Mid Semester Goals

It is almost Thanksgiving and right after that I will be cramming for finals and then suddenly it will be over and I will either be crying hysterically or extremely relieved. To prevent the crying I think now is a good time to reevaluate my goals for this semester and set new ones so that I can survive the last few weeks.

Class attendance was one of my big goals when the semester started and I planned my schedule to help me make it to class. The last two weeks I have skipped a few classes but with the new week starting it is time to become motivated again and get to class. Day light savings just happened so that should help for a few days getting to my earlier classes.

Keeping my grades up is really really really important this semester. My GPA is a little lower than it should be and as a result my scholarship is in suspension this semester. I am still getting my scholarship but if I don't get my GPA up I will lose it for next semester. I only have to raise my GPA .025 points but if I let it drop at all I am going to be screwed.

My mental health and fitness were a big concern for me even at the beginning of this semester. I knew "winter blues" were going to be a hassle for me which is one of the reasons that I don't have any 8AM classes at all. I was doing fantastic with my fitness when the semester started out but I have been slacking, that will change tomorrow. I need to keep moving and keep leaving my room on a regular basis.

My homework load is absolutely insane and if I don't stay on top of it I will crash and burn. I have been slacking a bit lately but it is time to get back into gear and get ahead of my work. I will be much happier and less stressed if I can get ahead of my work so that is one of my biggest goals. If I can get this done everything else will fall into place.


This is the last 16 days until Thanksgiving and the last 38 days until the end of school. I can push through and do this.

It Has Been One of Those Days

I'm writing this mostly to help me wind down from my crazy day. As you know if you read my last blog post I am extremely stressed and at the same time unmotivated. I was looking forward to today because I get about thirty extra minutes on Tuesday and Thursdays to sleep in or do something a little extra with my make up(and by extra I mean eyeliner and mascara instead of just mascara). I woke up at 9:39, 9 mins after the start of my first class. I showed up to class looking like a monster and thirty minutes late. The only reason I even bothered going was because it is an hour and twenty minute class so I figured I should go for the remaining fifty mins and at least get something accomplished.
Then I went to the library to print my Reset Form for my ticket(more on that nonsense later) which I found a bit overwhelming(not printing the form just the entire process and paperwork blah blah blah). I also managed to lose my daily planner around this time. My programing class was not much better, normally I finish the two hour lab in about thirty minutes or an hour. I worked until the last second on the problems they gave us today. I was so incredibly frustrated and I was getting very mad at myself. Thankfully I finished the problem correctly but I was on edge when I finally left that class. I also had a physics lab that other than starting at four in the afternoon when I am dead tired, always has convoluted and unclear instructions that make the lab long and tedious and frustrating.  So I went to that and of course piled on more tension and stress.(I would say pun intended but it is physics two so that pun doesn't really apply).

Anyway. Long story short I had a long and stressful day and I am not dealing with my stress well. I look forward to a better tomorrow and I thank you for reading my vent.

Winter Blues

The days are getting shorter, the leaves are falling, and everybody is preparing for the holidays. I am just trying to make it through the days. I have fallen into a mid semester slump, for a lot of reasons.

List of Things Not To Do

     Take 18 hrs of classes

     Take one/any of your classes "distance" or "hybrid"

     Stop going to the workout classes you were enjoying

     Stay up really late for no particular reason

     Stop talking to people 

     Procrastinate
     Stay inside all the time

It is for these reasons(that are entirely my fault) that I haven't posted anything new. I also think that as they days are getting shorter and colder, the lack of sunlight that I am receiving is resulting in some seasonal depression. The lack of sunlight along with not being able to see my boyfriend or my family is really putting me into a slump. I am behind on my class work and stressed to no end. In fact as I am typing this I'm thinking of all the other things I could be doing other than typing this blog post but, I need to do something that is productive and for me.

