Transitioning from high school to college is the initial step every college freshman must face. First-year college students all start with high self esteem. Many students with high expectations for themselves, but for most, their experiences do not match up with what they initially intended. As a student you must realize that college is much different than high school and you are going to be faced with a variety of new challenges that you have not experienced before. This occurred to me when I was placed within my first college English course, English 203. I had new faces, names, and words being thrown at me all at once. The challenge I faced was I had never done anything like what was being expected, and yet I had to face these tasks and get them done in a timely manner. As students you must not shy away from the challenges being presented. By experiencing the difficulties that trouble you and changing your way of thinking, allows you to grow as a reader, writer, and thinker.
Everett’s Logic
Logic is reasoning conducted by principles that provide validation. As a person logic deals with something you know is right. In Percival Everett’s poem, re:f(gesture), he has a topic titled “Logic”.
Everett goes about getting you to rethink about logic. On page 67 he states, “Are you a composite?… all of you at once, a simple element?”. You think a person is a simple idea that you know is right, it is an idea that is viewed valid, but Everett shows this is not the case. When you hear someone’s name do you see them all at once, just their appearance, or just personality. You have something in your head when you hear a name, however is this valid, and do you know what you are picturing? The next situation you see this faulty view of logic is on page 69 the poem titled 5, “From rags and dust a rat is formed in the cellar. It was not there before. Only rags and dust”. This situation is like picturing a person when you hear their name. When you hear rags and dust does your mind place a rat and or a cellar in the picture as well, even though you were not told they were there?
Humanities vs Science
Science is defined as knowledge gained through the process of observations and experimentation. Hard science are these processes through the categories of physics, chemistry, biology, and astronomy. Humanities is defined as the study of classical literature and languages. Categories and studies that fall under humanities are the study of literature, and philosophy.
Then there are stereotyped definitions of what many people think of when they hear these two studies, humanities and hard science. When many people think of humanities they base it as all opinions. The things that are learned are on discussion and opinion rather than fact based. While with sciences many think of this as only facts. Everything you learn is based on fact, no opinion and that these facts should not change.
In reality, both humanities and science, are fact and opinion based. For science we had to start somewhere in order to get the facts we learn today. Back centuries ago people first purposed an idea that was not originally there, nor did they know if it was true or not. For example, theories like the earth being round, and earth being tilted on an axis. After researching and discussing it, then years later ideas are finalized and proven right, creating the facts and knowledge we have today. Science starts as ideas and opinions on certain topics and then evolve to facts that are taught around the world. In humanities courses they provide you with facts that were once created, but then encourage the thought of you to think differently or to create something new. That is they key aspect that is different in science courses. They are based on just teaching you the information and facts and what you to memorize these facts. They do not teach and encourage you to think a different possibility as part of their course.
Humanities and science do not oppose one another, in the modern world, they are intertwined. Each of these studies and knowledge have a role of fact and opinion based. Next time you are in a course for humanities or a science, try applying not just one of these aspects, but both and encourage others to use facts to form opinions and ideas.
MGM vs MTM
MGM stands for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, created in 1924 for the production and distribution of movies and TV shows in the United States. Known for their famous logo, Leo the Lion, who was inside golden film and would open every movie or show with a loud roar. MTM represents The Mary Tyler Moore show established in 1969 by Mary Tyler Moore and her husband. Her famous show logo was an orange kitten named Mimsie inside a circle of golden ribbon, that would meow at the start of every show.
Everett and Alphabetical Order
When you think of alphabetical order there is a variety of sources that come to mind. A few of these examples are, the dictionary, class listings, thesaurus, glossary, index, contacts, library, encyclopedia, and for English 203 the Bedford. It provides order to things that are disorder. When most people think of alphabetical order they associate it with the way the dictionary is organized. However, you can not categorize the way the dictionary is for alphabetical order, it is just one way it can work. As we see in the Bedford on page 262, when you look up a word in some cases it may refer you to go look up a completely different word for the definition. This shows how alphabetical order links common similarities.
Rewards
There is no secret to being successful. It is the result of preparation, hard work, dedication, and learning from failure. When starting a journey whether it is college, or even aspects like sports, you aren’t ready to face the responsibilities that come with it. To earn the success you must sacrifices and put all your heart into building good qualities, and grow from the important life lessons that come from of it. In class with Professor McCoy, one day we received pikachu key chains. We received these due to our hard work and growth in class with each other and progress in our own work. As I began to think, in life there are always situations that if you work hard you will get a reward. Here are some examples of personal experiences.
