First Semester of College Complete!

The first semester at BYU was great and it is done! It's amazing how fast it goes by. It seems like I just barely moved into my apartment. I had taken college classes before, about 70 credits worth. But the classes I took in high school and even the 3 I took on the SLCC campus didn't quite prepare me for my experience at BYU.

Its not to say the BYU classes were extremely difficult, or the SLCC ones were a cake walk, but these were harder than what I'd taken before. And my problem was I didn't work much harder. It's said that for every hour of class you spend in class you're supposed to spend two or three hours outside of class doing homework and studying for it. With 15 credit hours, that's about 45 hours a week studying, not to mention the time your in class, work, church callings, FHE and just hanging out. That's a lot to cram in, and I'm not the best at it. Even after all the classes I've taken I still didn't handle it very well. I also don't really know how to study, and that has caused me some problems. For every test I had, I went to test reviews which accounted for at least half of the studying I did. I relied on those. Without disclosing my grades, I could've done better on a lot of those tests.

I definitely wasn't ready for the financial burden. I did get a partial scholarship for tuition, but I still had a bout $700 to pay. I had rent each month that was just under $300, and I didn't get a job until November. The first couple months I was living off what I had saved, and a credit card I got in the summer. It came down to the wire, so I started selling my plasma. My parents bailed me out, but I'm hoping I can do it on my own in the future. I eventually was able to get a job at Zupas where my roommate works. Making sandwich's and salad's was different than jobs I've had in the past, but its a great job and fun environment. Even though I'm making some money now, it still gets tight and I'm hoping to get a grant for this next semester.


I'm not saying this semester was just hard work; I definitely had some fun. The new environment is also something I wasn't prepared for. Such as living with 5 other girls, having church in the Tanner building, being on the enrichment committee, seeing one of my roommates makeout with her boyfriend on our couch (not BYU approved), having marriage brought up in most conversations and talks, paying for rent, buying my own food, living down the hall from a ton of college guys, and not having to check in with anyone if I'm out past curfew (the last two are not necessarily correlated). The freedom I have is something I definitely love, however I miss my family on occasion and still like to go home and spend time with them. This semester was a great experience and I can't wait to see what happens next.