Revolving Work Around School

Hello fellow CC mates. Ny name is Tired, last name Exhausted!

When you have to be cheesy and use Photo Booth in
Graphic Design to post to the class forum.

Hopefully my name will go back to Angela, last name Bickmann in a couple weeks. It's the plan! Right now is just the greatest time with new classes starting and moving up to a new position at work all at once. However, within a week or two I hope to not be saying that so sarcastically. At the moment I'm working as a host and expo, which is giving me almost double the amount of shifts I want to handle. Slowly but surely they are fixing my work schedule week by week to eventually get it how I would like for it to be.
Here are my thoughts for a decent work schedule as a college student depending on how you function best as a student:

Typical Angela accidentally
hurting herself doing anything.
This happened to be while slicing
my favorite sourdough bread on
my second day training at work. Am
I fit for the job now?

Try to not work during the days you have school if you can, or when you have a ton of classes!
 Between last semester and starting this semester, I've noticed it is incredibly difficult to go to school, work, and come back and do homework all in the same day. Last semester I had squeezed my classes into Tues-Thurs and worked Mon, Wed, Fri. Wednesdays were always my tough days with all the homework I had due on Thursdays. This semester I am going to school Mon-Thurs and (in a couple weeks) will be working Sat, Sun, Mon. However, Mondays shouldn't be tough for me because I only have one, easy class on Tuesdays where as Thursdays last semester I had 3 classes. Make sure your managers understand that not only is working important to you, but that school is as well. I recently decided to tell mine that I would rather work three days a week instead of five or four like the scheduled me because of school. They were more than understanding. Currently they are working on fixing that for me!

Give yourself a day or two to be able to leave town if you need to. We all need that refreshing moment with family or old friends when things get stressful!
This is a big one for me when anxiety catches up to me. It can also be crucial for the students who are having roommate troubles, which can be very common. Personally, I like to know that if I am having a stressful week, I will have a couple consecutive days where I can get away from it all and not have to worry about trying to get someone to cover my shift at work. That can be stressful enough as is! Last semester I had Saturdays and Sundays off work and school. This semester I will be having Thursdays at school, but off work and Fridays off both school and work. So this semester if I want to get away, I can leave town Thursday after school in the afternoon and come back Saturday afternoon before work in the evening.


Remember that school comes before work! Always, always, always.

Between classes, take a breather! (Or a picture in this case)
#bloggerprobz

You have the rest of your life to work after you graduate college. That's why there things such as student loans, grants, and scholarships. Don't get me wrong, I know it's scary to know you're using money you may eventually have to pay off. However, if working is bringing down your grades because you simply don't have the time to try or study, then it can get very overwhelming. I'm fortunate enough to have college payments and rent covered for me. I work so I don't completely run out of money by the time I graduate. Also, I work to be able to be able to pay for my car, gas, and anything else that is not a necessity (like shopping, gym membership, traveling, going out to eat, etc).  It all adds up folks! I'm trying to be smart about it and we all should try to be. If loans, grants, scholarships, and working the days that won't stress you out isn't enough for you and your bank account, you may want to consider taking a break from school. I encourage you not to, but if it's all to overwhelming to do at once, then it may be the right decision for you! Remember, college is the time to put you as your top priority. You don't have to worrying about what everyone else is doing :)

First Impressions

For the first time in history, I'm actually interested in all of my classes. That is not to say they won't challenge me because I can already tell they will, but at least I will have the motivation for my classes this year (except yesterday when I had to get homework done on my birthday which I will blog about after this weekend). Here's a rundown of the first impressions of my classes!

Argumentation and Debate: This partially an online class, we only meet on Thursdays. I've never tried any class that was even partially online, this is will be a new experience for me. The first day of class I walk in and before it even starts there were people from the earlier class trying to convince and bribe people from this class to switch with them. Sorry, I planned out my schedule perfectly in advance! Perks of being prepared. A lot of people wanted to take this class because the professor is known to be one of the best. From what I can tell he is pretty hilarious having the whole class laughing on the first day. Also, this or any communication class is needed for anyone who is transferring to a CSU school (which I most likely will be doing). So far what I learned is that there are two ways of thinking. System one is thinking with your emotions. System two is thinking with reason. This class is about thinking with reason (logic) in preparation for arguing and debating rationally. Also so students don't get offended!

