Accidents Happen

I'm going to keep this post as simple and sweet as I can. My goal this year was obviously to keep things on a positive note. Well the good news is that that is still possible. By keeping my head held high, I am making it possible. Happiness is decided and controlled within yourself and your own thoughts, it is not controlled by the events surrounding you. The last thing I wanted to blog about was another event in which has caused drama in my life. However, I think that this post can be a good lesson towards college students who are ever in a dangerous situation or to those who are living on their own for the first time with a kitchen.

Monday afternoon as I was getting ready for work, I was thinking about how I have a meeting with the counselor on Tuesday morning, but that I didn't have anything to necessarily talk about because things were going pretty well. I'm ready for work in a great mood, say goodbye to my roommates, and go to work acting all happy with customers telling them that my day is great as well. Little did I know, a fire formed in our kitchen while I was at work. No missed calls or texts from my roommates, I grab some employee food and sit down on my phone and scroll through social media. I stumble upon Facebook to see that there was a fire at my apartment and I called my roommate right away and headed over there. By the time I got home the fire department, police, and apartment manager had already left. The accident was my fault. I never knew what a broiler was and I had never seen one in my life. I guess someone left a sheet pan in there from another set of roommates before us, so I thought that the broiler was a storage area for the oven. There is not much storage in our apartment, especially the kitchen, so I put a couple more sheet pans, including a cutting board in there. NEVER DO THAT!!!

I took off a full day of school on Tuesday to work on cleaning the apartment because the kitchen was covered in dust from this happening. I sort of felt like a hard-core Cinderella. The good news is that nobody was hurt, the oven is being replaced, and all of our important belongings were safe in our rooms. Talking with the counselor and the apartment manager, they both informed me that accidents like this happen all the time and that they themselves have done something like this before. EVERYTHING IS OKAY! I feel horrible for the accidental situation I put my roommates in and am just so thankful of the helped we received.

Negative situations will surround you, this world is full of them. However, it is possible to separate your right to happiness from them. Everyone deserves happiness. This world can be so positive and so beautiful if you let it be. Example A: This is the view of the sunrise from my bedroom window the same day the fire happened.  I'm usually not up that early to see it but I got up early to take my roommate to the doctors. The beautiful thing about that was I was able to help someone and for once it wasn't me having to go there for myself . #thatwassolastyear

Organizational Tips

THE KEY TO SUCCESS IN YOUR CLASSES IS BEING ORGANIZED!!!

Following these steps will help you to organize your classes and paperwork for each one, making it easier to locate things (therefore you won't stress out as much)!

Start by separating all your paperwork into different folders,binders, or sections. I like to separate them by each class and add a section for homework so I know what to focus on or what's due for the next class date!
Next separate each class's category section/folder/binder into a few other sections including: notes, old quizzes/tests, old homework, and any other paperwork you think you might need.



Flashcards help me memorize things easiest for studying!

Organizing flashcards can be the easiest organizational tip I can give you. Not organizing flashcards can also be a nightmare. The best thing you can do to organize your flashcards is separate them into chapters. I like to write the chapter number in one of the top corners so, that way if I mix them up, I can easily notice and put it back with the right chapter deck. 
Another tip with flashcards is to use the ones that are blank on both sides. If you get the ones that are blank on one side and have lines on the other it may become distracting. It can also prohibit you from writing as much words or writing them where you want to.
When studying your flashcards make two separate piles. Set down Pile 1 and keep Pile 2 in your hand. Keep going through pile two until you memorize them all. Now, before you go back and study the entire deck again, make sure to take a break! Sometimes taking a break can be a good thing. Give yourself time to possibly forget some of the definitions so you know for sure if you have truly memorized them into your long-term memorization, instead of the short-term.
Pile 1= The Known Pile: the definitions you already have memorized
Pile 2= The UnKnown Pile: the definitions you are confused about or have a hard time memorizing

Color-Code Your Notes!!! 

Again, being organized is the prevention of stress. Color-coating your notes can make it so much easier to find what you are looking for in your notes without having to read the entire paper. No one wants to do more reading than they have to! 
You can color coat things by definitions, titles, formulas, examples, questions & solutions, and even highlight or underline things to make the words you choose stand out more! 

On another "note", the reason I have become so organized this year is because my general ed classes are really difficult. Getting organized can make it that much easier to go back, study, and earn a higher grade. To be honest it's almost 1 in the morning as I'm writing this because I've been studying so much and I got inspired to "procrastinate" and write a blog about studying and being organized. I've got my LAB class this morning, then I have to go home to study and do more homework, and burnout my energy and the rest of my day at work. Tomorrow I've got a project, an essay, and a midterm due. This shall not be the death of me, but it'll sure make make my eyes dry. Oh, the college life!

Let's Get Started

Hi everyone, I'm back!!!! I was hoping I'd be able to blog again for you all this year because last year I loved sharing my experiences with you! Those of you who read my blogs last year know that as much as I tried to progress my life in a positive direction, it was very difficult since I was sick all the time last year. BUT now the tonsils are out and I'm smiling with four less teeth (which is a good thing), I'm not in pain anymore, nor have I been sick since I last blogged! If you'd like to take a look at one or sixty-one of my posts from last year click here! Because I know you want to read all sixty-one of them ;)


This year I hope to share some amazing experiences with you, here are my two main goals for this year:
1. Focus on me. Happiness is a choice and is well deserved. Develop a positive, strong mindset and stay in good health!
2. Figure out what my major is going to be before I sign up for Spring Semester Classes! Spring Classes I should start getting in-state tuition :)

This year is going to mainly consist of figuring out where I am headed in my life, and to start heading there. By the end of this semester I should be pretty close to finishing up my general ed classes. That's all I've really been taking lately because I didn't want to change my mind on a major (and end up wasting thousands of dollars as an out of state student). Currently I'm taking: Math 117, English 111, and the Physical Universe LAB class. These are the most difficult general ed classes I will have to take, but I will finish them and I will pass them!