Percival Everett’s Logic
After reading re: f (gesture) by Percival Everett, we began to break down the ideas and meaning behind Everett’s work. The three sections within this poem are titled, “Zulus, Body, and Logic”. The section that caught my attention, was the section titled, “Logic”. As a group we went through each aspect of this section and interpreted it with our own thoughts. An idea that caught my attention appeared more than once within the section “Logic”.
A member in my group sparked this idea that was formed from a couple of lines, “Are you a composite? Or are you whole, your name, all of you at once, a simple element?”. (page 67). As a group we began to break this down and form ideas. When you hear someone’s name do you see them all at once just as an image, are you picturing only specific thing about them like appearance, voice, or personality, or are you applying all of those at once. Everette asks whether you are composite, meaning made of various parts, or are you as a whole, your imagine not your traits. It is creating a picture in your head of what you see and how you see it. After creating this idea, I began to flip through the other poems. On page 69, the poem titled 5, “from rags and dust a rat is formed in the cellar. It was not there before. Only rags and dust”. You may interpret this section in various ways, but try thinking about this. Everette is saying he is only giving you the two words rags and dust and from that you are creating a picture in your mind based of what you think of when you hear those two words. When you hear rags and dust does your mind places a rat and or a cellar in the picture too, even though the only two words you were given were rags and dust. No where did that phrase include rat or cellar yet you are picturing both.
One definition of logic is, a way of viewing something as accurate. Everette is trying to show that your mind creates imagines from the words you hear that may or may not be correct. Everyone’s logic is different depending on how you interpret it or visualize it.
As a whole, everyone’s mind forms a picture when hearing specific words or phrases, when they may or may not be there. When hearing someone’s name you bring about this idea of them whether they are there or not, or when hearing phrases like rags and dust your mind picturing a basement with a rat even if that is not shown or given to you. We see this situation in various parts of our everyday life.
Fixed Mindset vs Growth Mindset
A mindset is an individual’s perception on their ability and qualities such as; our intelligence and creativity. As a class we watched a YouTube video introducing us to fixed and growth mindsets. Within the video we learned the two different aspects on what people are like who are a fixed mindset and for others who are a growth mindset. There are different ways at looking at the two different types of thinking. However, after reviewing the YouTube video, and taking notes, a fixed mindset is more the negative way of thinking and growth is the positive.
If you are person who experience a fixed mindset you have distinctive ways of thinking that make you this way. The main objective to people who have a fixed mindset is they want validation. They believe as a person they have no control over their abilities. The skills you currently have you are born with and they can’t change. This type of person tries to prove themselves, but is very sensitive to mistakes. When engaging in work they focus on the results instead of progress. People with a fixed mindset are known to do this because they don’t want to look bad. They view having to put effort into their work as a negative. If they have to put effort in it must mean they are bad at what they do. Many even avoid all challenges; they don’t want to face the process of possible feedback. Instead of taking feedback as a way to improve for future assignments, they take in personal. They interpret feedback in this negative way because they see their mistakes as a threat rather than taking it for improvement. As a result, a person with a fixed mindset, may lack confidence and may always feel anxious or stressed when it comes to criticism. Now for the growth mindset, it is about achieving proficiency. A person may take these aspects and apply them in a positive way. The way growth mindset works is that they think that you have control over your own abilities, and these abilities can be learned or developed over time. Growth mindset thinkers start by working through challenges. They view their personal mistakes as feedback on how to get better, and not as a judgment or a personal attack. A person with this way of thinking is eager to learn because they want to improve, and they are not sensitive to criticism or afraid of their mistakes. Many research has shown that teachers now can start changing the way students think to more of a growth mindset, by just the way they approach students outcomes.
Everett and Suspicious Pants Irony
The first day of class Professor McCoy introduced us to a tweet called the suspicious pants. That day we were placed into groups and were told to unpack the meaning behind the suspicious pants. As Jessica referred in her blog post titled A Reflection on Suspicious Pants, Professor McCoy told use “Suspicious Pants is all of Percival Everett’s writings in one tweet”. At the time I did not know what this meant, but now two months later I have been able to have further information to allow me to relate the suspicious pants and Everett and what they have in common.
Transition from High School to College
When you receive that high school diploma, you have lots of emotions. From satisfaction, excitement and determination to move to next the next chapter in your life. Within the month of June, even into July, it was a time of celebration. Celebrating graduating high school, and celebrating the next chapter in our lives. For me, it was celebrating that it was time to pursue my journey at SUNY Geneseo.
First-year college students all start with confidence. Many with expectations, but for most, their experiences do not match up with what they initially intended. Continue reading “Transition from High School to College”