Sarah’s summer and start of semester

Academic Writing, Freshman

Even in the starting few pages there is already a parallel between myself and the main character Sarah. She is at her graduation ceremony waiting to graduate one panel and the next she has graduated. This is very similar to how I felt at my graduation, my whole high school career had built up to this moment when I graduated. Once I got on the stage it seemed to be over in the blink of an eye. Sarah and I both had a summer job but unlike her I worked at a grocery store near my house. I enjoyed it.However Sarah went to a camp with her friends, I didn’t do anything like this and I regret it. I wish I had done more fun things with my friends before going off to college. In the weeks leading up to her school starting Sarah’s school sent out an informational course on the dangers of drugs and alcohol and her friend says you’ve been doing that forever. Longwood also sent out a module with the same topics for us to do which was quite long and it didn’t help that I accidentally closed out of the tab multiple times and had to rewatch videos. In Sarah’s story she moved in after her roommate so she didn’t have much say in how the dorm would look because her roommate had already decorated. For me I moved in a day before any of my suitemates so I was able to pick which side of the room I got. After the first night Sarah and her roommate attend presentations about activities at school and school safety. These are similar to the new lacer days we had at longwood. I felt these days were fun and not too repetitive. I met my peer mentor and got to make a few friends in my group. Sarah doesn’t take it well as she feels as if she’s turning skeleton listening to all of the presentations but she makes it through them. On the first day of classes she sits in a big lecture hall which is much different than the lecture experience I’ve had as the lectures I have are no more than 25 people. Although Sarah and I are two totally different people we have shared many of the same college experiences. So maybe college isn’t as scary and unpredictable as it might seem.

 
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Blog Post #1: Who Will You Be in Four Years?

Academic Writing, Engl 165-09 Fall '24

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Dear Future Self, 

You are currently in your first year at Longwood University as a Nursing student. As expected, the transition into college life has been full of challenging feelings, such as anxiety and uncertainty. On a more positive note, you are currently feeling extremely optimistic toward your future here. You have found comfort in the little town of Farmville and the beautiful campus it has to offer. I am confident that this feeling of comfort never faded for you and has only grown over four years. Is that the case?

A more specific part of this transition that you found difficult is determining the best way to balance all of the academic responsibilities at hand. Furthermore, you are finding it difficult to develop study habits that will serve you best in each course you are taking. Therefore, I hope that you have been able to figure that out for yourself and have used them throughout all four years. In addition to that, hopefully you found a way to divide time between all responsibilities, leaving time for yourself within all of them. 

As a Nursing student, you are currently aware of the difficulty the next four years is going to bring you. Did it end up being as bad as everybody makes it seem? Despite any hardship, I trust that you stuck with it and avoided giving up on yourself. I hope that you have come out of it confident in your abilities and are ready to bring them into the real world. Ideally you have now had a successful outcome on the NCLEX, and therefore have earned your official nursing license. I wish you the best of luck in your next journey of finding a job opportunity. I am very curious to find out whether you stuck with the original specialty you wanted to pursue or if you have found a passion for another one. 

The aspect of life that I hope you have grown in the most is your social experiences. Although the main purpose of college is to learn and help build a career, it is not the only one of college. That being said, I truly hope you allowed yourself to get involved in something other than your own studies. It could be as simple as getting to know more people and forming life-long friendships. Whatever they may be, I hope you went as far as getting involved in clubs and finding new hobbies to occupy your time. Seeing that you have always enjoyed service, and you are making a whole career out of it, I am hopeful that you found a way to get involved in it somewhere on or around campus. 

Most importantly, I hope you are genuinely happy and are satisfied with everything you accomplished over the last four years. 

Best Wishes, 

Present Self

 
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Who Will You Be in Four Years? (Blog Post due, Thursday, Sept 5th, Groups 1 & 3)

Academic Writing, Engl 165-09 Fall '24

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In this blog post, you will write a letter to your future self. What is it that you want to say to your future self about their journey at Longwood? What do you hope your future self accomplishes? What types of experiences do you hope your future self will have had during four years at Longwood?

This will require you to think in detail about the types of things you hope to do while you are here? Do you hope your future self will have gotten involved while here? Be specific, what types of things do you hope you’ll be involved in? It’s all about the details.

Remember that ALL blog post have to be 300-500 words in length. Not over, and NOT under. Points will be taken if you are either.