To every student attending SBCC,
You see those signs everywhere that say we're the "#1 Community College in the Nation" ? Well it's true. Take in the view everyday and learn as much as you can from your compassionate teachers. Before you know it, you'll be transferring on out of here!!!

See Ya Next Year!!!

Today is the final Friday at SBCC! It sounds cheesy, but times flies...really fast, even when you think it's going by so slow. This year has been a journey (like every year of mine), but it was an oh so special one. I final reached my dream of coming back to California after a decade of wanting to. A decade is a long time for someone so young! That's how much I wanted this though. It's not the only dream of mine and my story is definitely not finished yet, so I really hope to have the opportunity to share with you more of my life next year! I'm pretty confident I won't get sick and much and have to go through toooooooo many surgeries next year ;) Haha. Well, I gotta get packing to fly back to Virginia for my wisdom teeth removal and to Illinois to see my best friend graduate. I'll be back for Summer Session II if any of you will be around! If not, I'll see ya next year and have a GREAT SUMMER!

Sincerely signing off, Yours truly,

Angela Rose Bickmann

PS: Here is a video I put together of my entire year here, enjoy! :)

Goodbye Freshman Year!

Today was my last day of of Spring semester! I can finally say I conquered freshman year of college and boy was it a journey (to be written about in my next final blog).

This week is crazy busy and about to get even busier! Today I finished my last final out of the four I had to do and I changed my mailing address (for now). Then I went to the DMV because I got a weird letter in the mail about my car, so that was just another thing to do! Tomorrow and Friday I will be constantly packing. I might be meeting a future suite-mate for next year. It's funny because I haven't met her yet and she lives at Tropicana Gardens as well. I also need to try to turn in my California residency papers to SBCC's admissions office before I leave. It would save A LOT of money when I can be considered "in-state". Saturday I will be moving out of Trop and staying with family until I fly Tuesday to Virginia and then Wednesday get my wisdom teeth out. Following a little over a week later flying to Illinois to see my best friend, Allie,  who is a senior in high school graduate because she came to my graduation a year ago. Time flies! After my visit in Illinois for two weeks I will fly back to California and move into my new place mid/end of June. If you didn't know, I will be taking the second semester of summer session to get an English class out of the way and to possibly find a job. Yes, I will still be living in Isla Vista.

To everyone stressed out about finals, just be glad you're not in this position anymore. This is my friend Allie who I mentioned above who is also in the picture above. As we were facetiming, she was trying to apply for college. It was so funny to me because she didn't know half the questions on the application (like how I used to be) and was asking her parent what it meant. And then there's me...wearing the Santa Barbara City College shirt judging her for it haha :) #illneverbeafreshmanagain

Roomie Sleepover!

 I am now welcoming you one last time to the girls in 236! Our sleepover only consisted of us and a couple of our close friends. A few people tried to come to our room and a few wanted us to leave and go out with them, but we stuck together. This was the last weekend night and we wanted to spend it together! We took our mattresses from our bedrooms and put them all on the living room floor. The night consisted of a lot of typical sleepover stuff, "college-girl style". It was a special time for only my roommates and I to share, so I'm going to leave it at that. However, I will tell you I've never felt closer to them. I wish they were my roommates at the beginning of the year and that we had this sleepover sooner. Sometimes me being in a single made it more difficult to bond with them because I was in a separate room, as they all lived in the same rooms and were together the whole year. That doesn't matter anymore because I can tell you that even though we will mostly all be living in different places, I will for sure hit them up next semester when they are back! They've reminded me of something that I tend to forget a few times....What's the point of surviving if you aren't living? By that I mean, I've come all this way going through tough times and now it's time to enjoy life to the fullest and be myself and in control of my happiness. I lost this train of thought throughout a lot of this year because I was stuck in survival mode with all the sicknesses, emotional distresses, and also the pain and surgery I had to do.  That's why I'm a little worried for my upcoming wisdom teeth removal May 20th in Virginia. It's coming up close and finals are upon us, all while having to pack and move. I don't want to get off track again, but I guess I gotta hop on that train and get back off. I'll never forget this wild ride I've had with my roommates, what a great way to end my first year here!

California Girls

What do you know, I convinced someone to go to SBCC! That someone is my silly, future roomie Sarah (aka: Sil Bil). We became friends in elementary school when I lived in Iowa. We bonded because we had gone through similar things and because of our love for California. Many of our conversations consisted of us talking about coming here together to visit one day. And here we are! Our reality is bigger than we dreamed it'd be, and we're talking of living together next year. She already applied and got accepted to SBCC and also applied for my apartment. I told her it wasn't easy and it can be really stressful to move from so far away, but it'll be worth it in the end. I'll be so lucky to have her as my friend and future roomie because neither of us take advantage of California's beauty. Finally I'll have someone here who understands how hard I've worked to come to this point. Also a friend who wants to celebrate that with me. OH! And someone to sing my heart out to country music with :D We will have so many adventures and I can't wait to explore them!!! Sometimes dreams are bigger than you dreamed they'd be. 

Best Wax Museum Masterpiece
(even better than bae Channing Tatum)