New Beginnings: College

Assignment 

Personal Narrative

Focus:
Much of our work for this assignment has involved prewriting. We have completed exercises such as
the Letter to Author, the Letter to Family Member and the Summary. We have also discussed various
brainstorming techniques, such as the 5W’s, outlining and freewriting. In addition, we have talked
about writing process and the techniques of writing such as thesis, introduction, body paragraphs and
conclusions. We have also discussed different techniques for coming up with a thesis such as the
Sheridan Baker Thesis Machine.

Task:
To what extent do you believe college offers students a chance for personal
growth and change? Use a personal example from your own life to illustrate your answer to this
question. Think about why you wanted to make a change when you came to college and what you
hope this new identity will do for you. Also, think about the differences between a high school and
college setting and why the latter might be more conducive to a change in identity.

New Beginnings: College

by: Benjamin Reed

     Cal State University Northridge, a place where the student population is somewhere over thirty-thousand, a place where few people know you upon entry, a place where no one knows your past and anything is possible, a place where you can explore who you want to be. Walking on the CSUN campus for the first time as a college freshman was a nerve-racking experience, it was like the first day of high school, but on a much bigger scale. When beginning high school I felt the need to be a part of a group or clique; here I instantly knew none of that mattered. Students often feel that they carry the burdens from high school with them and that they will never get over the bad moments. This is false. Personally, I had a hard time with high school academics and I knew people who felt that they didn't belong, or felt that they were confined to their high school identity, but they had a chance to change when they came to college. The transition to college presents a perfect time to change because students are going to a new place where not many people know them or their past. For me, college offers the opportunity to excel and succeed academically and I plan to seize the opportunity. 

     Coming to high school I was a skinny, short, black haired, shy, clueless freshman named Ben who was shy and somewhat timid to meet new people. I would keep to myself and in most occasions, avoid social interaction with my peers. I turned down a lot of opportunities my first couple of years in high school, for instance, my freshman year I didn't go to any of my schools football games. I would just stay home and do nothing most of the time, or go to the mall to do nothing with a few friends. Anyway, I would find things to do other than being social and meeting more people from my school. I was also a master procrastinator and strong believer of not studying. I would wait till the last minute to do all my assignments and it was working because I received okay grades for the work I was turning in; now that I look back I wish i could have taken it more seriously. I had a teacher named Ms. Adewole for my freshman english classes both semesters and I would never do work in her class. She would even tell me that I have missing assignments and sometimes I would do them and turn them in late, but I did not take the class seriously at all. Not until it was two days before the final and I had a D in her class. I was hit by reality right then and was scared I would have to go to summer school. Ms. Adewole was understanding and she let me turn in all the work I had not before and gave me full credit so that I could pass the class the first semester. This really helped me for the second semester because I learned that I need to be on top of my work. High school, for me, was a time where I was working at improving different skills like studying, being social, managing my time, and not being stressed about everything so it could prepare me for college. Unfortunately, I focused too much on the social aspect of it and not much anything else. Coming to college I found out that the social aspect of high school didn't really matter because you start all over in college anyway. 

     College offers students a blank canvas, a new, fresh start that they can choose to take or not to take. It gives students a chance to change from how they were in high school. It gives them this chance because the student is going to a new place where little to no people know of this person or of their past. I was overwhelmed when I saw the size of CSUN and how many students attended it, but big size is better when your looking to change something about you. For me, academics were a problem in high school, so I decided that I would try to do better academically in college and apply myself more. I wanted not only to get good grades, but to acquire a ton of knowledge from all my classes. Coming to college gives me the space to make this change because I am around a bunch of new people, whereas, in high school it would have been harder because I knew more people, more distractions, and had more things to do. I plan to do this by managing my free time better and making studying and doing homework a priority. So far its been hard but I like getting all my work done and doing well in my classes. I learned that if you work hard, then it's even more rewarding when you get some time to do something you want to do. 

Now that I am making this change I realize that it would have been much easier to do if I had practiced better study skills in high school, instead of socializing so much. Time management is something that I should have worked on a well. I am working on these things now, but it's like trying to reprogram my priorities and it'll take a while before i get used to studying so much. The change is certainly worth it though, it has taught me so much responsibility because there is no one to nag me to learn or do my homework, my education is up to me now. That means it's up to me to mange my free time better than I did in high school. 

     In college there is much more free time, and that is another reason the transition from high school to college is a perfect time to change. I often find myself sitting in my dorm with to much free time and nothing to do. Free time and the freeness of being on your own allows for students to do what they want to do when they want to do it, and they might find that they like to do different things now than they did in the past. That is what happened to me; in high school I never read a book for english class or any other class, but in college i actually enjoy the reading and don't mind it, and since I have so much free time I can take my time and actually enjoy the reading. People can also take up a new skill or play a sport with all their free time, and maybe they weren't the athletic type in high school but now they want to try. Or some freshman join fraternities and sororities and change to fit their new greek lifestyle. These are all factors that allow change to happen so easily during the transition from high school to college. 

     Going away to college, in America, has always been a sort of milestone that says a child is no longer a child and they have to go out into the world and learn to navigate it themselves. It is when we become adults and begin the journey of finding out who you are. The transition to college is a time of great personal growth due to all the free time students have to find themselves. And the freedoms, there is no one telling me what to do anymore and I feel so free. Now i can do what I want to do. It allows me to find the things I like to do and the people I like to be around. 

     What this says about our culture is that we, as Americans, accept change and in face encourage it. If they didn't want people to change from high school to college they would just have it all in one building. This time in life is important because it opens up a lot of doors for students to change, and the ways they change can affect their future. That is why it it important that students change for the right reasons when coming to college. I have had a ton of friends who have told me they can not wait to party in college, of a students change is they party more instead of studying, thats not a good change. A change like mine, for instance, is a change for the better because I am trying to better myself and in the long run increase my value. 

     In conclusion, change is encouraged during the transition from high school to college because students are brought to a whole new place with all new people that don't know who anyone is. It gives students a change to forget their past and start over without anyone judging them or even knowing that they've changed. The college setting welcomes change more than the high school setting because, in high school popularity and reputation stop you from doing a lot of things, but in college none of that matters. If there was ever a great time to forget something in your past and start over, the transition from high school to college would be that time.