Update: Moving On!

Hey everyone! I apologize for letting this blog go untouched for so long. I have been seriously busy the last few weeks! School has picked up a bit; I'm taking a compressed online class - Media Management. There's a written assignment and two responses every week, so that keeps me busy! In addition, I'm studying for the Marketing Communications TECEP. I ran into some time management issues last month that I'm still working through, and had to cope with some distractions, so I've had to cut back on blogging and other social stuff for a time. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to that stuff soon!

An important thing to note: today is the last day I am officially a CollegePlus! student. Looking back, it's been an amazing two years. I've learned a lot, earned lots of credits, and got to take advantage of some unique opportunities and meet some amazing people! I have also grown a lot mentally, spiritually, and relationally. Thanks to my coach, CollegePlus!, and all my friends for making it such an enjoyable and rich experience! Now it's on to TESC to finish my degree! And don't worry my CP! friends - I will stay in touch. Not as regularly maybe, but I will stay in touch :-)

~Mac

A Week of Milestones

So I'm going to keep to my goal of blogging once a week . . . barely :-P And in addition, I'm going to throw you the lame "it was a busy week" excuse. I don't use it very much though, so cut me some slack this once ;-)

Several school-related milestones happened this week. First, I passed Business Ethics & Society, so I now have 90 credits. Yes, I am now officially a college senior! :party: I spent the next day relaxing and taking a study break :-) I also had my advisement call with Thomas Edison, and got my template set up with them so I know all my classes and tests have transferred/will transfer. So the rest of my degree is now mapped out!

Also, I helped my brother move to college, where he is starting his freshman year. I got to check out the campus, meet the roommate I haven't already met, have a picnic with some of the students, and attend an evening worship/consecration service which was great! It's very exciting, and also kind of wierd not having him around anymore. We are very close and I'm going to miss him! Fortunately we still have lots of ways of staying in touch.

So it's been a week of milestones and adjustments! Looking forward to a day of rest tomorrow and then tackling Principles of Marketing on Monday! :-)

~Mac

AWOL

The title stands for "Absent WithOut Lettingyouallknow" - I had intended to blog once a week during the summer, but that didn't quite turn out very well :-P

So why was I AWOL for almost three weeks?

1. I starred in a musical! Granted, it was only a children's musical that our church put on, and I was only in one scene, but it still counts ;-) The musical was "Nic@Night", about Nicodemus and his journey from Pharisee to Christian (in the context of the Gospel story). I and my brothers were the Pharisees in one scene (we were the comic relief :-) ) It was quite fun - but all the practices kind of disrupted the schedule a bit.

2. I was studying for Organizational Behavior. Because of the rehearsals, I had limited study time, so I made the most of it - which meant no blogging. I did pass, however, so it was worth it! 78 credits down :-)

Those were the biggies, but I had a lot of other smaller things that I did as well (a party, starting teaching guitar). It's been very busy, but now things are beginning to slow down, so I should be able to blog weekly again! (We'll see how that goes :-P)

TTFN!

~Mac

Deadlines

Deadlines are part of life. We all face them at some point - in school, in work, in life in general. While they can be stressful, sometimes the pressure is good.

I have been studying for the Human Resources Management DSST recently, and it has been very slow going. I finally just scheduled the test for next week. Now that I have a deadline it is amazing how much more motivated I am to study! :-) That's one way deadlines can actually help us - we can channel the pressure they create to improve our performance. They also help us to prioritize and better schedule our time.

How do you deal with and use deadlines?

~Mac

Another Selection from the Vault!

Here is another piece of my old writing that I dug up! For the record this is a fictional account, and I anonymized the character names.

Poor Mommy!

One day "Derek" went to the kitchen to look at Mommy. Finding no one there, he noticed cake preparations for "Alex's" birthday. he got them down on the floor. He then proceeded to make a mess out of the kitchen. He splattered Jell-O all over the walls, then smeared the floor with cake batter. When Mommy came in, "Derek" said, "Look, I did a super job!" Poor Mommy!

~Mac

The Teacher I'll Never Forget

Well, after posting that first poem, I finally found some of my oooooold poems . . . you know, the ones I wrote in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. Here's one of my personal favorites:

The Teacher I'll Never Forget

My mother is my greatest teacher,

She's so good I love to keep her,

She encourages me in my school,

She is so good and cool!

She loves me and I love her,

And so you see,

That's why I want to keep her.

I like her best when she gets up,

She makes breakfast, and it's time to sup,

And she never forgets to make

Special treats like my birthday cake.

She's so good that I don't want

Any other teacher to push her out.

I might express them differently today, but those sentiments are still 100% true! I love you Mom! Thanks for putting in all the hard work and sacrifice to teach me and make me the student and person that I am today :-)

(And you can tell that this was written a long time ago - that was back when she made breakfast! :O)

~Mac

Motivation

Yep, it's that time.

That time when you just want to chill, veg out, hang free, whatever.

That time when schoolwork seems to be the most unappealing thing.

I'm struggling with motivation. It's happened before, but right now I seem to be spinning my wheels trying to keep going with classes and such. And I end up wasting my time on lots of little trivial things :-P So I'm asking you:

What do you do to stay motivated and concentrated on the task at hand?

I welcome your comments!

~Mac

First Classes!

Last week, I enrolled in my first online college class and will probably enroll in a second one sometime this week!

Needless to say, I'm excited and nervous at the same time.

For the first few days, I have been navigating the system, figuring it out. Now I just need to get on with the lessons!

Prayers would be appreciated as I start this next phase of my college education.

~Mac