College: Week One

In my blog before this, I was talking about all of the things going through my head about college. I felt excited, scared, and relieved. The scared feelings I am not worrying about anymore though! I am doing very well at school! So tonight's blog is about how I have been doing with everything so far.
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Field hockey. Field hockey is going very well. I love being a part of the team, I love all my teammates,  I love my coaches, and love playing here at Susquehanna. Before I came, I was very worried about pre season and how hard it would be, but it really wasn't that bad. I am getting more comfortable with the team each day little by little.
I do believe my APD is affecting me a lot being on the team, more than I thought it would. I don't really know everyone that well yet, so it's hard to understand what people are saying right now. With my high school team, I knew everyone pretty well so it was easier to pick up what they were saying. This might be a confusing concept to some people, but I feel as if the more comfortable I am with people, the easier it is to understand them. If I don't know people that well, it's harder to anticipate what they are going to say and how or what tone they will speak in. I don't think my APD will be as bad once I get to know everyone better, even my coaches.

Socially. Meeting people in my dorm, and on campus has been such a great experience. It's SO much better than high school socially. No one really judges (yet), everyone hangs out with everyone, and everyone is getting along with one another. In high school, cliques over populated the number of people. There's nothing like that here. You are free to be yourself, and free to be a part of as many clubs and groups as you want. Everyone is so nice. We all wave hello to one another, have friendly conversations, meet and greet one another, and I feel so comfortable.
How my APD is playing in all of this is kind of like how I was explaining earlier... It's hard to understand new people, and I really have to focus a lot more on what people are saying. It's hard to anticipate what people are going to say because I don't know them that well yet. It's hard to follow conversation, and sometimes miss what everyone is doing for lunch or that night because I miss bits and pieces of conversation, but that will always be a challenge for me no matter how well I know them.  I can definitely see how my APD is there still. It hasn't gone away, but I am having a great time despite it.

In the classroom. My classes really haven't been that terrible yet. I am taking first level spanish, perspectives, writing and thinking, and intro to society and education. My classes easiest to hardest is this right now: spanish, perspectives, intro to society and education, and then writing and thinking. Spanish and perspectives are really easy. I've already taken spanish, and we are learning the very basics of it. Our homework is super simple and doesn't take much time to complete. Perspectives is a class where my professor can basically teach whatever she wants to teach. Right now she's teaching us stuff like good study skills, how to talk to a professor, things on campus, and student life. It's a fun class so far. My harder classes are intro to society and education and writing and thinking.
Intro to soc. and ed. is hard because there is a lot of information coming at me in that class right now, and it seems a bit over whelming. Also, that's the class I've had the hardest work in, but it wasn't like it was impossible... It just took more thinking. Now my writing and thinking class is beyond my hardest class right now. We are doing a lot of logic thinking and it's very confusing. The answers aren't answers you can memorize and instantly know, it's more that you have to figure it out and puzzle it together.. that's the hardest for me. Also, my professor is a guy and for me male teachers are harder to work with. We all know how women are very open to their emotions, and guys hide emotions. It's hard for me to read people who don't show a lot of emotion. That's one thing I am good at... Reading people. When I am able to read someone it helps me understand them better, but when I can't read someone and how they might feel about something or think about something, it's harder for me to understand them and communicate with them.
I have accommodations in my spanish and intro to education class. I get extended time on tests, a note taker, I am allowed to use a recording device, and preferential seating. I also had these in high school, except have never used a recording device. I am actually using something called a livescribe smartpen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livescribe). The note taker is something I am impressed with. The learning disability services actually hires a student in my class to take clear and neat notes for me, and I get the notes from the teacher after class since I want it to be confidential. Like how cool is that?? I don't have accommodations in writing and thinking, or perspectives because those classes don't really have any exams and are more writing based classes. I wish I could have gotten accommodations for a note taker in that class and a recorder, but I will probably just have to talk to my professor about that.


Being on my own. I honestly thought I was going to get really home sick. I really like being here and independent. It's almost like being on my own has forced me to get things done more efficiently. I was assigned a research paper on Thursday, and I finished it today (Sunday) and it's not due until Friday! I am so proud of myself and never thought I could do that. I also feel confident I can go talk to my professors with no problem. It was almost like in high school I knew people would help me with this stuff, so I relied too much on other people to help me get my work done, and get help from teachers. But now, it's all up to me and it's been a success so far. 
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All in all, college has been a really positive experience and wouldn't take anything back that has happened so far. I love college!