Advice For My Younger Self

If I could give some advice to my younger self, it would cover a few areas.  There are many lessons I have regretfully learned from mistakes that still haunt me to this day.  There are times when I wish my life was nothing like it is now.  It is disappointing to urge for another chance to make choices when reminiscing on decisions in hindsight.  This topic allows me the opportunity to mentally correct the past after living the path taken.  Some of what will be written can be reapplied to my current situation and the rest will be for someone else to deliberate on.  Let me see who I can help beside myself with this entry.  If it is one person then its effect will be positive and that alone can make the effort worthwhile. 

When it comes to school, I would say to go as far as you can and be passionate about it.  When I was very young, I would make the honor roll by dedicating my focus to performing to that standard.  Still young, I fell out of love with the merits of that achievement.  I do not remember clearly if it was the attention I did not want or if the satisfaction did not feel the same.  The intellect and attentiveness was there but I would not employ the same vigor for assignments for letter grading.  Controlling the line between B’s and C’s was just as intriguing as earning A’s on every attempt.  My advice would be to establish the constituency of recreating the best instance of myself at every moment possible.  Constructing norms and maintaining the momentum of excellence is the hidden prognostication that elucidates the educational system.  It promotes a continuous line for students to earn the proper recognition for themselves.  Students who seem to be advanced at an early age are entered into special programs.  The best elementary students enter better middle schools.  The best middle school learners enroll in premier high schools.  The best high school pupils are then accepted into prominent accredited universities.  Another pearl of wisdom I would offer is to maximize the prospect of college.  To go to college for a bachelor’s and join the workforce as soon as you can cuts off your potential too soon.  That was something I wanted at my first attempt.  Now I wish I would have considered graduate school over the anticipation of a paycheck more seriously.  The rush to have an annual salary of forty thousand at twenty-two seems miniscule to being a doctor of your chosen field at twenty-five.  Netting the credentials of an expert of your craft can mean so much more and produce many more avenues to travel down.

When it comes to life, I would say be the best overall person you can.  I heard a wise man say “sometimes you do what you gotta do to get what you gotta get”.  Excuse the grammar but it does make sense.  At times it might be the only one way to reach a particular objective.  In the case where that is true, I would question if that should be your aim going forward.  See as it stands now I think I value the virtues that are in conjunction with ideals demonstrating deference, innocence and morality.  Having respect for others and making the appropriate distinction between good and evil has a significance that is too often ignored.  Without ample validation we see the chase for other influences commence.  In a world where any publicity is good publicity, we intentionally ensure that negativity is spread faster to tap into our conscious.  But that statement is an enigma as is.  The perplexity of the paradox can be alleviated by putting more clout into things universally recognized as positive.  How is it that people who commit crimes are the first things we see on the news before being removed from free civilization?  Being a decent individual does not garner the same conversation circles or fame it once did.  The sensationalized fall from grace of the troubled makes the triumphant rise from nothing seem mundane by our culture. 

The overall advice would be to find your true self then enable happiness to be bred from that persona.  Do not let the lack of congratulations or affirmation make you alter your character to be the negative images that are portrayed more frequently.  Do not allow pain and mistrust from past relationships to rear its horrid head in the next one.  Do not surrender to pressure to prove you are something you are not comfortable with.  See, you can get it from here as I write my wrongs.  Maybe I would say do not become the person writing this paper.  Or would it be better to not have to be the reason to write this paper?  Everyone has the choice to take advice or go through the flame minus the advantage.  As we all have our one life to live hopefully we can at least determine the valleys and peaks along the way.

Study Habits

Being a senior undergraduate at age thirty-one, after mistakes when I was younger, I may not be the best person to give advice but I should let others decide from what is written here.

1. Read to comprehend
2. Learn for yourself beyond the classroom
3. Putting emphasis on what the professor or teacher says
4. Connecting the materials to other topics
5. Create the proper amount of time to study
6. Summarize your notes
7. Use homework and assignments to prepare for tests
8. Start your day and end your day positively
9. Never be upset with the amount you have to study
10. Study to remind yourself of information rather than learn it for the first time.

Each of these points is imperative to any favorable result I have had while in school.  The education process is distinctive in that you can always improve from past performance.  If these techniques do not work for you, you can modify to what you feel is best.  Let me try to elaborate on how each has been constructive towards my erudite learning.

Reading to comprehend means to try to understand more than the words printed on the paper.  It is getting the concept of the overall message and how that particular phraseology is being used to express it.  This can be a timely activity to adjust to and really take in. Then it can become facile or second nature with the right amount of repetition and practice.  The level of thought to master that will transition to our next point, learning for yourself beyond the classroom.  Just acquiring knowledge can become a habit that you begin to complete for more that tests, quizzes and assignments.  Increasing your all around intellect can turn into a hobby as well.  The next one is something that I had to learn the hard way.  Put an emphasis on what your professor or teacher says during class time.  In college, we are given a syllabus and know what to expect on each test for the entire semester.  The professor who creates the exam will usually speak about what is most important from the required text and may cover material that the author does not discuss.  They could be speaking from personal experience or just adding something they think you should hear.  Becoming an elite student incorporates both excellent reading abilities in addition to paying attention in class.  When something is giving you difficulty, connect the material to another topic you know better.  A simple example of this was applying English and Math to Computer Programming when I first began.  Thinking about what causes errors during compiling and execution were some of the common rules from those subjects.  Once I was really able to grasp that, I could get through the elementary concepts of programming.  Some of the more advance techniques require a higher level of thought but that is a fair place to start.  Another idea is creating the proper amount of time to study.  I attempt to avoid studying too early in the morning and too late at night.  Therefore, I schedule time to study during the day similar to my courses.  Setting aside a period of 50 to 75 minutes to review material is very valuable to my study habits and maintaining some form of consistency.  I do not have to cram for a test in one day if I can constantly give the subject some type of attention for weeks leading up to the approaching date.  Summarizing your notes can help too.  Though most teachers have set the precedent of students reproducing absolute regurgitation for answers, it is good to write it in your own words.  If you can translate a message to your understanding, you can ask if your interpretation is correct.  This can not only help you but someone else who is having trouble with the vocabulary of the topic.  Use homework to prepare for tests.  Your performance on graded work is a fair indicator of what you may do next.  You can learn from your mistakes and gain confidence from what you already stored in your memory banks.  The next one is both important and sort of a side note.  Start and end your day positively.  If there is nothing that causes excessive stress or avert your attention to other areas, it will help to retain information that you received during your courses.  The second to last one has to do with coping.  Never be upset with the amount you have to study.  This applies specifically to what will be on a test or what has to be read before a certain class.  All assigned work is within your capability as long as you are a student in the course and your professor might be more aware of that fact than you are at the time.  Some professors do take pride in their students’ progress in a class.  Lastly, study to remind yourself of information rather than trying to learn it for the first time.  Whenever you study, it should be to reiterate something already presented to you.  You should be going more in depth to think on a different level and comprehend in another sense.  If you are studying a completely new subject or theme, it may be challenging to balance with everything else you are responsible for.