Journal 5
School has been hard. Not being able to be on campus makes it so hard and lonely. Trying to do assignments and Homework has been so hard. But I’m trying to make things easier on myself and making sure I give myself time in order to get all my assignments done. I just really hope next semester we are on campus so I can see the campus and get used to it. It gets annoying being home all day I hate it. I would like to be on campus so I can be out of my house. I really do enjoy these classes reading because they are interesting and it keeps you thinking about why the characters are a certain way. Especially The swimmer and The stone both keep on have you questioning why are they a certain way and why they act like that. The character Arnold made me question why he didn’t react to his brother’s death and it took him a while for him to be phased. In The Swimmer the character Neddy made me question why did he only thinks about himself and not his family? This class is interesting and it keeps me always on my feet with great readings. I get excited to do work for this class because it is always interesting and not boring. I’m glad I chose this class because I love earning different perceptions of mental health and reading stories relating to mental health. The one thing I love about college is I get to choose what I wanna study and what path I wanna take. Having that freedom can be a blessing because you get to learn about yourself and who you truly are as a person. Many people end up changing their careers or what they wanna do in life. College can be stressful but worth it in the end because it helps you learn a lot as a person.

Journal 6
I was studying midterms and very stressed because I don’t know what to expect because this is my first year in college and as everyone says college is much different than high school. I tried studying my notes and the review sheet the teacher had given me for archeology and I wrote my USSO essay and my first draft came out really bad however I did a second draft and did editing to it and it had come out so much better. I’ve done so many essays but this must have been the hardest one because I was limited to what sources I can use and the topic was quite difficult. This year has been very dreadful SO many unexpected things have happened and have changed so many people’s lives. I honestly have learned so much without our class discussions it is cool to see other people’s thoughts based on the stories provided. This by far has been such an interesting class because to me mental illness is very important and getting to understand it more makes me happier. I always question why mental health is such a stigma, it is such a serious thing because so many people have lost their lives to mental illnesses and there has been so much research done that mental illness affects your daily and relationships around you and it can be so hard to deal with on a daily. Even during quarantine, mental health has risen because of just being home and not being able to go out without being scared.

Journal 7
It is midterm week and I’m drained out from so much work but I made it sure all my work was submitted. Even though it is very hard to stay motivated during these times I try to stay positive and make sure all I take care of myself. To be completely honest it has been very hard the first few months of quarantine. But now I’m trying to adjust to this life because we don’t know when everything will go back to normal or being completely honest it seems like it won’t get back to normal, people will be scared to leave their house with a mask. People won’t get the vaccine when it comes out because it’s brand new and people don’t want to risk it just in case the side effects are really bad. It is so scary to think that everyone’s life changed juristically because of corona. I hate going out and feeling the fear of me catching corona because the majority of my family is high risk. I wear my mask and use hand sanitizer, but some people don’t wear masks still and it makes others aggravated since they wanna keep the community safe. Everyone needs to keep each other safe. Besides all that I’ve been loving every story, we read they are all so interesting and I love digging deeper to understand the story and what is the purpose of the story and why a character acts a certain way. I love also discussing different ideas with my classmates because not everyone thinks the same and not everyone has the same ideas. I heard we are going to be doing online next semester as well which sucks because I want to be on campus with interaction. But I’m grateful I can somehow get an education

Journal 8
It is a week after midterm week, it was stressful because it is hard to focus at home but I made the best out of it. It was one hectic week now things are a little slower and not as hectic which I am glad about because I was really stressed. This class keeps on getting better and better and really interesting especially reading my novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest it is so interesting I love reading it. When I read it I couldn’t stop reading it because it was just so interesting. Once I find something interesting I always continue it or make sure to finish it because I can’t get enough of it. I really still wished I was on our beautiful campus meeting a lot of new people and experiencing college life. It would be so amazing being able to see the campus in person I’ve heard so many good things about it. I’m really hoping next year I can get the experience because this year has been so hard and different and it just overall really sucks. I’m trying to make a good learning experience at home but honestly it is the hardest to do and it is even harder to stay motivated because not a lot of classes are teaching us. They are just giving assignments and it really does suck because I want to get a better learning experience. Covid has taken a lot of things away the first year in college online and my senior year graduation and it just continues to do so I really hope all this chaos goes away. But the only good side of Covid is being closer to my family because that’s who I have. Also, it sucks how many don’t take this seriously and don’t wear masks.

