Wake Up Call

Throughout high school, I always tried to be as studious as I could (actually... I couldn't help it, it was in my nature to be crazy about my grades), and the one goal keeping me going senior year was to have one of those honors ropes at graduation. My Grade Point Average was far from receiving the Highest Honors sash that my friend Daniel earned, but I was in between the Silver Honors and gold High Honors ropes, so I could not let senioritis get to me because I was so close to the gold one! Luckily, all of my hard work paid off, and my crazy studious tendencies led me to the gold High Honors rope for graduation!

However, now with college upon me, I fear that that nature has temporarily changed (although I can't let it persist). With all of the distractions of having friends literally a hallway down and in my room, I have not been able to focus or let myself worry about grades as much as I did at home. I mean, at home, I would just be texting my friends, but it was simple enough to just say that I had to study and then I was alone. In college though, being alone in your room studying all the time, it is much more difficult to get that concentration, and besides, who would want that?

I still do not procrastinate and of course I still do all of my homework in a timely fashion, but studying... not so much. I have been pushing off the fact that I have gotten a few Cs on exams because not all of my teachers actively update their grades online, so I do not see proof that my grade could be falling. However, today when walking back from a class, I really started to recognize and evaluate this problem and I am going to do my best to get back into my old scholastic habits despite the closer distractions.

On a related note, I have not experienced much legitimate home sickness, but last weekend during "Fall Break," (I put it in quotes on purpose) when everyone left and I stayed, I was starting to get really sad that I could not go home. Even now, this weekend, some of my friends from home are leaving their colleges to go home, somewhere I have not been since before I moved in. I mean, I could have gone home, but our "Fall Break" was only a three day weekend, so I didn't think it was worth the transportation cost. True, I do love how Oxford looks in the fall, but I really would not mind going home either. I have been gone for so long!

Although, Family Weekend is next weekend! So I'll finally be able to see my mom, dad, brother, and aunt again! I'm so excited. Even though I will not actually be going home until Thanksgiving, having them come down here will be a taste of home in itself.





~ Valerie