Author: Nicholas Caviola

Since midterms, the semester has gone smoothly for the most part. School as a whole is still super enjoyable. Every day I get to meet new people and learn new stuff it’s pretty cool. I was also able to make it to a few Hockey games, which were very fun to watch. It’s a nice feeling to realize that I’m starting to feel more comfortable and creating a real connection with this place. Classes have also been going well. I’ve improved in every class, just as I was hoping to when I wrote my last blog. I just managed to register for my classes next semester successfully-This time without any problems like I had with the other two times. So overall, I guess that means things have progressed swimmingly so far. Hopefully, I will be able to keep that up and finish my semester strong.

By the end of the semester, I hope to massively raise my GPA and the grades I have now, even if by a little bit. as the year winds down, I have a history of dropping in my school performance, so I really don’t want that to happen this semester since I’ve been doing so well. One thing I also hope happens by the end of the semester is that I get appointed to a position in my fraternity. I want to start participating in many academic activities next semester, and I think that would help out immensely. As for finals, I think they will be pretty rough, especially for my data analytics class. I plan on decompressing over Thanksgiving break and coming back ready to work and study hard. Hopefully, I will make it through well enough and get to enjoy my Christmas Break with my family. I wish everybody in the class good luck with their school careers and hope they have wonderful holidays.

My name is Nicholas Caviola. I’m a college student from a town called Lewisboro in Westchester County NY. I’m a sophomore here at SUNY Geneseo. I like to play and watch sports, do puzzles, play chess and video games, and watch movies. I have two dogs we rescued named Stella, a coonhound/Lab Mix, and Ranger a Shiba Innu/German Shepard Mix. My dad has his own excavation business, and my mom works for our town as the Deputy Town Clerk. My parents are the most kind-hearted people I’ve ever known. They’re considerate, kind, extremely hardworking, but tough when they need to be. I have two siblings, Trevor and Olivia. Olivia just started her freshman year at SUNY Albany and loves it there, we are very close. Trevor is my older brother by eight years. He was an amazing athlete and someone I always really looked up to as I was growing up. He has a 3-year-old daughter named Regan, who’s by far the most adorable Caviola in the family. Moving on from me, let’s talk about school. If I’m being honest my first year here wasn’t the best. It was definitely pretty rocky but I’m glad I went through it. luckily I also had this amazing family by my side during the whole thing.

Since I’m a Sophomore now, my first few weeks at Geneseo are far behind me. But I can talk about how this semester’s first few weeks compared to the first semesters. Let me tell you, they were far from the same. The first semester I stayed in my room and didn’t do much. I didn’t make any friends or ever really go out, COVID being a major factor in that, but I was miserable. I had terribly bad grades and was missing home immensely. I was honestly planning on transferring, that is, until I decided to go for Greek life my second semester. I managed to join a fraternity, and I’m extremely glad I did. I had many new friends, and also got to know a lot more people around campus like tutors and academic advisors. So, at this point, college was already a million times better than it was before. Still, I felt lost. I felt like everything in college was just way too big, and I was in over my head. But I toughed it out and managed to end the semester on a high note. Now, these past few weeks have been some of the best times of my life, besides some bumps and scrapes along the way. I now feel confident in what I’m doing here and a lot more eager to see what lies ahead of me. As for this class, I’m honestly really excited. I think I’m going to learn a lot, and once I catch up with all my work, it will be smooth sailing from here on out.

Now that I’m halfway through my sophomore year at Geneseo I’ve really been starting to sit back and look at how fast my life has been moving. I mean, even thinking about how I’m about to turn 20 years old next year makes me want to cringe. But even though time has been flying, there is an exciting aspect to beginning the rest of your life. when thinking like this, I especially take a look at how much I’ve changed even just from High School. Now that might be partly due to me being quite immature all throughout High School, but I’d like to think everyone goes through that same feeling in some form or fashion.

As for me, I feel as though I heard and anticipated a lot of the same things as everybody else. “You’re way more independent in college,” “You’re on your own in college, time to grow up,” “Nobody’s there to hold your hand, get ready.” I don’t think people understand that literally, everybody says the same exact thing to you every time you go up one grade, so I guess I just assumed it would be a piece of cake just like the rest of my school career. Boy, how I was wrong.

Taking on my first semester of college with the attitude I did, it’s no wonder why I struggled so much. I was, and still am, going through what a decent amount of people go through when entering their first college semester. I was someone who blew through High School quickly, I’m a pretty smart kid, and I was able to get excellent grades in high-level classes while barely even trying. I know people may hear this kind of thing a lot, and I’m especially not saying it to brag or anything because, at least for me, it was a huge issue.

My point is that since I was able to fly through school all my life, coming to college and slamming into a brick wall with how much more complex and time-consuming, it is than before really shook me to my core. I always grew up hearing the “college years” are a place just to have fun and be yourself, so you can imagine how I felt like I was just stupid and lazy because I couldn’t “do college” like everyone else. So, I stayed isolated and sat there feeling bad for myself, that is, until the following semester.

After heading home pretty disgraced and ready to transfer, I had a long and probably the most meaningful talk with my parents. My parents are very much the “tough love” type. They are amazingly caring people who want nothing but the best for me, but at the same time, they’re the toughest, most hardworking people I have ever known. So, having a sit-down chat with them made me realize that I’ve just never really had to struggle with anything before, and I didn’t know how to handle it.

So, I decided I’d give Geneseo another go and reached out to a bunch of educational advisors to help me prepare for the next semester the right way. I even decided I wanted to try Greek life to stop my isolation from impacting my schoolwork even further. And all I can say to that is “wow.” I still have a long way to go, but the changes I’ve made from last year to now have just completely changed what I thought I could accomplish as a person. I have started reviving my grades from the dead, and even though it’s not where I want them, I’ve learned that even just a little bit of improvement is the first huge step in taking what you want in life. As for this class, I really do like it and have good expectations. I grew up excelling in math and science, so any kind of writing class has always been quite challenging for me. But with the skills and help, I’ve received and am still getting now, I’m confident that I’ll be able to get where I need to and be successful. So, I guess you could say, the first semester was exactly what I needed, a massive kick in the butt!