Academic Success

       I hope everyone had a great spring break! I know I loved every minute of sitting on my couch watching March Madness with my family, but now I'm regretting not touching my homework for a week...yikes! Funny that I have to write about academic success now, huh?
       Anyways, I loved the discussion that we had that last class about thinking about a time that you thought about leaving Iowa State and what made you stay. I could have sworn I was the only crazy person who thought about it and was a little timid to start talking about it until my partner just let it all out. And I was like, "wait you too?" Always good to know you're not alone!
     My main reason was due mostly to homesickness first semester. Because the University of Iowa is so close to my hometown, a ton of my friends as well as my sisters, went there. It was always where I had wanted to go too, until I found out that I was restricted to ISU due to my major. Only two other girls from my graduating class came to ISU and there's maybe 10-15 others from Durant here now. On top of that, as much as I loved my roommate last year, she was barely ever around first semester because she had an upperclassman boyfriend who had an apartment. It would have been really easy for me to have said, "yep, I don't like it here, I'm transferring at semester," and trust me, I thought about it a lot.
     Tying this back to what what we discussed in lecture, I am definitely motivated internally. Everything that I work for, I know that I'm only doing to better myself and increase my chances at getting an internship and job in the future, whether that means staying in on a Friday night to study or working 40 hours weeks in the summer. I never said it was the most fun thing in the world, but the hard work has more than paid off through my first two years of college.
     Now back to why I stayed at ISU. Mostly, I think it was because of the Hixson Scholarship. I knew how lucky I was to have this much financial help and that I wouldn't get that if I transferred. Additionally, I still loved my major and wasn't ready to give that up either. So I basically told myself to suck it up for at least one more semester and then see. Thank God I did! I had the best end to first semester, finally got to know more people on my floor, connected with my roommate, and ended up meeting my best friends.
     I think this area of homesickness/wanting to transfer is where I will be most able to help the freshman next year because I'm not afraid to admit that I went through it now; it's all too common. The most difficult thing will be getting the students to open up to me, unlike myself. The only people I ever told was my sister and my parents! It wasn't because I didn't trust my peer mentors or anything like that, I'm just not the type of person who talks things out with people because ultimately, I'm going to make the decision no matter what anyone tells me. If I have students like this, I will remind them I'm not ever going to try to make the decision for them, but I will help them find what the real issue is and point them in the direction of resources to help solve any little bit of it.