Reading+Assign1

"As a full-time faculty member for fourteen years, as well as a member of the faculty senate and other campus-wide organizations, I thought I was thoroughly familiar with my home institution. I knew all the shortcuts, both geographically and bureaucratically, for negotiating the campus and was completely comfortable with that knowledge. It came as surprise, then, to discover after moving into the dorms that I was completely dis-oriented, much as when I arrived in the village where I first did my overseas fieldwork (Nathan 8)." In life it's not until we walk in another person's shoes before we realize what that person is really undergoing and the difficulties that he, or she is working through. When I think back to my Freshman year of college and the dorms I think of choas, happiness, tears, fear, excitment etc. Before going into the dorms I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I was about to deal with. Little did I know thinking and experiencing were two completley different things. In the dorms there were many ups and downs, but for the most part I learned that respect, patience, and the ability to leave one's comfort zone was vital in surviving. In the passage I really liked that the author Rachel Nathan housed in the dorms with all the other freshmen. I could understand why she decided to get a single room because of her age diffrence, but if she really wanted the full experience and joy of having a random roomate she should have been paired with someonelse. Now that I live in my own apartment and have my own room to relax and study within I know for a fact a roomate is another stress untop of everything else you have to deal with during an academic semester. Nathan missed out on the drama, the compromise, the extra guests at night, the diffrences in sleep schedules and routines, and lastly the diffrences in work ethics. Altough I would have loved to skip the whole dorming experience, it has built me as a college person. College is about the ride. Dorming was a great oppurtunity to meet new people, step out of the box, create memories, and lastly help one to find hir or her self. Altough Nathan didn't have a roomate I feel as though she did a great job in explaing the nature of the dorms and activites that went on within them. "During the second semester, when I was more actively engaged in formal student interviews and mini-study observations, I quietly dropped my class load down to two courses to accommodate my active research agenda, and spent several nights per week at my horne computer, showing up back at the dorm most days after my early morning class (Nathan 11). " I have a problem and don't like the fact that Nathan thought taking two classes, or six credits during the second semester was similar to the Freshman experience. To be a full-time student at a university one must at least take twelve credits, if he doesn't meet this critera than he is considered a part time student. The full college experience is staying at school, completing class assignments, and dealing with the inconvience of things you want to do and things you have to do. Having only six credits to work with is a lot easier than a twelve or fifteen credit course load. I realize Nathan took fifteen credits the first semester and was trying to work on her research the second semester, but that just isn't an option for most freshmen. Sure, I would have loved to take an easy semester with six credits so I could do all the things I wanted to do, but that just isn't reality. You have to cope and be ready to face all that's being thrown at you as a student.