The Lecture I Watched (Super Late)

Back in November, I watched a lecture from an astronaut named Clayton Anderson. Clay talked about his time up in space. He explained the fun times, the not so fun times, and just space station life in general. Clay spent six months up in space, which is a very long time. In order for him to keep the audiences attention he told many stories from his experiences to spice things up. Clay said that one of his biggest inspirations was his mother, who is now deceased. I can relate to this, because my mother as well as my father are very big inspirations to me as well. I was excited for this lecture, because I had already heard Clay speak, and I knew it was going to be good. I first heard clay speak back in March when I went to the NASA Space Settlement Design Competition. Clay gave the one of the opening speeches, and it was phenomenal. He said that if you dream about it you can do it. He always wanted to be an astronaut in his wildest dreams, and he ended up doing what he wanted to do. I felt that this lecture improved my outlook on my future.

How I've grown and What I've Learned

The past four or so months have been life changing for me. Coming into college I was hoping that I was going to make new friends, but I wasn't sure how I was going to. Being a Hixson scholar really opened things up for me. I found it so much easier for me to connect with people that have been through a lot as well. I've met some awesome people as a Hixson scholar, and I wouldn't have met some of them if it wasn't for it. Aside from being surrounded by great people, I've also grown into a somewhat more responsible adult. I've learned how to conserve on things like money and food, and I've come to find out that walking isn't so bad after all. Eating better has also come into my lifestyle, and quite honestly, the freshman fifteen doesn't have anything on me, yet.  When it comes to academics, well, being a Hixson scholar has really made me focus when I thought I couldn't focus anymore. At times when I need inspiration when I'm studying or if I'm struggling to stay awake to finish a computer engineering lab, I tell myself "You were given an amazing opportunity, don't mess this up." That alone has helped me when I needed it the most in college.

I've learned a lot about myself since I moved here in August. I feel better about myself now that I have in years since I've been at Iowa State. The combination of being a Hixson Scholar, and engineering major, and just the fact that I go to college here at Iowa State University has shaped me for the better. I know in the long run that even though some of my choices haven't been the best, the combination of the ones that were good and bad have lead me to where I am today.

What the Hixson Award Means To Me

If I could sum up what the Hixson Award means to me in two words, I would say "Almost Everything". When it comes to me, almost everything is a lot. When I would sit at my desk in my basement for long nights staring at the computer screen looking for scholarships, (a hobby I picked up after I quit computer games) I started to tell myself that I would just be another kid getting out of college with a huge plate of debt. I knew I deserved something, even if it was small.

 I searched high and low for scholarships that weren't based on having a high GPA and test scores, because my real skills came naturally to me, and weren't able to be reflected in any of those two things. Late January came, and I finally found something. The Hixson Opportunity Award. I found out that it wasn't entirely merit based, and involved something that I had been through. A personal hardship. I found out the next day that there was another kid trying to get the same scholarship and I felt doomed. He was second in the class with a GPA that was unparalleled to mine, and he played all sports, was in every single club, and his mom was a teacher. My dad told me to just be myself, and that was exactly what I did.

I spent long hours writing and rewriting a summary of a part of my life that I view as not the typical high school experience that everyone enjoys. When I was done, I took a deep breath, and told myself that I deserved this. The following May, I was waiting for that letter that said either I had received the scholarship. I started to get discouraged, until one day. I woke up late for school because I was studying for a physics test. I got the mail out of the mailbox, and to no surprise the letter wasn't there. I threw the mail down on the China cabinet, and then I saw it. Peeking out from under a stack papers was a piece of an envelope with a seal on it. I read it, and my heart dropped. Crossing my fingers, and slowly tearing open the envelope, I pulled out the letter. I saw the word congratulations and I dropped the letter and jumped up and down so much that my mom thought someone was breaking into the house. She picked up the letter, and read, and instantly burst into tears and gave me a huge hug.

When I made it to school I walked into the Guidance counselors office, and one of them was already waiting for me by the door and told me how proud of me they were. To this very day, receiving that letter was one of the best days of my life, and I will always remember it in great detail. To this day I am eternally grateful that someone took the time to read about a hard time in my life, and acknowledge me for it.

Social Media Week: Twitter

During Social Media Week, we were asked to choose a form of social media, and use it to help discuss things like education and college. The form of social media that I used was Twitter. I chose twitter, because I thought it would be the most interesting one to use, because you can start trends, and I would trend our University Studies group.

When it came to deciding what to tweet about, it took me a while to get started. However, once I got into the groove of tweeting about education, it wasn't too difficult. I learned that there were many different people and companies that I could follow that related to my major. Connecting with these people allowed me to learn some more about my major, and news about my field of study.