Reporting/ Writing I: This is the very first college level journalism class I have ever walked into. I know I will enjoy the writing portion of it and that I will excel in that part of it, however I am a little nervous about the reporting stuff. I'm definitely more of a writer than an interviewer, but this class will help with that! We will learn a lot about current events as that is most likely what we will be writing about. When we were writing out things about ourselves on the syllabus, I noticed when it asked if I had experience in writing I ended up having a lot to say! I've been blogging for SBCC, I've taken a couple creative writing and photojournalism classes in high school, I'm in the process of writing an autobiography, I've been in the newspaper, and I've received an award at school before for the best poetry in the class. I also wrote down that I may be interested in writing for the Channels. I collected a few quotes about journalism from him including: "Journalists are active creators of content"  "Writers convey a message and connect with the audience" "Journalism is an art, you're an artist" and my favorite "Journalists have the power to influence" And with that power, I hope to do so!

Graphic Design Basics: I was late to the first day of this class :( It's my only 8 AM and there was construction and traffic from an accident that morning. Of course, when I get to the class every computer I try I couldn't find safari on to join the lecture for the syllabus review. Eventually I asked before we had to take a picture of ourselves to post an interesting thing about us on the forum and a quiz online the first day. I am excited to see where my creativity takes me in this class! I'm not a computer wiz, but I would like to know more since all print writing may all be online one day. We not only have to get the textbook, but pay $20 a month for this this Indesign Creative Cloud program for our computers every month until class is over. This teacher not only teaches Graphic Design, but she also has a separate job involving graphic design as well. I'm excited for the project we will be working on all semester. It's a booklet of graphic designs we will make on topic of our choice. Creativity here I come!

Music Appreciation: The teacher in this class loves what he does. We are learning the basics right now like how to read music, music terms, and how to clap or bang on our desks to rhythms. This is fun for me because I get to remember stuff from when I used to play piano and we get appreciated as a class for clapping our hands correctly. No seriously, he really is like "WOW YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING AT THIS, AGAIN!!! BUT FASTER!!" He understands that we as a generation today are more into EDM music and such, so he makes the class as interesting as possible with his jokes. He also understands that some of us (like me) are taking this for a humanities general ed class. This is the only class I have gone to more than once so far. I knew I'd like the teacher right away once he said that we don't need to get the textbook this year because they are expensive. Instead he put together a smaller, more condensed version of one himself for $7 at the bookstore.

BRING IT Spring Semester!

Drama / Music Building

photo creds: Joseph Haylee

My brothers are getting so tall!

Welcome back to SBCC's Spring Semester and my blog!!! I'm lucky to get to share another semester's worth of experiences with you and FINALLY start taking classes for my major. Even though it was raining on the first day of classes, I still had a great first class. My Music Appreciation class helped me rediscover some of the stuff I was taught for the piano I miss playing, the teacher is upbeat and funny, and the class has a gorgeous view of the ocean. The teacher even told us to not buy the textbook for the class, how great is that?! Hopefully it's an easy A. I will definitely be letting you know soon how my other first day of classes go!  For now, I'll catch you up on what's happened since my last blog in 2015....because it's 2016 now....and I'm turning 20 this Friday January 22nd.... time is flying!

Don't ask how much I spent on photo strips WORTH EVERY PENNY!

In my last blog post I talked about being nervous about my class grades and what my plans were for Winter Break. Well good news, I passed all my classes. As for Winter Break I visited family and friends in Virginia. I also got to visit the restaurant I had my first job at and catch up with an old coworker of mine. GUINNI, my love, my pug, he is still hanging in there! That old 100 year old fart. On my drive to Iowa my brother puked right next to me in the car, so that was lovely. There was no snow in Iowa and Illinois until the day I left (freezing rain delayed my flights), however there was a tornado warning. Christmas Eve and day were very cherished as I got to spend time with family. I had a blast with a few of my friends I could squeeze time in with there.

Cuddlin'

New work outfit. Cute huh?

Once I got back home to California, I only spent a few days in Santa Barbara before I left again to visit my childhood friend and celebrate New Years Eve weekend with her and her friends at their beach house in Newport. As for my job I am finally moving up in position after being a hostess for 3 years! I will be an expo until I feel ready enough to start serving. It's honestly been a little nerve racking, but it can be scary trying something new and I know I will get used to it just like I did with hosting. Plus the tips will be worth it for sure! I also realized someone I know goes to the same gym as me and he is starting to become a personal trainer. So I scored and am getting trained for free which will be amazingly uplifting for my health. Oh oh oh!!! I also saved up some money and purchased a brand new Macbook Pro which will be so nice and helpful to have for the writing classes I will be taking!

Newport Beach rooftop

Here's to a great year, a successful semester, and a college experience continuing with many memories to become! Good luck everyone! If you need any advice about anything, feel free to leave a comment below :)