Your First Year Experience ~Excelling at Maze Runner Level

 

 





If you've not already had a semester in college you are most likely filled with many expectations and concerns:

• Will I fit in socially?
• Will I be able to handle the academic experience of college?
• Will I be able to manage my time effectively?
• Will I be able to have a positive relationship with my instructors?
• Will I have time to engage in extracurricular activities I enjoy?
• Will I be able to continue with the volunteer experiences I currently engage with?
•  Will I have the supports I need to succeed?
• Will I be able to afford the college experience I dream about?

Now that I am about to enter college; what have I gotten myself into?

Let's take a look at what differences exist between High School and College:

• Who is in charge? Quite honestly, during grades K-12 others have the say and when you enter college, you are expected to be in charge of your academic choices and success.
• Organizing for success. In High School your teachers and counselors do loads of the planning for you.  In college the responsibility is yours.
• Planning for use of your time.  In High School you spend 6 hours per day where the planning is done by school administrators, teachers and counselors. In college you are expected to plan for yourself with input from academic advisers and others.
• Teachers vs. Instructors. In grades K-12, your teachers studied how children learn. In college your instructors are considered experts in their individual fields of research and it is unlikely that they have ever studied how adults learn.
• Meeting with your teachers vs instructors. In High School your teachers often initiate your meetings and in college you are in charge of making those meetings happen; either through attending office hours or by appointment with your instructor.
• Reminders of assignments, exams/quizzes, or projects are frequently offered by your teachers with reinforcement by your parents.  In college, you receive a syllabus for each course, on the first day of class; that is your only reminder.
• So many more that you will soon discover.

 Phase One:

 

Lets take a look at who is in charge of making your education/learning decisions.

In other words, who is driving your learning bus?




 

In your formal learning experience, K-12, it was mostly parents, teachers and school administrators who made your education/learning choices; in college, you have the wheel.

 

Physically, you have been an adult for quite some time. Our current social model is to treat young adults as children and often leaves you out of many decisions that effect you.

 

Our culture, then expects you to morph, over one summer, into a fully in change adult.

That works for no one! The truth is that when most students enter college, for the first time; what each lacks most is experience in the adult mental model. You have the mental abilities and aptitudes to make you successful; once you have enough experience, to make it so!

Yes, once you enter college, your task is to discover how the adult you needs to navigate this new maze called college.

To successfully travel through this maze to come out the other side; you will have many opportunities to practice, using this new mental model' coupled with your skills as...

In the movie, The Maze Runner , 

Based upon the novel “The Scorch Trials” by

James Dashner;

the underlying theme is about the importance of discovering your life's purpose.


Please consider these thoughts on life purpose:

Maze Runners intuitively recognize where purpose and opportunity align.

 

then 

...for your heart provides the passion to make your life's purpose realize!

Like the...

discover your own way through!

Stay connect for my next blog post; a continuing look at your first year experience.

Please feel free to share this blog with your other college friends.

Thank you,