Samantha K

Spending the Weekend Productively

                Every student spends their weekends studying and preparing for class the following week, right? Yeah, I know that is not necessarily a true statement but that is what I did. All weekend I have been reading and catching up with assignments from school. Deciding to spend my weekend productively has gone better than I had thought. I assumed I would be dragging myself to the pile of books on my desk but with the motivation I have mustered up I am doing pretty well.

                I started by writing a complete list of all of the assignments and tasks I wanted to accomplish. As I complete one task, I mark it off of my list and move on to the next.  I did make sure to mix up the tasks so it wouldn’t be too mundane.  For example: I read one chapter of my systems analysis textbook and then went to folding laundry. By mixing up the types of task, I have been able to stay on my toes and keep moving forward.

                Now, this does not happen all of the time but with the accelerated summer classes it was necessary. I am sure there are plenty of others who spent their weekend going to the lake or hanging out with friends. It would have been nice to put the books away for the weekend because it is summer and all but it wasn’t realistic. I know if I didn’t catch up now then I never would.

                At least I have someone to keep me company…… 

Jobs, Jobs, and More Jobs

I know there are many people out there that are out of work and I feel awful for those individuals but for some reason I keep getting offered more and more jobs. It has been like this for about a year now and I wonder when my streak will end.

 First off let me say that I do not actively seek positions. I just kind of fall in to them. For example, I was at a dinner yesterday with some friends and one of them asked if I would like to fulfill a marketing position within the company she works for. Now keep in my mind that I already work three positions and still attend school full time. I obviously declined the offer because I am not completely crazy. Then earlier today I was speaking with a good friend that works with the government in DC and he asked if I would like a job. I literally laughed at him (of course he is a good friend so he wasn’t offended.) 

I am glad that my friends feel that I am intelligent enough to be recommending me for positions but I don’t understand why. Around my closest friends, I can get pretty goofy and silly and they somehow they still think of me professionally. Also, we debate all of the time. We debate every subject under the sun from extra-terrestrials to politics. At the end of every debate though we agree to disagree and everyone is okay with that.

Wherever the good luck is coming from, I hope it doesn’t end before I graduate. If I were to be offered numerous jobs while in school and then none when I graduate, I would be very upset to say the least. Ideally, I would love to work for Google or U of M when I graduate. If I were able to work for U of M then I would be able to pursue my masters, which is my ultimate plan. Well, I guess we will see how things go from here….only 10 more months to go until graduation.

Summer I Final Grades

Since Summer I final grades are now available, I was able to see exactly how I did on my first summer semester. I have to say I was really thrown by my final grades. It is so ironic that the class you think you aced ends up with a B and the class you thought you got a low grade you get a higher one than expected.

I had a class where all of my grades were perfect except the last test which ended up being only an 85% and I got a B+ as my final grade. How is that? I asked the girl who was in my class what she got and she received an A but she only came to class twice. It is so weird but hey I am not the professor. They are the ones who are experts at calculating grades.

Either way, I am aiming to do better this semester. I love to raise my standards every semester. Since I am moving on to higher and higher level courses, it is essential. I am now enrolled in two very interesting ITM classes: Project Management and Database Management. Hopefully, I will do as well as I hope.

Project management is the direction I want to move in so I am really paying close attention in class. The best part is the class is so small that I believe I will be able to learn very easily. The professor is able to interact on a smaller scale compared to the traditional size classes.

Well, that is enough talking about doing well. I should probably be quiet and go to it. One of my favorite quotes is, “There ain’t nothing to it but to do it.”