Journal 9
There are only a few more weeks till school ends it’s getting really hectic. It’s really hard doing college online but I’m quite happy that I made it this far. I’m glad that I got this experience because it made me realize how important social interaction especially for mental health. Like I’ve mentioned before it’s been extremely hard not being able to have interaction besides my family. It made the semester extremely lonely. But anytime I would do the discussions it made me happier that I had people to reply to and talking about things that we are both knowledgeable about. All the readings in this classroom are so interesting and kept me going. My favorite had to be One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest because it taught me so much about others’ mindset. The way everyone’s mind works is different we all go through things but take different solutions to solve it. Like from my personal experience when I went through a lot of things I went outside and try to be with nature because it felt really nice. But overall this semester has been very hard on me and I’ve just been trying to take things easy because at the end of the day we are all going through it because of covid. But I’m honestly so happy I chose this class its made me actually enjoy school while it being online.

Journal 10
I’ve been so scared for finals it is almost here and honestly, I’m just thinking how did this semester go so fast. I remember just a few months ago I was so scared about joining college and now I am almost done with my first semester it is very crazy to think about. I’m not the happiest about experiencing my first semester of college online and I’m pretty sure other students who started their first semester aren’t the happiest either. But I’m glad to say I made the best of it and that is all that matters. Being completely honest the only good thing about doing college online was I didn’t have to travel almost two hours to get to school. However, the worst part was not being to interact with others or getting “that real college experience” where you sit in the library and study with your friends or meet new people join clubs, and interact in person. However, I am glad that I got to have a little zoom meet up with some of my archeology classmates and we got to know each other. It was very fun and interesting to meet new people through zoom. This semester was very hard and dreading. Like everyone told me before I stepped into college that it is nothing like highschool which is honestly so true. I hope my next semester is easier because now I’m a little prepared with online college and know what to expect and what not to expect. This whole year has been so crazy like I can’t believe I did my first semester in college and now I will be doing my second semester in college. Life throws you the least unexpected things but you always have to make it work because it is life. Now I’m thinking what am I gonna do for a whole month off maybe start researching about medical schools and maybe start studying for the MCAT since I have nothing better to do. Plus it is never too early to study. I’m hoping I stay productive.

Journal 11
Here it is finals week I had so many papers and test I’m super stressed, at this point, I’m just praying and hoping I get decent looking grades because it was so hard to have motivation especially with everything going on. It gets so hard living at home with 7 of us it is loud and I get so distracted. It was so hard for me to study because living with 7 people it gets really loud in the house. Sometimes I need my privacy so what I do is go on a walk and get coffee because coffee is my favorite thing even though it is super bad for me. Redbull and coffee were my best friends during this semester they helped me get through. The hardest part of this semester was feeling like I wasn’t in college. I honestly felt like I never graduated high school and it sucks so much because no one expected Covid to hit us this hard. It’s crazy how one virus could do so much to the world. I am hoping by next year we are back to normal life and I am hoping we never have to experience something so traumatizing. For so many people Covid has done so much damage from losing their jobs to losing family members to not having any money. It has done absolutely so much damage and it will take so long to get back to normal. I am hoping the transition to getting back to normal is not that ruff and we are easily able to adjust back. Anyway since it finals week I am so scared to see my grades if I do bad I will be upset because I honestly did try to the best of my capability.

Journal 12
Well, there we go. Finals week is finished I am hoping to see nothing lower than B or else I’ll be super disappointed. This was honestly one of the best classes I have taken it kept me on my feet and the readings were just amazing and I loved reading them and analyzing them because it made me deeper my thinking. This class also helped me improve my writing it helped me and it also helped me understand so many different perspectives and Ideas because of the discussion board questions we always did. It was always so interesting to see other ideas. I am so glad to have met such great students with such great knowledge. All the writing pieces and projects we did were so fun I enjoyed every bit of them. This class made online school so much better it made me want to do school and it motivated me to do school work. I am also very glad that I got to understand mental health better and it helped me realize how important it is to understand mental health because people around you who may suffer may definitely need your support and in order for you to support someone you need to understand them and what they are going through. Oftentimes in the brown community, it is a stigma and parents often tell their kids that “oh nothing is wrong with you it is all in your head” or “what is there for you to suffer you have everything you need in life” it’s so sad to see that the people you need the most support from don’t give you the support you need. As we see in the short stories the character goes crazy cause no one believed them so they didn’t get the support they needed so they ended up being crazy. Anyway, I am so thankful for taking this class and I am thankful for Professor Otte being the best.