I am 1 month in and getting adjusted to campus. It is a lot of walking around trying to get from class to class but it is not so bad. One of my favorite parts is the food on campus. There are so many options to choose from. In the Student Center we have a Chick-fil-A, a sushi spot, a burger grill, and a pizza bar. There are 2 dining halls on campus but I have only eaten in one of them. There is a lot more variety there because they have several stations set up and the menu changes daily. They have a stir fry grill sort of like Benihanas where you put all of your veggies in a bowl and they put them on a big grill and add chick, shrimp, or beef. They put it on top of rice or lo mien. They also have stations for home cooked meals, pizza, salad, soups, waffles, nachos, baked potatoes, and all the dessert you can eat (I just got hungry all of a sudden)! Most days I settle for the pizza bar so I can eat and run. I am working on choosing more healthy options. 

I made it through my first day of college!!!!!

I had 2 of 4 classes this week and it was very interesting. My plan was to blend in and try not to be noticed. I knew I would spend the entire day explaining my life to people if they found out I was only 13 so I wanted to avoid it at all costs. 

My first class was Biology at 9:30am so I wanted to get there early to sit in the front. Well that did not happen because at 9:15 most of the seats were gone and this was a lecture-sized classroom with over 60 seats. I sat towards the back and in the middle so I could see the white board. A girl sat next to me and said "I like your hair!" I said "thanks" and tried to avoid small talk, but then she asked me what year of college I was in. I WHISPERED that I was 13 and just getting started. She stared at me for a second and started yelling out to the rest of the row that there was a 13 year old in class. By that time other rows started turning around. Then I saw the professor staring right at me. I thought that she would tell the class to turn around and mind there business, but NO... She adds to the fuel by saying that "she is probably the smartest person in this room". I was in complete shock so I ignored everyone and pulled out my notes for class. I had read the PowerPoint that she emailed the night before and listened to her repeat everything that I took notes on. I saw everyone else writing down everything she said word for word until they realized that I had a print out of the entire lecture. Someone asked "where did you get that from?". I told them that everything was online to print out (insert big-eyed emoji). 

The semester is already off to an interesting start...

I hope I can keep you guys posted depending on how my workload increases. Overall it was an awesome experience and I feel that this was the best route for me!

Soooooo, 

It's no secret that I love school and enjoy getting good grades. I have NEVER gotten a grade lower than an A- until.....THIS SUMMER! I was freaking devastated!

Math is one of my best subjects and I wanted to get ahead by taking an online advanced Algebra course to prepare for College Algebra. Since the course was online we had to upload all of our assignments and technology will turn on you the moment it can, right??? Anyway, I was working on a homework assignment and had to leave out for a minute so I saved my work to finish later. A few hours later I completed the assignment to upload and receive my A. I went on about my day and checked my grade later that night and to my surprise it showed a 64 for homework assignment #2! It was just my second week in the class and I was failing! WHAT THE F???? 

I calmed down and thought "maybe it's an error, yeah it's an error". Well, It was NOT an error! When I uploaded my homework, my changes DID NOT SAVE! I truly had received my 1st F. My next thought was reaching out to the professor to explain what happened, but deep down I knew that at this level in my education no excuse would fly. The pain was real. To add to the pain when I looked at the problems that did not save and I got them RIGHT! At this point I am having mixed emotions because technically I did get an A, but it's really a F. I wanted to cry, but I didn't. I wanted to punch a hole in the wall, but I didn't. I wanted to throw items across the room, but I didn't. I realized that this F would not end the world and the homework assignments did not hold the most weight and if I focused on my exams and projects I could still get an A in the class. I understood the work that I was doing and a technology glitch could not change that. 

The class is over and I am happy to say that I got a 97! 

To anyone reading this I would say that failure is not the end of the world. Just because you make a mistake does not mean that you can't come back from it. You can't change the past you can just learn from it. I love technology and all, but I will not be taking online classes anytime soon LOL! 

Love, 

K.Leigh

Hi Guys!

I just got back from my 2week summer course at Vanderbilt University Summer Academy. Last year was only 1 week long and went by too fast. 2 weeks still was not enough but I was able to meet more people and had so much fun! This year I took a Statistics course and learned about creating data sets from research and analyzed the data using R code software. The coursework was intense but I managed to take a few pics of my 14 days at Vandy. 

Campus living is fun and the dorms are pretty cool. They had community showers in the dorm that I stayed in but it it's not so bad. I have had awesome roommates 2 years in a row (fingers crossed for next year). 

My favorite part is the food! It's not grandma's cooking but it's way better than most school food. Seconds and triples are not a problem. The pecan pie was best! I am such a foodie!!!

Last year I took a Neurology course and they had a part 2 this year but the class was too full when I registered. I chose Statistics instead since I like math. It was boring at first but it became interesting when we looked at how people lie with statistics and discussed how a lot of research is biased. At the end of the course we applied statistical analysis to our own research. I conducted research to see if social class affected the survival rate of passengers on the Titanic. I did 2 different projects. One was biased and the other was unbiased. The presentation was long so I won't go into all of it. Do you think social class mattered??? 

This week I had Freshman Orientation to take a tour of campus and learn more about where I will be spending most of my time for the next few years. The excitement is overwhelming but I am ready to start this new adventure! I almost was unable to get my student ID because you have to have ID to get an ID lol. I told the lady I have no ID because I just finished middle school. The other students who were in line passed through quickly flashing their drivers license. She looked so confused and said that she didn't know what to do in my case. She had never heard of anyone attending college so early. Luckily we worked it out because I had a fresh twist out and I did not want to reschedule! Needless to say, I hope my drivers license picture in a few years turns out better because my picture did not turn out how I wanted it to AT ALL! I wish I could have used something like this... Got to love the SC filters!