Last Entry!!! WHAT???

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.

A Life in the Teach

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*.

Blogger The Explorer

Zot Zot Anteaters, I hope you’ve all been well. Here today we’re going to change things up a bit, instead of our usual Ted talk about my life here on our beautiful campus. I’ll actually be talking about the places of our beautiful campus, as of now not many of you are going to know where this is but if you’re feeling adventurous ask around. I remember taking my time to explore the campus, so trust me you are in good hands. I could recommend you the most popular places on campus which you know that I know the admins are definitely going to beat me to. Instead, what I decided to do was be a little bit more adventurous/spontaneous and find somewhere cool and different. Unfortunately, the results weren’t really great. Our options were either unsafe/too far/unsafe and I really don’t want you guys going anywhere dangerous. Although I could sit here and tell you how I went through a swarm of bees and multiple creepy trails, it was all worth it because I had fun. Limiting every option that are rated R, I would like present to you:

DOOR NUMBER 1: Aldrich Park

Dear Anters, as much as I would like to tell you something else other than this. It’s really all that good, I spent most of my time at Aldrich. Here’s why because if I really wanted to have some ME time not to far from my dorm, Aldrich is definitely your best bet.

DOOR NUMBER 2: CONTINUING EDUCATION BUILDING

See what we have here is a sitting area for a calming and relaxing area for our education majors. Most of you who are curious as to where this is, it’s through the Continuing Education Bridge. Which you can easily look up on our helping navigation tool, “ZOT Finder”. By using this not only can you have a helpful guide to your classes but also a reliable map on our beautiful campus.

DOOR NUMBER 3: The ARC’s Zipline.

Sorry the picture is upside down, -_- for some weird reason it keeps rotating and I can’t rotate it. Just turn your computer around and you can see the picture just fine but basically, I don’t really know much about this unfortunately. I do know that the Arc handles this and can be a good source of information, also there are other activities that are being down here for anyone interested. That includes Dance, Boxing, Yoga, Karate “HIYAH” and everyone’s favorite weightlifting (physical labor, sorry gym bros).

Unfortunately, that is all I have for you.

Until next time take care and have a Zotti day (I’m so sorry this is cheesy).

Gotta blast…. BYEEEIIIII

Among Us

Hello everyone, for those of you still feeling weight from SIR. Have no fear your fellow Anteaters are here; we’ll take care of you and answer all your questions. Let me start off with saying congratulations and welcome to UCI, you are officially a proud anteater and now the hard part is over with. Let us help you with the even harder part and as someone who experienced everything firsthand, it definitely helps. During my first quarter here, it was definitely a spike in adrenaline from moving in to eating and becoming the next Dora the explorer with my trusty backpack. For once, I was actually happy about going to class, until I got out of class but let’s not digress. Everyone’s experience is definitely going to be different from mine. Your story is not going to be my story and that’s really cool. I’m already excited for you, and I haven’t even met you. Why shouldn’t you be too?

My personal advice is to put yourself out there, walk around campus and see what events are going on. Trust me, we will do our best to make home feel like home. Make friends, socialize, and remember if they don’t click, don’t force it. I promise you they are not worth it and their plenty, when I say plenty of fish in the sea. Also, a personal advice from this sensei right here: do not and I repeat do not take everything to heart. Your dorm life will be 10x harder than it should be if you do, it should already be a given that living with other people isn’t going to be the best experience. Remember some of you haven’t lived with someone that’s not family, heck you probably never lived with anyone before. Don’t be so hard on yourself, but that doesn’t mean you should use that as an excuse to be a “bad roommate”.

This is Blogger Ant Signing Out!!!!

Path Finder?

Hey fellow anteaters, I’m pleased to all inform you that I am alive and well. Let’s hope that I’m not the only one who took advantage of the spring break and became spontaneous because I did. If you’re all wondering what I’m blabbering about, I’ll start off by explaining a little story. During the early humble beginnings of my college careers, when I was researching what your average Joe in college does, I came across multiple videos of students explaining their day to day activities. Basically if you’re not a veteran fighting for internships or avidly going to multiple events, you were a gym bro pumping iron in the gym or a spouse in training who takes pride in cooking and cleaning (which of course is fine. Also for those of you who are reading this please don’t take it to heart. Everything is all jokes here).

For those of you wondering which part I chose, I decided to choose the path of a housewife. Here’s why: I didn’t know much about internships although I’m fairly active on campus. Second reason, again don’t take this personally but I just don’t like the idea of physical labour. I did enough sports in high school to know, so that is why I decided to become a house wife. During the break, I started cooking and cleaning a lot more often (I even practiced lines to say when my roommates come back, JK). Also before I go, I do want to talk about one thing.

Now that we are in our last quarter of our freshman year. I’m noticing that there are a lot of people scrambling to do something to make the year worthwhile. I just want to say you don’t need some big bonanza to happen to have a checkpoint for your freshman year. There are literally students racing for stickers and I’m one of them. Look at me for instance: I’m still trying to learn how to swim and drive since I never got to it. Anyway my point is take it slow, so you don’t miss even the little things that matter.

This is your house blogger in training chef-ing it out

*Chef Kiss* *Chef Kiss*