It's the last week of the school yet! Looking back on how my first in college went was more fun than I expected it to be. I got to meet some awesome people throughout the school year. The only downer was the long excruciating commuting I had to do. According to my calculations, I put about 18,000 miles commuting to school. That’s about 220 hours spent behind the wheel driving to school. Other than that, everything went smoothly. My best and funniest class, however, was English class. Since it was a two-semester class, everyone got the chance to know each other very well. It felt like I was in a high school class instead of a college class. It can get a little boring at the time, but overall it was a very entertaining class to be in. But not all of my classes were the funniest. The worst was probably my statistics class, because of how terribly boring it was. Every day we would come in and take about 3-4 pages of notes. I know most of you guys would agree when I say math is the most boring subject in school. My school schedule fits really well into my schedule. It provided a balance between my personal time and school time. In all, my first year in Stanislaus State was a good experience. And this is it for my last blog, have a great and fun summer!

The stress around this time is very real for many. First, enrolling for new classes are this week and many are worried that they may not get the classes they want. Nothings harder than choosing your classes for next year. Up until it's your time to enroll for classes opens, we are stressful until we know we got what we wanted. Sometimes I wish that they just hand us our schedule instead of doing it ourselves. It would really reduce stress levels around the school. Secondly, school is almost finished which means finals week is also upon us. My finals aren't that bad, but I still need to study a whole lot to pass. Big projects, assignments, and essays are also due around this time. Everyone, including me, is scrambling to get them done and turned in time. I just tell myself that this nightmare is only gonna last 2 more weeks! And that once it’s over, I get to finally enjoy my summer. But, what really makes me sad that we won't be attending our english class anymore. The last year has been a whole lot of fun. I got to meet and know great people who I’ve become good friends with. This english class has been hands down the funniest class I’ve had this year. Oh and I can’t forget to say that YOU Mr. Hall have been a cool teacher! It’s been fun and I hope I get to have you again. And this is it for my last blog. PEACE

Last week in my Sociology class we discussed sensitive topics such as rape, sexism, and racism. The thing that caught my attention was that how all those issues still can be found in today's world. I understand that we can’t completely erase all of those problems in our society. Presently the topic of rape is one of the biggest issues we have. Im sure you guys remember how in the beginning of the school year, we had to pass a test on rape and how to avoid it in college. Well now I can see why they were forced to do that. The best solution to fighting rape is to spread the knowledge on the issue and how to combat it. Another issue we discussed was sexism. The professor talked about how sexism can be found in the workforce and how it negatively affects women. She stated that women get paid less compared to a male worker. I'm not sure if that is true nowadays, but if it is, I think it's very unfair. No matter the gender the person should get paid the same amount for doing the same exact work. Racism is still well and alive in our world. We may not see it, but it's still out there making people's lives harder than they already are. Nobody likes to be ridiculed for their ethnicity or skin color. What do you guys believe? Are these issues still happening in our world? If so, what can we do to prevent these issues from arising?

College so far has been good to me academically wise. I able to pull of a 3.8 gpa in my first semester and this semester looks very promising to be even better. Im able to keep those grades without spending all of my time studying. I don't like spending most of my days by having my head in books all day. In college I thought that's what I was have to do to keep getting good grades. But now with my first almost over, I learned that's not the case at all. Im able to go about my day without having to constantly worry about my classes. However, when there is an exam or final to study for I put all the time needed in order to pass. If you are having trouble staying with the college life, I recommend taking things day by day. When assignments and studying need to be done, I suggest only focusing on one thing rather than try to multitask to get things finished faster. That allows you to do the best job possible on each assignment. Another thing is to keep in mind the way you schedule your classes. You want to schedule your classes in way that best fit your lifestyle. For example, if you are a morning person then scheduling your classes in the morning would be the best option. It goes the same if you prefer the afternoon. This semester is almost over so keep it together for another few weeks and finish strong!

