Transitions

Before I can even come to grips with the transitions that are required of me to become a full-fledged college student, I must first conceptualize and deal with re-entering the concept of a learning environment after the lapse of time that has occurred since I left High School proper. I graduated from Parkville High back in 2008 and enjoyed a summer vacation completely free of responsibility. I didn't want to have to jump right back into the "stranglehold" of education when I had just been released from it and I wanted to unwind before entering the workforce. Of course, I found myself employed that fall and for almost four years straight I devoted myself to my work. But like all things, this too met it's end and I now found myself interested in bettering myself through continuing my education.

Separation is the first step of the process detailed by Vincent Tinto, and with going into the passage of almost a full month of college, I now find myself truly experiencing that transition. I am realizing that I can no longer follow the same habits and behaviors that I had been prior to this on-going month of learning. Unlike when I was employed, I have deadlines and responsibilities imposed upon my shoulders and though I may stumble some, I must learn to balance them towards an effective, fruitful schedule. Thus, I am now barreling into the Transition period of this transition: learning a new way of life that will allow me to adapt and flourish as a student. It will take conscientious effort on my part to bring these changes about, but anything worth doing is worth going through difficulty to achieve.

Incorporation will be the true end goal of my new path in life and hopefully I will achieve it without falling too far or too hard in the pursuit of this new definition of me not only as a student, but as a person as well. I do not agree with Mr. Tinto that college is more a socialization process, but neither do I believe it is something based on one's intellect. I view it more as an exercise in the self discovery of one's own inner rhythm, paired with a developing of self discipline to capitalize on that rhythm to achieve the highest saturation into one's learning environment in order to gain the most from the educational process.

Short Response 1

What is a name? Is it the one, true defining aspect of the human experience that separates an individual from his brother? Is it just a title, a trapping, a simple stringing together of letters from a society's lexicon to open the door towards a much more complex existence while subtly hinting at its desired course through forgotten subtext? Or could it be some combination of the former and the latter or even something further? That may simply be something up for the philosophers to decide and the common man to only muse about when a deep mood takes hold of his faculties.

My mother bestowed my first name, Cody, upon me because she wanted her son to have some strength to his identity. The defining frame of this strength for her came from the era known in the public collective as the Old West; the nimrod turned proprietor William Frederick Cody as the origin of my most common appellation. My father wrote upon me his surname by right of his position in the structure of my family, but I know little of its meaning or depths aside from its Germanic roots.

To some, a name holds a deep meaning, a personal truth that helps them ground and center themselves as they travel in the maelstrom of the combined gest that we call Life. But to me, a name is simply just words to be written down or spoken allowed to draw my attention or to allow others to aid themselves in rationalizing and processing the concept of my presence. I care no more or no less that I am known as Cody Hiebler than I care about such things like chocolate being varied shades of brown. Such thoughts simply do not cross my mind.