Final Reflection

It is crazy that the semester is already almost over and this class is now finished. Time has really gone by pretty quickly. During my first few days on campus, it seemed so confusing and I wasn’t sure how I was going to learn such how to navigate my way around such a big campus. Very quickly, I got used to my usual routes to class and within a few days I was piecing together the whole campus. There are still times where I have to pull out my phone to check Google Maps, but I quickly catch on. With classes, I quickly felt at home and have been very comfortable going to teachers during their office hours as well as participating in class.

As I discussed in my first reflection, a big thing which I have worked on this semester is planning my time. I have tried to get my work done earlier in the day and get long term assignments done earlier than later. One of the things which greatly helped me was that there was mandatory study hours for my fraternity at the library every day of the week from 6pm-8pm, regardless of whether I had work to do or not. If I had work which was due in the upcoming days, I would do it during this time or else I would review notes from my classes. Overall, the library has been a great place for me to go and study, whether it is during the afternoon or if it means taking the night owl back to my dorm at 3 AM, I have found my home on the third floor… nice and silent.

Looking back at my goals which I set for myself at the beginning of the semester, I think I have been successful with the first two, and partially the third. I don’t always find myself using Erudio (a great app on the iPhone for keeping organized with schoolwork, classes, etc.). One of my goals for the future is to get in the habit of using it more, thus making it more effective and useful.

Tips:

1. Stay organized: Keep track of your assignments and papers for a class. Don’t wait until the midterm or final to go through notes and get things ready for exams, because you don’t want to worry about wasting time then. Additionally, review your notes weekly…this will help you for exams.
2. Step out of your comfort zone and try something new: At the beginning of the school year, I did not know anything about greek life or fraternities. I am now a brother and have met so many great guys.
3. Continue to go to the library and get work done early

Week 9 – Social Media

There are many positives and negatives to social media/networking*. People are able to connect with companies and other people in a completely new way which did not exist 10 years ago. Today, we are able to look at our friend’s pictures and see what they are doing without even talking to them in person or directly to them. However, this can sometimes be a scary thing because people are able to track you and know what you are doing, with very little effort. While there are privacy settings which people can set up, they are not set up by default and many people are too lazy or do not know how to do this. Social Networking has also become a huge distraction recently, causing people to become attached to the websites like Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Social media has become a vital part of many big and small companies recently. With social media, people are able to directly interact with companies and companies are able to share things with consumers. Companies engaging with customers via Twitter and Facebook is the new way of people calling for support, calling to complain, or calling with comments. Companies such as AT&T (@ATTCustomerCare), Comcast (@ComcastCares), and Xbox (@XboxSupport) have taken advantage of Twitter to engage with customers. @XboxSupport is Guinness World Record Holder for Most Responsive Brand on Twitter, currently with almost 1.2 million tweets. Not only do they respond to customers who tweet to them, but they also reach out to people who mention certain words and complain. For example…

@Puuuh_Leaz Hey there, how many red lights are you seeing on your Xbox? Drop us a line and let us know. We are here to help. ^AC

— Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) November 13, 2012

If companies don’t respond to users, the company’s image is in danger.

Read this:

3 Keys to Social Media | Kissmetrics

Social Media – A Good Thing or a Bad Thing? | Social Media Today

Negatives of Social Media Marketing | Chron

*Social Media and Social Networking …are two very different things… Social Media is spreading a message (often advertising). Social Networking is communicating and connecting with others.

Week 8 – Understanding Who You Are

After reading the handouts from last week’s class, I learned a lot of important lessons about identifying who I am, what I believe in, and how I think.

The “Dimensions of PDon’t dwell on the past or worry about the future for too long.  Right now is life.  Live it.ersonal Identity” lists a bunch of features which make up a person. Those features ultimately make up a lot of who a person is. When you see someone for the first time, in the first 10-15 seconds, most people have already thought about the “‘A’ Dimensions” which make up this person. As you get to know someone more through conversation, you will dive into the “‘B’ Dimensions.” Finally, once you have learned the background which makes up a person, you will learn personal stories and moments from the person’s life, which makes up “‘C’ Dimension.”

While reading the handout, “50 Lessons I wish I had learned earlier,” I took time to reflect on many of the lessons. Some of the lessons I was able to relate more to, or it has a meaning in my life right now. For some of the other lessons, they truly made me think about how important of a lesson it was. Here’s a list of nine lessons which immediately stood out to me:

• Mistakes teach you important lessons. Every time you make one, you’re one step closer to your goal.
• You are limited only by your own imagination. Let it fly.
• No education is wasted. Drink in as many new experiences as you can.
• You cannot change what you refuse to confront.
• You can learn great things from your mistakes when you aren’t busy denying them.
• Don’t be afraid to move out of your comfort zone. Some of your best life experiences and opportunities will transpire only after you dare to lose.
• If you are passionate about something, pursue it, no matter what anyone else thinks. That’s how dreams are achieved.
• If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.
• If it were easy everyone would do it.

As I read this, I continuously thought about Steve Jobs. Here’s a few of my favorite quotes from him, which I aim to follow throughout my life

“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

All three of these quotes come from Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford in 2005. If you haven’t seen this, go spend your next 15 minutes and watch it now. If you’ve seen it before, watch it again; trust me, you’ll take something from watching it; I take something out of it every time I see it.

As Steve Jobs said, “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.”

Thanks for reading.