List of Things To Do

     Enjoy typing this blog post 

     Make a homework task list

     Go to a workout class tomorrow

     Talk to my friends

     Have a hot drink

     Take better care of myself

If you have tips for staying on top of seasonal depression please let me know. Hopefully I won't go on a hiatus with my posts again. I am looking forward to my next blog post because I'm going "to the land down under". 

Engineering? Really?

I think I was the only one in my family that was surprised when I announced that I wanted to study Mechanical Engineering. I had wanted to be all the usual things growing up, a teacher, a veterinarian, a paleontologist (okay, maybe not "usual" unless you really like dinosaurs), and as I grew up I moved away from those and started looking at less usual things. I have wanted to be a teacher for deaf students (I'm gonna blame this one on my favorite book), a criminal psychologist, a dog trainer, and a few other oddities.  I always wanted to be what interested me the most at the time, but unfortunately things don't tend to hold my interest for long. 

When I told my parents that I had decided on mechanical engineering they both said "finally!” but not in a "you finally made a decision" way more of a " you finally listened to what we have been telling you forever" way. Once I made the decision to study engineering I was able to see the little things my parents had done to help me realize that STEM related studies were what I needed to go with. I had always thought my strong suits were in English and literature, and they are. I read constantly and far above my grade level (It’s always fun telling your elementary school teachers that your favorite author is Jules Verne or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.), and once motivated I find writing extremely easy and that I am not terribly bad at it(hopefully). My belief that my skills in the fine arts far exceeded those of the STEM subjects was brought on by the fact that I always tested out of my expected math level, and then proceeded to struggle in a math class that required more effort from me than I was accustomed to. My mother saw that I was excelling in math early on and enrolled me in summer school classes, so that when I entered high school I was not one but two years ahead of my classmates in math. I should have taken this as an obvious sign that I was good at math, but because I struggled in those classes I believed I was bad at math (yeah, I know, I was dumb). My father also tried steering me in the right direction. I remember having conversations with him during which he tried to get me interested in studying some kind of specialized harbor engineering. I believe my response was "I don't want to go to school for something that doesn't interest me, plus I don't really want to do anything engineering" after which I promptly went back to watching an incredibly fascinating documentary about how canal locks were invented and implemented (face palm!). 

I think my biggest motivation and shove in the right direction came from my father. I love to work with my hands, but being against STEM fields at the time I figured I would find hobbies that let me work with my hands while I had my career. My dad showed me that the two could go together quite nicely. We started a project together to restore his high school car. It took us a few years but when we were done we had a shiny 1966 Ford Mustang and I had a new desire to know how things worked and how to make them better (more on the mustang later because I can go on for days about it). 

It was the car project that finally made me interested in exploring STEM fields and caused me to do my high school mentorship project on mechanical engineering (I will also talk about this later). 

I know a lot of people will tell you that you don't have to listen to what your parents say about what you should study, and this is true to an extent. If your parents want you to be a doctor and you hate blood and needles you probably shouldn't be a doctor. You also don't have to take their entire suggestion; my dad wanted me to be some kind of harbor engineer for crying out loud!! Your parents know you the best, they have know you your whole life, and they have seen every one of your triumphs and failures, the probably know what they are talking about. 

(Feel free to leave comments, let me know what you are studying or studied and how you decided on a major, also make sure to follow this blog and have a great day!)

Now Study #1

My name is Brookell and I am a student at Texas Tech University. I am majoring in Mechanical Engineering and minoring in Agribusiness Management(yes, I know that is a strange combination). I am in my second year of studies and in the spring I will be studying abroad in Australia(exciting!). My plan is to continue blogging during my experience abroad but until then I want to get into the groove of things blogging while still here in the states. Through this platform I want to help and support other college students like me and also inspire young girls to explore STEM fields. This post is very informational and I write like an engineer when I convey information, but I can promise you that I am very adept in english and literature as well and my other posts will be a lot less sterile. I hope you stay around and visit often. Feel free to leave comments and ask questions. I don't want this blog to just be about me, I want to interact with and know about my readers. Thanks for reading, I should probably go study now.