Changing My Major

I would not change my major after this semester because before I chose my major I had done adequate research, talked with my counselor, parents and professionals in the field and looked at my strengths, weaknesses and certain attributes. For instance I am better in mathematics than in English and I also enjoy it. After weighing some of my attributes and recommendation to certain majors, I decided to choose electrical engineering.

After this semester, I will not change my major because my major has introduced me to new material that I have not encountered before such as computer programming. Everyday we use the computer and never realize the numerous codes the computer has to go through to achieve a desired result. My major also enabled me to apply mathematics to real life situations. For instance, The GPS system calculates your location by using distance and time from satellites orbiting the earth.

Although electrical engineering is very interesting, it also requires a lot of studying and focus. If I were to change my major I would probably change to mechanical engineering.

The things I Have,Will or May have learnt

The transition to college has not been the easiest experience, but in this first semester I have learnt a lot of things. I have not just learnt new information through my studies but I have also learnt new information, things and skills through my experiences and mistakes. Some of these things, I have learnt and I am sure I have learnt it, some I will and I am determined to learn them and some I am not sure if I have learnt them completely. Only time will tell.
These are some of the things that I have learnt this semester:
• I have learnt how to effectively manage my time.
• I have learnt how to effectively manage my finances.
• I have learnt the how to create computer programs and use them to produce a desired result.
• I have learnt how to study effectively. I have learnt how to study more material in my regular study hours.
• I have learnt how to write evaluations and resumes.
• I have learnt to socialize more me with my peers.
• I have learnt how to think independently and positively.
• I have learnt how to cash and write a check.
• I have learnt how to do research and get information from various sources.
• I have learnt that I will definitely experience failure at a point in my life

The Hidden Success in Failure

I have gone through many failures in my life that I can no longer keep track of them. For instance, I wasn’t able to get into my dream college and I wasn’t able to get a scholarship that I worked so hard on. After each and every one of these events I felt so miserable, that I deemed myself an utter failure each time. Although I felt miserable, this did not stop me from leaving it behind and moving on.

Recently, I was unfortunately rejected by an institutional organization at my college. This was the first organization I was applying to since I started my college education and it presented me with a challenge that I had never had to go through before. It was an “interview.” After I took the interview, I discovered that I had terrible interview skills.

After a miserable weekend of wallowing about the rejection, I picked up the pieces and applied to another organization, but this organization had three different interview processes that the applicants had to go through. This time, I knew I had to get help. So I decided to research interviewing tips and make an appointment for a mock interview with my school’s career office. The mock interview turned out to be the most beneficial because the interview was taped, and this gave me the opportunity to look back at my mistakes. The interviewer also showed me my weak points and told me how to improve them.

Today, I took my first interview for the second organization, and I walked out of the interview room with a brightest smile you could imagine. So if you fail at anything, remember that failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success.

The Scavenger Hunt for Information

We live in an era, where information is easily accessed by just pressing “Enter” on your keyboard. So, finding information about almost everything and anything is virtually easy as long as one has the internet. Yet with this much information available there always seems to be contradictions among various information sources on the internet, thus making one either true or false.

Although I use the internet 80% of the time to find information for my assignment, I still look for information in books, journals and other sources that would verify information I have doubts about. When I want to find information, I mostly get it from the internet by using search engines such as Google, Ask or Bing but to find basic information about most topics I use Wikipedia. I also use the library to find more detailed information about a topic/subject compared to the internet which mostly gives brief summaries about a topic/subject. I mostly prefer to use the internet because I can get information from different people’s points of view rather than from a single person’s point of view in books. But the sources used for my assignments mainly depends on the subject.

For instance, if I want to find Information about history or mathematics, I prefer the library because the information is less likely to change or not change at all in the case of history but when I am looking for information about current events, politics, demographics or topics that are updated regularly the internet is where I get most of these information.

The Stun Gun

On May 4, 1970, the National Guard killed four students and wounded nine others at Kent state university during a protest. The Kent state massacre sparked up huge debates and protests all over the United States about gun usage by the police forces. And through this event came the stun gun. The stun gun was also the topic my group had chosen for our case study relating to engineering in my first year experience class.

After this devastating event, Bob Mawhinney a mechanical engineering graduate from Auburn University realized that law enforcement had no weapons stronger than a punch but weaker than a gun. He took on the challenge of creating a weapon that would be able to subdue its target without causing injuries.

Before he started his experiments and calculations, he first researched various weapons and their degrees of injuries. Some of the weapons he researched on were bolas, Dogs, Barbed wire, Stenches, smoke, Chemicals, Electrified Devices, Baton, etc. Through this research he was able to find some vital characteristics that helped him create this specific type of weapon. These characteristics were: velocity, mass, diameter, impact area, kinetic energy and momentum. After establishing these characteristics he decided that this model weapon would have the power of a fast pitched ball and also be able to conform to the body’s shape on impact. That was how he came up with the bean bag type projectile weapon but today they are known as flexible baton rounds instead of stun guns.

The stun-gun was 1st tested on dummies, then tested on a live target. Although, there was some inaccuracy and a bruise, there was no permanent damage. The stun gun was a success and is still because it is by far the most common less lethal rounds used.

Ideas that never seem to stick

Before I started English 1101, I wrote down a list of different outcomes that I wanted to achieve by the end of the semester. I wrote mostly broad outcomes like to learn how to write properly and speak correct grammar. After a few awful and good essays, I realized that I could not convey my ideas and thoughts effectively when writing. It was frustrating when I had a brilliant idea but could not find a way to write it on paper.

For instance, we were told to write a memoir for our first English paper, the first idea that I thought about was my boarding house experience. It was the most vivid, remarkable and long lasting memory I had. I could think of a 1000 different things to write about my experience. The question was how was I going to write it in a way that the audience would clearly understand. That was the question that seemed to even prevent me from starting the essay.

I had read some autobiographies before. Although these autobiographies did not focus on a particular aspect of their life, yet these writers were able to convey their thoughts and experiences so vividly that you were actually think you were experiencing it yourself.

So I asked myself what the problem was. I discovered I was not reading and writing enough. Although I may not be able to do enough leisure reading, but writing Blogs seemed to be effective in improving my writing skills and it is fun to do also