One of the dislikes that became apparent very quickly in college is the lack of parking spaces available. I'm sure we all had an issue where we had a problem finding a space. If you couldn't find a parking space you were forced to park outside of school. I remember the first day of school where I couldn't find a parking space at all and I had to park outside of the school. Last semester was the worst. I got to school at around 9 o’clock every morning to find virtually no parking space available. What I have noticed is that from 9 to about 2 o’clock, is when it's harder to find a parking space since that's when most of the classes are going on. However, this semester finding parking spaces is a lot less stressful due to my early schedule. My earliest class starts at 8 and I get here at around 7:30 which means that when I get here almost all of the parking spaces are open. That's one of the pros to having earlier classes. We pay about 180 bucks a semester for a parking pass that sometimes is useless. I'm sure that with that amount of money paid, we should at least be able to find a decent parking space. And no having to park further away or outside the school. The University should invest some of its money into building new and bigger parking spots for the future. What do you think of this solution?

I'm not sure if you guys have noticed but recently the gas prices have really gone up, especially in Turlock. In the beginning of the school year, the gas prices were around 2.20 a gallon, which is relatively cheap. But now the gas prices is around 3.00 a gallon and that's just counting the 87 grade. This really affects the people who have to commute to school. Since commuting costs gas and gas costs money. This really hurts me because I have a long commute from home to school. It's 100 miles there and back each day, which results in more money being spent if gas prices go up. Just recently in Turlock, I had to stop to put gas in Chevron. I wasn't paying attention to the gas prices, but when I started to fill my car and looked down and saw the price per gallon, I was really shocked to see how expensive it was. It was 3.30 a gallon! It usually takes me about 30 bucks to fill my little honda civic to the max, but this time around it ended up costing me 40 bucks. Since I'm from chowchilla, the gas prices there is a little cheaper than it is in Turlock. In Chowchilla a gallon costs around 2.70 which pretty expensive, but cheap compared to Turlock. From now on gas will be brought from chowchilla rather than here. It will save me money in the long run. Have the gas prices affected any of you guys?

So I had my tennis tournament today. Only 4 people ended up joining, which was pretty disappointing. Since it was a single elimination tournament, if you lose a game then you get eliminated. well I ended up losing the first game of the tournament to some random dude. I lost 1-2 with the game going to extra sets. One of the things I didn't really like about the tournament was that they decided to ditch the normal way scores are kept in tennis. They choose to go with a 2 sets that go to 25 points total. Maybe they decided to do this because they thought it was confusing doing it the right way. I don't really blame them since it can get confusing at times, especially if the player never played tennis in his life. I won the first set 27-25, but lost the next two. I take the blame because I should off practiced before coming to the tournament. But, I don't believe that was the main reason that caused me to lose. First of all, it was really windy, which as a result made it hard hitting the ball where you want. Secondly, the guy I was playing against was actually pretty good. He wasn't a rookie that I was expecting to play. I underestimated him the whole game which I believe, led me to lose. Well overall it was a fun game to play. It was exciting to be able to play tennis again competitively in a tournament. Anyways there's always next year!

Today a person who works for the new The Vista apartment introduced me to the new apartment complex. He was really nice guy and gave out a lot of information from what I would expect if I decided to move in. He answered the questions that I was curious to learn about and gave me a handout.  I'm pretty sure you have heard of the new Vista apartment that are being built just across from the school. Since I commute everyday to school, I was debating rather I would save more money living in those apartment rather than commuting. My drive from home to school is 50 miles which totals to 100 miles there and back. Since I commute about 5 days a week that totals to about 500 miles a week. I did the math and I spend around 40 bucks a week on gas alone. That totals to 160 a month. Now to lease an apartment in the Vista is about 550 a month. Money wise commuting would be the best option in saving money. But if I had the choice, I would get an apartment just because commuting long distances can be a pain sometimes. Getting an apartment here in Turlock would mean more sleep, save time on commuting, and more time to myself. And it would also help get me more involved in school activities that happen on campus. It would help to grow more independent on myself instead of relying on other people. But for now commuting would be the best choice for me in the long run. What do you think?

In my Sociology class we watched a movie called crash which was about race, loss, and redemption. I found the movie to be very interesting. It showed the different views of blacks, Latinos, Indians and the power struggle they have with today’s society. One part of the movie showed just how corrupt and unfair the people of power can be. A white cop pulled over two black couples while they were driving. They did nothing wrong but, the cop decided something must be going on since they are black. The cop then proceeds to search the man and finds nothing. Then he body searches the woman and at the same time molest her. The husband was powerless to do anything in that moment to stop the cop. The cop then threatened to detain both of them if they said anything or did anything. This shows just how somebody who's holds bad actions, can get away with doing them just because he holds the power to do so. Another part of the movie that I thought was interesting was with the Mexican Locksmith. He got hired to change all the door locks of a very rich white couple. Once the white woman realized that the locksmith was a Mexican she automatically thought he was some gangster. She brought it up to her husband because she was worried that he would keep a spare key and come back to rob them. Its really messed up to stereotype others based on their race. These are only some of the issues that were covered in the movie. I would recommend this movie to anyone.

