I have been here for two weeks now. It’s been one helluva ride to get here and I’m still chugging along. My socks are clean, my drawers are neat and my planner stays full. There’s a lot to do around here. There’s the expected class time and homework time, plus now there are socials and dinners to attend…
I live in a dorm. It’s not the normal dorms on campus that most people stay in, it’s more of a community. Like a frat house without the frat. What it is, is a community of international and American students in a huge friendly house of about 70-ish residents. We are all encouraged to learn about people’s cultures and backgrounds and the international students (of which I am marginally considered) are encouraged to learn the American culture and better understand their new/temporary home.
Some students in the house are only here (in America or San Jose, specifically) for a year or a semester (depending on their school system back home) for an exchange program or rather a ‘study year abroad’. This house, the I-House, and SJSU being their ‘abroad’. It’s interesting to see how different people interact with the American college lifestyle and most have adapted better than I did. I feel silly for complaining about a mere 5 hour drive away from home when they’re well over 10 hours away by plane!
I-House stands for International House, but I like to call it IHOP. I’m pretty sure my mom came up with that joke when our tour guide last year mentioned that we have pancake evenings and only then does it truly become an International House of Pancakes, instead of people that is!
I am an English, Creative Writing major. My classes are all English-related. Four writing classes and a reading class. My writing classes consist of; a basic skill development class everyone needs to take, a creative writing class, and two script/screen-writing classes. The reading class is actually a Steinbeck class where everything we read and write has some link to Steinbeck. I do enjoy his books and stories very much. My love for him blossomed as a GCSE student reading about Of Mice and Men and studying the ways of the ol’ west and all that good stuff.
I have suffered a little and have made a few mistakes already, but I am learning to forgive myself. I think the hardest thing about college life is that it makes us too harsh on ourselves as students and daughters/sons. We want to do the best we can for others before we do what’s best and right for ourselves. I want to make my mom, my dads, my girlfriend, my family and my teachers all proud of me. But I’ve come to realize that I also need to be proud of me, too! So I step back from time to time and make sure I am healthy in the body and the mind.
In other more exciting news, I got a job as a Youth Instructor at a local Elementary School district. I’m really excited and rather nervous at the same time. Apparently I’ll be 1 on 20 kids helping with homework and teaching them god knows what… I hope I can be an influence on some of them… It hasn’t quite struck me yet that I am finally becoming a teacher or that I’m even at a big university! I am excited.