After the boot camp, I was skeptical about US 180. The long days we suffered, the sleepless nights, the migraines, the feeling of betrayal and despair, and the feeling of deceit and being neglected. I was not ready or willing to do another round throughout the semester. I felt that it was extra work and it would be another burden. However, as I did with the boot camp, I sat down and thought about it. The Lord opened my eyes to see that this program and the people that are in the program are actually trying to help me to withstand the obstacles of college. Thus, this class has help me think more critically,  have better time management, and be more organized.

   As stated, when I first heard about the class I had my doubts. However, when I saw that majority of my classmates were mostly my completion, a feeling of relief came. I felt that I was not alone and for once I was not the only ethnicity in the room. When the instructor explain the assignments for the whole semester, I thought it was extra work. However, as time went by I understood the purpose behind the assignments. For example, one assignment was about critical thinking and the lesson help me to not only look or hear something, but to find the deeper or symbolic meaning of something. Also, I had learned the a few elements of being a critical thinker. For instance, being an active listener and understanding other viewpoints about a situation. Moreover, ever since the time management assignment I've been doing better managing my time. I now have set time to do certain work, while still relaxing or doing other extracurricular activities. Lastly, I am more organized. I organize my work, therefore I am able to find my assignments when I need them the most. Overall, this class hugely impacted me by helping me think more critically, have better time management, and be more organized. I would recommend this class for future freshman.  

     I never been fond of writing. I always struggle getting the basics of it. Recent papers that I have receive feedback my professor was not good at all. The problems that I have with my paper is organizing, punctuation, grammar, and I always get a comment saying read out loud. It hurts knowing that most of my papers have been rejected, but I know that I still have time to correct and fix the problems in my paper. One of my worst papers that I recently done was my second paper this semester, my argumentative paper.
   
      My second paper I wrote about how gaming can relieve stress. I thought it was a decent start, but my professor told me that it was a rough start even for a first draft. My topic is not arguable because that's really a known fact that games relieve stress. My organization was terrible, I went from talking about games to television and technology. I even messed up when describing the different types of games and how they can relieve you from stress. To make matter's worse, I only covered one part of my thesis statement which was stress, but I did not include regaining mental stability and changing the perspective of the situation. When I looked at my professor reviews and seen the comments I was heartbroken, however it was very helpful. I've seen what my professor and other professional writers would see. I may start over on that paper for good, but I know that it will be worth it when I look at the grade. That is all I want, a well deserved and hard earned grade.

  What are the qualities of a critical thinker? The three qualities of a critical thinker is being an active learner, someone with the ability to shape knowledge, and cultivates the ability to imagine and value points of views different from their own. There is a time between my high school years in my life when I developed or used these qualities of being a critical thinker. Some times it was making hard decisions, trials and tribulation. The most recent is coming to college.

    Coming to college was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make. People was telling me that I should go and others said that I should't go. Let's start with why I should't of went to college. For example, my grandma would always, at the beginning in my senior year, try to convince me either not to go to college or go to Wayne State University (which is real close to home). I always opposed what my grandma said, but I never was disrespectful about it. I heard her when she was trying to say that people were successful by not going to college, I valued her opinion being different, but it was not enough. Then, my mom for example, encouraged me to go along with many others. My mom, in particularly, wanted me to have more than a job, she wanted me to have a career. With this being said, I decided to do some research on my own about college. As I actively learn more about college, I was able to shape what I learned to my interest. I officially decided to come to college with nothing holding me back. Knowing that I would reap the benefits later from it.