I started my first semester at the University of Memphis in fall 2013. I did NOT want to be here. When my family and I decided that the University of Memphis was my best option for now for financial and some medical reasons, there was actually a period of about a week or two during the summer when I had it in my head that I wasn't going to college at all. Obviously, that didn't happen. I am nearing the end of my first semester and I am only days away from having the first fifteen hours of my college career behind me. I started this semester kicking and screaming, and I'm ending it with a smile and almost feeling sad that I'll go weeks on Christmas Break not being on campus. (Almost but not quite!)
So far, I have not been the student who has gotten involved with twelve different clubs on campus in addition to Greek Life and attending all the football games. But I've made new friends, I've made all As and Bs, and I've gotten involved with just the right number of things to keep me from going stir crazy. I never thought I would say these words, but I love the University of Memphis. I love the pride, I love the diversity, I love the campus, and I love how I'm starting to find my place here. Sure, there are things I could do without: the commute from home to campus every day; some of the professors; and the math tutoring center. But overall, I love learning to be a Tiger. I honestly can't picture being anywhere else.
This semester I took five classes. I drove to school every single day, but they all started after 9 am so I really didn't mind too much. My favorite classes turned out to be my History class and my English class. My least favorite classes were Intro to Art and Foundations of Mathematics. (The other class was Academic Strategies. I really don't have any feelings-good or bad- towards that class.) I had the sweetest History professor! I always hated History in high school because it was never exciting, or taught by anyone who found it to be exciting. The professor I have now is cool because he absolutely LOVES his job! He gets equally excited about everything he covers in class. He loves talking to students, and he loves to teach. My English class was cool because I learned a lot about things that mattered. Technically, I think I actually took this class my Junior year, but I didn't pass the AP exam so I didn't get the credit. I wrote the same type of papers I wrote two years ago, but there was a reason behind each one. I wasn't just writing a rhetorical analysis, I was analyzing the nuclear development in North Korea or the Human Rights movements on the Korean Peninsula. When I edited other's papers I wasn't reading the summary of some article we were told to read. I was reading someone's opinions on the Syrian government or the issues with police brutality. I learned how to argue, I learned how to write, and I learned more about current events in the real world than I have ever learned before. The class I was in had an incredibly diverse group of people, and I learned how to listen and respect other's opinions and how to form and argue my own.
My math class was horrible. I'm really paranoid about negative things I say on the internet coming back to bite me in the butt later on in life so I'm not going into any other details other than I did not like it at all. I came close to dropping it, I came close to flunking it, I came close to getting up in the middle of a lecture more than once to scream or cry. My art class was just uninteresting. Nothing exciting there.
There you go! Melissa's first semester at Memphis! That was kind of boring, but there are some more exciting posts coming in the future.
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