I liked using Twitter a lot. After using my twitter more actively for this class, I use it even more than I used to. I think it is one of the most powerful forms of social media, because starting trends using a hashtag can push your tweets across many different domains on the internet. Social media, in ways, can help you achieve goals. This could be through inspiration through people you connect with, or by helping you form a group for a cause. Social media and public forum can go hand in hand, and that is how I think it can help you achieve your goals.

I found a couple things from the readings that really stuck out for me. First of, being able to find a job using twitter is pretty cool. Connecting with big companies and letting them know your interests is a cool way to get connected with a great job in your field. Also, using twitter to broadcast your message across campus to get you well known for what you do is pretty awesome as well. These things aren't just easy to come by however, they do take some effort. All in all, I thought this was a great experience, and one of the coolest things I have ever done for a class.

When I took the MBTI, I assumed it was going to be like any other survey. However, I found this survey to be very different from the others. I thought it depicted me fairly and how I see myself. My result was ENTP, and I thought it was a good match.

I agree with ENTP, because to start off, I don't really think before I speak. I like to act right away. I am a person to wing something rather than try to spend a lot of time thinking it through. I generally talk a lot, and I'm not very quiet. I see myself as an outgoing individual. I feel that N is a good choice for me, because I am one to rely on gut instinct. If I have a feeling this is the way something works, then I will try it my way.

Overall, I mostly agreed with E and N. From people that know me, they can gather that I love to talk, and I'm a do now kind of guy. They know that I don't spend as much time thinking, I just go to town brainstorming.

My Bucket List

Before I entered into college, I had a lot of things that I wanted to accomplish before I died. I started dreaming and building on these dreams for my future ever since I was 13 years old. I knew that computers were what I loved, and I knew that I wanted to make a change in the world.

Entering into college, the main thing I was excited for was taking classes about material I actually liked. Sitting down and getting used to these classes I started to set goals that I wanted to accomplish for the year. The first goal was to become a better computer programmer. I came into college with somewhat limited programming experience, and I decided to take all of my professors advice to heart, and I have come a long way since I started. I knew that doing well in these classes would help me in the future when I want to make a positive impact on the world.

Getting my personal goals for my future out of the way, I focused on other goals as well. These included applying for tutors when I needed the help, and taking advantage of all of the resources available to me. I had a feeling these two things would push me to achieve more in school. I wanted to be active as a student as well. I signed up for multiple groups that you could categorize as nerdy, considering they deal with computers and technology. I signed up for mailing lists for special speakers, to get informed on opportunities from major companies. Last night was the first presentation I attended this year, and It was a Google Tech Talk and Info Session, and I learned a great deal from it. It was truly fantastic.

I always told myself that I wanted to have a nice respectable house in a great community, somewhere on the east or west coast, due to the amount of opportunities that lie there. I want to own multiple boats, and have a house on water, whether it be a lake, or the ocean. Looking past the materialistic things, I mainly want to work for a respectable corporation, whether it be one that I create, or an existing one. I want to make an impact on the world of computing as we know it. Mostly everyone likes technology, and it is a growing field with many opportunities for those that are interested.

Those are some of the major things that I want to accomplish in my life. Some may be far fetched, but like the saying goes "you can do anything if you put your mind to it". I'm sure in time that my goals and dreams will change or evolve into different ones, but for now, I'm pretty sure on where I want to be 5, 10, and even 20 years from now.

Life At Its Best

Entering into my junior year of high school was a big change. I was finally one of the upperclassmen, and nobody could tell me what to do anymore. I moved on from basic general studies, to more advanced classes, and I was starting to think about my future. In my first two years of high school, I didn't work to the best of my ability. As I entered the high school ready to star my third year, I knew it was time to change.

The first class of the day was chemistry, and I was ready to accept the challenge that was ahead of me. The first impression I had on my teacher, was that he was difficult. However, after a while I started to go into help sessions, and I developed a better teacher student relationship. The help sessions helped me grasp chemistry, and make me realize how much I really loved science. The study habits I used in chemistry, I carried over to all of my other classes, allowing my grades to rise.

As I entered my senior year, I decided I was going to try even harder than the year before. Once again, I had the same teacher that I had in chemistry in physics. Physics was my favorite class throughout the year, and ultimately  it was this class that helped me decide my major. When March rolled around, it was time for five students out of the physics class to travel to Houston, Texas for the NASA Space Settlement Design Competition. When I found out that I was one of the five chosen, my life changed. When we arrived at Johnson Space Center and divided into our settlement groups I found my calling in the Automation/Robot Design group. Here I designed futuristic computer systems for our space settlement, and I ended up being one of the main spokespeople for my group. I presented my idea's in front of famous NASA engineers, and it was one of the greatest experiences in my life.

On the eighteen hour bus ride home, I started to rethink the field of study I would take up at Iowa State. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to be a computer engineer. To this day, I still honor the decision I made on the way home from the NASA trip. This was a pivotal moment that marked the end of two of the greatest years of my life before I started college.