My name is Jacob, I’m an eighteen-year-old from Long Island, New York and I recently began college life at Suny Geneseo. The first few weeks I have been here could only be described as an absolute blast. I have already formed new memories that I know will last a lifetime. I enrolled as a Biology major on the Pre-Physicians assistant track and am taking fifteen credits this semester. My courses will get harder as the semester progresses, but up until this point they have not been overly challenging. The science courses I am taking peak my interest which makes it a lot easier for me to be engaged during class time as well as studying. Upperclassmen I have met who have a similar major have said that Biology is extremely tough and time-consuming, which is a bit discouraging, but I knew it wouldn’t be an easy major when I decided on it.
The biggest challenge I have faced thus far is navigating the software Brightspace and Achieve. It is entirely unfamiliar to me and it is difficult to understand where my assignments are between the platforms, within folders and behind links. The workload that I receive weekly is also exponentially more than what I had in high school. To adjust to this change, my time management needs to be improved and I hope to develop better study habits that can contribute to better managing my time.
This course, writing: Theatre: A Therapy for Veterans has been very enjoyable so far. I can honestly say that I don’t mind writing and find it relaxing when the words start flowing onto the paper. I believe that this course will help me hone my writing skills and that these skills will be applicable to most classes I take in the future. Areas of my writing could definitely use improvement, such as punctuation and grammar, as in high school, I would commonly lose points on assignments based on these criteria. Out of the readings we have done up until this point, I can’t honestly say that I have related to any of them, as nothing I have experienced has been similar to the experiences expressed in the readings. I have made connections between them. That being said, I have learned a lot from all of the readings and the articles on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which have broadened my perspective on this topic.
The prologue of The Theatre of War by Bryan Doerries has really resonated with me because the author channeled the unfathomable pain of losing his girlfriend to a debilitating disease by sharing a story from over two thousand years ago with others who are facing challenges through a very different yet similar form in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
He explained that ancient literature helped him through the tough times following his life’s biggest tragedy and let him know he was not alone in facing his problems. The story he shares is called Ajax and was written by Sophocles in ancient Greece. It depicts the life of a soldier who, after losing his best friend Achilles and not being passed down his armor, flys into a blind rage. The main question this posed to Bryan was why it was written. He then shared the play with soldiers worldwide searching for this answer and received thousands of responses. What is believed to be the reason Sophocles wrote the story was that, being a veteran of war himself, he wanted to let others who witnessed and experienced war know that they were not alone in dealing with the problems it caused them after the fact.
Self-motivation is a necessity that is vital to thriving in every aspect of college life. Once I began to live on my own at college there was no one there to make sure I was doing the right things and I was faced with the task of holding myself accountable. It’s very easy to skip out on things here, it might be staying in and not going out with friends or procrastinating work until the last minute. The expectations I have set for myself this semester are very high, I hope to earn all A’s and B’s. This will be easier in some classes than others but by holding myself accountable for my actions and never skipping out on studying or any other aspect of my academics these goals can be achieved. Socially I am doing very well, the friends that joined in coming here have remained very close and the new people I have met are a great addition to my life. There are many organizations on campus that I am considering joining, my schedule right now is still relatively busy so I am probably going to wait till next semester when I am more acclimated to college life. Although it has only been a month, my time here so far has been very well spent and the future is looking very bright.
