My Experience At Missouri State University

In August of 2009 I started my first year of what I would call the rest of my life. I say this not because my experience before that time was meaningless, but because it wasn’t until college when I started learning who I was and my potential for success. During my four year tenure, there are many fond memories as there are challenging moments that have made me the person I am today. Although I strive to continually learn new information each day, I can say the time I spent at Missouri State University was well worth the time, energy, and financial loss. To share my story, I will provide an account for each year, including a theoretical analysis of the psychological, cognitive, social, and vocational influences. Naïve and clueless. These descriptors

I went to the Oshkosh Placement Exchange in March and had two on campus interviews. Shortly after, I accepted a job at Western Kentucky University and moved in the beginning of June.

Socially, it was tough because I started a relationship in December and knew we had to be confident in order to survive long distance. We had a fight one day and I thought it was best to separate, but I realized I was breaking up because I was scared of the long distance, not that I didn’t want to be with her. I am happy to say we are still together today and getting married in about 10 months! It you can survive a long distance relationship for 3 years, you can survive almost anything in my book.

There are many theories that can be applied to my journey through college. The first theory I would like to focus on is Schlossberg’s Transition theory. When I came to college, I was entering a new environment where I didn’t understand what to expect. My self-view was of a helpless first generation student who did know how to help himself. My only coping strategies was to rely on the consistency of homework, until I became involved in organizations on

Although I had to learn much about being an RA, it gave me confidence in my abilities and boosted my self-esteem. I was able to positively affected students’ lives through intentional programming. Following my summer placement, I utilized my newfound confidence during my audition and made the top choir.

During my senior year, I was transitioning out the college as I prepared for interviews and reflected on my past experiences. The disconnect of moving off campus escalated the transition out because I was no longer a traditional on-campus student. The leadership roles I had been so heavily involved in had new students to take them over. Working in the union, I set up many events for the student activities council that I helped previously run. It was awkward because they had no idea I was in the positon so I only focused on set