Since the start of the new year, everyone has been talking about their New Year resolutions. For some students, these resolutions are focused on what is currently one of the most important parts of their lives — school. Freshmen, in particular, have big changes they plan to implement this semester after their first taste of life at Winthrop.
Raegen Grooms, a psychology major, struggled her first semester with time management.\
“I overestimated the time I had for a lot of assignments and often ended up stressed and overwhelmed,” Grooms said. “Putting everything off until last minute obviously doesn’t work and I had to learn that the hard way.”
Grooms’ resolution for the new semester is to “try to stay at least a week ahead of my school work. That way I’m more prepared and understand the material when I enter the classroom.”
Kyra Sikorski, a French education major, also struggled with her time management. However, unlike Grooms, Sikorski had too much free time and struggled to find things to do on campus. She also said that she “struggled with asking for help with a class.” According to her, she “learned [that she needed to] try to find friends to hang out with or complete chores that were not accomplished during the week” and used the Academic Support Center.
This semester, Sikorski’s goal is to “put myself out there more,” which she says she has already begun to do by joining Chi Omega, a sorority on campus. Sikorski also said she “will ensure to not be afraid to ask for help at the first sign of struggling in a class.”
Theatre tech and design major, Carrington Wigfall, said she got “lazy towards the end of the semester. I started off strong and did good in classes, but towards the end I got lazy and didn’t want to do all of my work.”
Wigfall’s GPA suffered and her grades dropped by a letter grade as she lost her momentum. However, she has learned from her mistakes and plans to pace herself more this semester. She said, “I want to take my time so when the semester starts to end I’ll still have the same energy.”
As these freshmen and the rest of their class strive to do better than they did last semester, one upperclassman provided words of advice for them. Kiersten Warfield, a graduate student completing her Masters of Education in Counseling and Development, wants to remind freshmen to “Keep breathing. When things get harder, focus on breathing.”
Warfield recommends that they take the time to check out campus resources such as the ASC and to get a planner and work on time management. Above all else, Warfield believes that “If they put the effort forth, they can do anything.”
Graphic: Victoria Howard/ The Johnsonian
