My Kind of Day

Adjusting to the VSA schedule wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Waking up, going to breakfast, going to class was a usual part of my life now, even though its only been two days. I think I've become some what accustomed to how college life might be.

In class today, we started with a "puzzler". Its something that the teacher gives the student to start off the day. Usually its mathematically related but its mainly to make the student think. We had a puzzler that I didn't quiet understand. The teacher went around checking people off if they were going in the right direction but every method I tried would either be difficult for me in the long run or was just overall wrong. Only a few people understood, but it really discouraged me that I couldn't understand what to do. I was a little scared to ask for help, but I did. I asked my neighbor what I should do first to tackle that problem. We both worked together and tried to help each other. This taught me its okay to ask for help because it's better to ask for help than to struggle and not get it.

Lunch was just like any meal. I went to the dining commons, got foods that I wanted, and swiped out. But something different happened today. I had a craving for some fries, so I asked this one girl if she wouldn't mind to give me some fries. Since she was in the line to get food herself and right there night to the fries. I was afraid because I wasn't sure she would react badly but she didn't. She said, "No problem", while placing some fries on my plate. Her and her friends introduced each other to me and I was astonished because sometimes its just that easy to make friends. Even though most of the time it may be awkward, I learned sometimes I have to make myself open to others to make friends.

Some of the matrix worksheets we had that involved
a class activity.

Getting back to class after lunch, we learned about augmented matrices. My teacher, Mr.Gray, is a little competitive. Therefore he made a class activity  that was competitive and educational. We were split into teams and we all had to solve augmented matrices on the board. The catch was that the student can only do one function at a time therefore another person from the team had to go up and pick up from where it was left off. I enjoyed it because there was a lot of team work involved and even if I got the wrong answer they would all help me to fix it.

For my class "Special Topics in Math", we have study hall in the Peabody Library. We have the opportunity to use their computer lab where we can research different topics. Since we all had our projects/ presentation coming up we worked on our projects. I was really proud of myself with the progress and pace I was working at. One thing that I believe in is that students need motivation to overcame anything and I think I had that motivation to get things done.

Working on the project during study hall.

Every Tuesdays and Thursdays, there is a SOFT night. It stands for Sign Out Free Time. Its a time when Vanderbilt gives students an opportunity to sign themselves out in a group of three or more to roam around the preset boundaries they established around Nashville. Chiamaka, Jasmine, Emily( a friend of ours), and I decided to go with each other to adventure off to the shopping areas but Jasmine stayed the dorms because she had some work to be done and promised to come next time. Emily, Chiamaka, and I went together. First we went to Ben & Jerry's, which was one of the local icecream joints. Although Ben & Jerry's is in the West Coast, I never got the chance to go until now and I was happy that I was able to experience it in the East. We also went to other various places like CVS. There were a lot of VSA student there, but it was a little funny because during SOFT night for me it was one of the best places to socialize with people.

Our amazing icecream with a random 20 dollar bill.

After our SOFT night we went back to the dorms to sign in by curfew. SOFT night was really fun and I cant wait for the next one. I was delighted to have some time with my friends. I appreciated that the VSA staff gave us time to hang out with our friends independently and trusted us as adult to get back on time. I really think today was my kind of day because I got to learn new material in class, I got to realize a few things, it was fun, and I was fully motivated and focused. In addition to that I got to eat icecream with some of my friends! I mean why wouldn't it be my kind of day?