Ivy Tech. My dad is a Marine, and he is now working as a civilian at SAIC as a senior engineering technician. He is also a competitive bass fisherman in the FLW, and an avid sportsman. I have one older brother who is in the Army National Guard, the Carpenter’s Union, and is also a college student at Ivy Tech. He is 25 and owns his own home, and he has a 5-year-old daughter who has started all day kindergarten this year. My niece is very sweet. She loves to play, and she loves to stay with me when I visit. When she misses me she always asks, “Can I come to your house in Bama?” I wish I could tell her yes. My fiancé, who will soon be family, graduated from Alabama Southern in Thomasville, AL. He is an electrician and does Programmable Ladder Controls.

My passions at this point of my life are school, my pets, and being the best person I can be. If I do not excel in school then I do not feel that I will be able be the person that I want to be. I will be the first to admit that for a period of time I was not a person that anyone wanted to be around. I was bitter and negative all the time. Since then I have been trying to be aware of myself and how I am acting. In return, this will and has made me a better person than I was. As far as my pets, I love them to death! They are basically my children, and they sure act like they are. I have a Chihuahua, Foxy, and a retriever mix, Allie. I got Foxy for my birthday a year ago. Allie is a rescue. Southbark rescued her from a kill shelter. Southbark is a local company who fosters animals until they can find them a forever home. It thrills me that there are organizations like this since Mobile does not have a non-kill shelter.

I decided I wanted to go to The University of South Alabama in the 6th grade. I wanted to be a marine biologist, and go to the school that my uncle had. Obviously, I am no longer striving to be a marine biologist, but I still felt it was still necessary to leave Indiana. In high school I was in the band, a football manager, and on the dance team; until my parents decided to move to a new school district in the middle of my freshmen year. My new school did not have a dance team or football. So, I had to resort to cheer leading for the basketball team. Basketball is in my top 3 for hated sports! I stopped cheer leading after my junior year and became the drum major for the band my senior year.

After officially deciding to come to The University of South Alabama during my senior year of high school, I decided to enter as a BMD major for hopes of getting into the pharmacy program. However, science was not on my side. I really enjoyed my math courses and decided to take a few extra classes just for electives. After thinking about it more I realized how much I loved algebra in Jr. high and high school. Thinking about this made me realize how much I valued my 7th grade math teacher who passed away my senior year. He was an amazing person and teacher, and he is the reason I want to teach math. He wanted us to learn to do it his way or no way. Now, I understand why. I still do my math problems the way he taught us. I doubt that I will teach my class that way, but I’m still in training.

Randy Pausch on Time Management

Before this video I did not know who Randy Pausch was. In this video, Dr. Pausch talked about things I already do. He talked about making a plan and making a to do list. Generally, my plan includes my to do list. I write what is absolutely important in pen so it cannot be changed. The other things I write in pencil in case, like he said, something comes up. I have a plan each day, week, and month. As far as goals, mine are school related. This semester my goal is to, at minimum, make the dean’s list again.

Also, my mom has challenged the people in her businesses and those that she knows with the “What if/Why not Challenge.” Here is a brief explanation: for the next 16 weeks what if you eat right, take your supplements like you are supposed to, exercise, do your work when you need to (only you know what your what if or why not's are). For many of us they are the same, for some they are deeper or more personal. However the bottom line really is, what do you have to lose? What would be different four months from now if you don't “What if/ Why not”? What will your life, your families’ lives look like 16 weeks from now if you give 100% and put the procrastination and excuses aside. I am personally taking this challenge and I cannot wait to see what comes of it.

Time Management Exercises and Time Management Lessons

I need to watch my “time wasters” more. I spend too much time watching TV or online looking at the news or even Facebook.