Working on the rational argument

 

    

     

I am trying to finalize my rational argument and I will say that it has been a hard experience. My topic about racism against Asian Americans has given me a new insight into the topic. Lots of data that I have never known about and stories have been brought to light. So this part of the research has been extremely rewarding. Unfortunately due to ROTC, I did lose a couple days to work on it so I am still a little behind on my argument. It's been hard to put my ideas together and I have had to rework a lot on my essay.

    But, I am slowly getting it done and I am reaching the finish. I am doing more research to help me develop a thoughtful conclusion. Hopefully, during the week I have time to sit down and finish my argument as I feel that I have a lot of great information to share. Overall, this has been a challenging yet rewarding assignment and I really feel that I am writing something important.

Fort Knox Experience

 

 

   Over the weekend I was at Fort Knox. I was there to take part in our ROTC spring training. It was a challenging yet fun time and I was able to meet so many people from other schools around Illinois. Schools like Loyola, Eastern Illinois, Western Illinois, Northwestern, and Depaul were all with us at Knox. It did suck having to eat MREs for most days in the field but after eating the first it's pretty easy to eat the rest. I had a great time bonding with a lot of people and being able to take part in the different events that were held.

    I scaled a 500ft rappel tower and completed an obstacle course during one of the days. The other day we searched for landmarks around the area during the day and night as a team and that was a very fun experience. The next day we did tactical movements and planning which was super interesting. The only downside was that one day we had to sleep outside overnight and I picked up a cold. But, overall the training was an incredible experience.

Busy Week

 

    

    This upcoming week will be extremely busy for me as I will be missing a majority of the school week. Starting on Wednesday I will be going to Fort Knox in Kentucky for ROTC training. It will be a very fun but tough training as it will be my first time being there. I am looking forward to experiencing this as I would've never imagined that I would be able to go here. Over the past week, I have been getting all my stuff ready and packed so that I can be ready to go for the weekend. We will be there from Wednesday to Sunday and I will be coming home pretty late. 

    The one thing that I am really not looking forward to is catching up on the work that I am going to miss. I won't be able to use my laptop for the next 5 days so I will be falling behind on some classes. Thankfully, I talked to my professors about extensions, and they will still allow me to get credit on assignments that I will miss. When I come back it'll be straight back to work on assignments.

Finishing this semester

    

 This semester has overall been a grind for me. I started this semester knowing that I wanted to do better than last semester as I kind of got lazy at the end of last semester. My classes were challenging last semester but I got mostly A's and ended with two B's. But, I know those B's could've been A's if I had not gotten lazy. Admittedly, I was able to get my grades up at the end of the semester too but I really got lazy in my accounting class. I stopped studying for tests a lot and got behind on homework because I was complacent with my A at the time. This semester though I am making sure that this won't be repeated.

    My schedule this semester is a lot different than last semester. I have classes on Tuesday and Thursday this time around and my schedule has no big blocks of free time between them. Last semester I had a 3-hour gap between my third class and my fourth class on Wednesdays. While it was nice to have the gap to finish homework it was pretty hard to have to end classes at 5:35pm every Monday and Wednesday. This was especially hard as a commuter having to go home pretty late.

    Now, all my classes are basically back to back so I end at 11:45 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I spend most of my mornings and afternoons in the library now and have been studying almost every day, something I didn't do last semester. Throughout this semester I have seen so much personal improvement and my grades are reflecting that as well. As this semester winds down with 4 weeks remaining I hope that I can keep this consistency and finish out strong and enjoy my summer. I also want to pose a question to you the reader, have you made any personal goals this semester?