Ever since I graduated from high school and attended college my extracurricular activities have become almost non existent. In high school I was part of both tennis and basketball teams all throughout high school.The basketball season lasted about 3-4 months while the tennis season was 2-3 months. Both sports were enough to keep me busy throughout high school every year. We would practice for 2 hours after school which was more than enough to keep me in shape. But as I graduated high school and started to attend Stanislaus, my extracurricular activities have died down. One reason for the lack of exercise is how busy school work gets. My primary goal is to put school first instead of sports and so far that's what I have been doing. But as a result, my extracurricular activities have been significantly lowered. Another reason was the laziness on my part. I don't take advantage of the gym and the student facility they offer here in school. I'm not as much motivated to go out there and play as I was in high school. The reason for that is I don't make the effort to go out there and meet new people that play the same sport. I don't really like playing on my own but instead with other people. Well lately I have been trying to muster up some motivation to go out there and play. I plan on joining the tennis intramural tournament that will go on later this month. Hopefully that could be the start of me getting back in shape.

One of the things that I learned over the few months that I have been in college is the art of studying. In highschool I was hardly required to study, but in college it's a whole different story. As college goes on I'm learning the best ways to study. Different exams require different kind of studying. For example, a math exam will be treated differently than an english exam. Both studying materials are completely different. In turn that would require different study habits to be able to study each materials. I was always told that once I get to college i'm going to have to know how to study. That might sound silly, but I think it has some truth to it. As I said before, during my highschool days studying was not part of my everyday schedule. But once I got into Stanislaus, I was studying more frequently than I was in highschool. Quizzes and exams are a lot more frequent than it was in highschool, which means i'm going to be studying more than the usual. As a result that will provide more ways to improve my study habits.  As long i'm here studying will always be part of my daily routine, in order to keep up with quizzes and exams. One thing that I have learned this school year is, while studying take little breaks in between to give my brain some rest. If you do have some more tips on studying, please leave them in the comment section.

So for my Sociology class, we had a group project in which we go and break a social norm. A norm is a behavior that is accepted by our society. For example waiting in line at a grocery store is a social norm that all people are familiar with and accept. So what if we decided to break that norm? Well my group decided on breaking this particular norm in order to see the different reactions we will get. At first I was nervous to do this since it’s not something someone would do. And I also didn't want to piss of any stranger who just wants to get his items checked out and leave. I'm pretty sure mostly everyone would have a problem when some stranger decides to cut in line. We wouldn't be happy about that. To do this social experiment we went to the main dining hall here on campus. Its an ideal place since it's a busy place where people go and order their food. We would find long lines that people wait in to check out their food. We found that we got bad looks from the people around us. Some even told us to get back in line. My group mates also got the same reaction from other people. In the end we presented our finding to the class. They found it pretty funny on what reactions we received. Overall I enjoyed doing this social experiment and I would do it again if I had too.

After trump's presidential win last november, he is now tasked in choosing new people for his new cabinet. The choice he made for his Educational secretary position was also one. He pick ended up being Betsy DeVos. I did some research on her and what she wanted to do for the educational system. What I ended up finding was that she lacked the experience needed to be able to successfully maintain her position. I'm not saying she will horribly fail, but I do have some doubt about her. What didn't help was that some republicans who are suppose to be on her “side,” ended up opposing her as the Education Secretary. The Vice President Mike Pence had to come in and break the tie and make her the new Educational secretary. Betsy Devos never attended the k-12 schooling system as a child, which she would lack the experience. She also has no experience working student-loan programs. She also supports having having guns in school to protect kids from  potential “grizzlies.” I would disagree with that statement because guns shouldn't be anywhere near schools. They could be hazardous to the well being of school kids. We just have to wait and see what Betsy DeVos accomplishes during her time as the country's Educational Secretary. We should all hope that she succeeds in making our education a better place to learn. But as I said before many people do have their doubts about her lack of experience in being the Educational Secretary.