` To start, my name is Jake Hamilton. I am from Geneseo, NY, and I am a student at SUNY Geneseo college. My major is Childhood education with a focus on history. As far back as Elementary school, I’ve always been interested in history. I took two gap years out of high school to work and figure out my life. Thankfully, I decided to go to college and not only study what I love, history, but to take the steps to become a teacher. I chose to study education and focus on history because I’ve always been good at interacting with children.
Reflections on the first weeks at Geneseo: When the first day of school started, I was filled with all kinds of emotions. At first, I was very nervous because I was always scared to go to college as a kid; however, as things went on the first day, I began to feel better as I realized it wasn’t that different from high school. As the week went on, many exciting things happened; for starters, I became friends with many other students. One of the guys I met was on the club baseball team and wanted me to join. This made me happy since I’ve always loved baseball.
Courses during the first week of school were a bit boring, considering there was not a lot of material to cover since it was (syllabus) week; however, as time went on, I actually enjoyed my classes. The classes so far seem to be pretty easy, but a lot of busy work to which I am not accustomed. I am taking psychology, math, humanities, writing, and art history classes this semester. The only class I find to be very difficult is my Math 140 class. I’ve always struggled with mathematics, especially geometry, which is sadly a big part of 140. I am hopeful that with the right resources, I will succeed.
My expectations for INTD 105 are obviously to become a better writer. More specifically, I would like to learn more about the different ways to introduce writing, such as introduction paragraphs and opening sentences to start paragraphs, learn new writing styles or perfect a specific writing style, and also become more efficient with my use of punctuation. I’ve always struggled with getting my writing started with a good introduction or beginning sentence, so hopefully, this class will help me. I’ve also been a notoriously bad speller and a user of punctuation. I never really understood when to use the correct punctuation at the right time, other than maybe a period. Needless to say, in the future, this will be a challenge.
The readings we have done for INTD 105 have genuinely helped me understand writing better. The book They Say, I Say by Gerald Graff and Kathy Birkenstein has helped me use proper grammar and vocabulary in various ways in my classes. The book has expanded my knowledge greatly. The readings in class haven’t necessarily connected with my everyday life or life experiences, but they have been touching, needless to say.