Tag: Zot Spots

Hello everyone, it is with my greatest pleasure and gratitude to write this last blog. Thank you to many who took time out of your day to listen to my adventures here at UCI. This will be my last entry as a zot blogger and as a college Freshman (Yay), It’s been a rough year and I’m glad it’s coming to an end but if I’m being honest, it only gets worse from here. Don’t be startled this is my personal opinion, it probably won’t be the same for you(hopefully). You might be wondering why it would get worse, but I like to believe that your dreams should scare you and that means the harder things get the closer you are to achieving it.

This last entry is going to be a fat rant, so let’s just get the pleasantries out the way. I’m very glad, I signed up to be a zot blogger and I recommend anyone interested to go for it. In the beginning of the year, I came to UCI with no expectations whatsoever because you can only be disappointed if you had expectation in the first place (take note kids), so if the bar is already on the ground, it can’t get any lower. Despite that, I still had goals that I wanted to experience. I wanted to try and learn how to swim, but that didn’t work out. Aside from my crippling battle to actually sit my ass down and sleep, it also didn’t work out. There has been improvement, so I guess that counts as *achieved*.

Compared to the other bloggers, I just rant and that’s why for this entry I plan on doing what I do best. I’m sure you all remember those guest speakers that would come and talk about how college was very humbling. Unfortunately, I’m here to tell you they weren’t lying. If anything, I would like to say that the way college humbles everyone is a little different and that is what we are going to be talking about. As a man coming from humble beginnings, I learned to humble myself rather than get humbled. This isn’t about my bruised ego because I don’t have one, but I would say there are some things that I was fairly confident in until I got to college.

From my high school experience, I believe that it would always be beneficial as a student to have a good relationship or somewhat of a relationship with your teacher. This is my personal advice to the incoming undergrad, “Sometimes it’s not always you, but the teacher”. In a very respectfully but disrespectful way, I really thought that this teacher was good because actually made the effort to talk to the students. In the end, it just turned out that he was trying to do his job (if you called that doing your job). In this class, I put in the effort to make friends in my class and frequently talk to my teacher if I had any question. This was as healthy as a healthy relationship with your teacher could get, I ended up failing that class and I should’ve been bummed out, but I personally knew that I did what I was supposed to do and worked to get a good grade.

The reason why I’m mentioning this is because during your second year of college, you guys are going to experience the “THRILL” of picking classes against “New Only”(Sarcasm). Unfortunately, I was graced with the lesson of learning how much of a difference it makes when your teacher actually knows how to teach. Now being somewhat of a veteran my advice to the incoming freshman who haven’t completed their GE. If you can’t complete it your first year, I suggest you try and knock out as many GE’s as possible because right now you could more or less say you are competing with other freshman’s and believe it or not, it’s definitely better. When it’s time for you to pick classes during your second year, you not only have to compete with other students who also know what the good classes are (second year) but also the freshman’s. Sorry not sorry guys I’m really not feeling you guys right now because classes are a lot harder to pick (I say this like I wasn’t a freshman before).

As per usual, it was nice talking to you guys and I hope these blogs actually help you guys

This is your favorite blogger signing out one last time.

Hello, My Fellow Peters, I’m here again with another interesting, limited-edition event for you guys. For this time, we will accompany my teacher in reminiscing about his glory days. Let us introduce my Writ 37 teacher that I highly recommend everyone to take, Mr. Julian T Smith-Newman. He is currently my favorite teacher and probably the best writing teacher I’ve ever had, but that’s enough fan grilling. During the interview I had with my professor, we talked about his journey and experience to reach where he is right now. Although this may have been a 49-minute interview, it felt more like a conversation because of how some of the lessons and ideals talked about is something I can stand by. After getting simple introductions out the way, I started off with a simple question to better understand why he chose to be a teacher at UCI and what happened along the way. Keep in mind, as much as I would love to put our dear readers through a 49-minute interview. I know many of us would love to spend the rest of their time here and read my blogs, but I’m willing to sacrifice and only give you some of the key pointers that stood out to me.

Mr. Julian during his earlier days, he went to Columbia for college and studied English/literature and also a little bit of art history. He moved around a lot due to his interest in African history, he studied Swahili and writing. Personally, I love my friends and making memorable connections, but I would love to travel the world while being in school. That’s why I thought it was really interesting because he was able to not only drive his passion for writing into other parts of the world, but he was able to have fun with it. Many of my peers now adays pursue dreams that can assure them a stable future financially, which is of course not bad but personally I don’t believe that should be all there is to it (Sorry not sorry). Of course, I’m not ignorant to the variables of the world and forget that not many people are fortunate enough to choose what they want but when life give you lemons, make lemonade (I think that’s how it goes). We dug a little deeper and talked about as to how he became a UCI professor. He was pursuing his masters and the funding for his master’s program allowed him to teach one class every quarter as a student. After he graduated in 2015, he won an award that put him in a financially stable situation but not wanting to wait for a crisis to occur. He soughed out Jobs that could cover for his personal expenses, eventually he saw that continuing teaching would be the most optimal path for him as it would allow him to “carve out time” for his own personal hobbies. This is something that I believe a lot of people should work towards, a life that is balanced enough to allow time for other interests, but when does life work out the way you want it. Following on this statement, I asked more about his personally struggles in college. Thankfully Mr. Julian wasn’t adamant on sharing his past struggles. He expressed his uncertainty in choosing his career path and he explains how the constant question of “why”, is something that can be relatable to many and not just him. I was very much caught by the idea of how no matter the time or generation, these sought of situation ended up being common in the lives of others. In a way it can of creates a sense of community because under one goal which is “success” even though it is subjective to everyone, we still share a certain level of pain among one another and having a community helps drive one another. Another beautiful comment that was mentioned by Mr. Julien that really caught my attention is “it’s good to be committed to your studies on one hand, but it’s not good to be ruled by your studies”, I personally resonate with this line because I believe myself to be a spontaneous person. Trust me guys, I have *good grades* and I have dreams that I aspire to achieve. Despite all of this, I don’t ever want to look back on my life and my only memorable moments were in the library or in my room. Before I go, I feel like I need to explain this better because I would hate for any of my readers to feel targeted. Being studious is not a bad thing, likewise, keeping your eye on the bag. It all boils down to preference, some people might see little need in socializing and love reading or vice versa. That’s why I’m hoping no one feels targeted, but if it is someone is unhappy with their current social life. Change it, it’s never too late for anything and you heard that from me so it’s valid.

This Is your favorite blogger running to class *like genuinely, I’m so late to class right now*.