analyze your stage of development as a critical thinker using analysis of logic models

College Life – An Enigma Within
[Name of the Writer]
[Name of the Institution]

College Life – An Enigma Within
Evolution is a part of human nature and I have also undergone a number of stages of this very evolution. Surely, no one is inherently educated and developed right from the moment of birth. However, it is a slow but steady developmental process that covers span of entire life. I have also gone through numerous changes in my life and have faced different challenges as I have move forward towards the next step of my life. These developmental steps become difficult as the life progresses; rather, I have felt more determined after each step. Getting an admission in college was one of these steps that I had taken in my life.
At the very initial stages of my life as a child, I did not have that much control over my emotions and do not have a clear vision of my future. However, it was my parents and teachers who have made me enable to find the best education track for me. During that time period, I wanted to become a doctor and help others. However, it was just a nascent thought that have faded away with the passage of time. Nevertheless, that was my unreflective nature at that age and I cannot find the best choice for me.
During my school days, I have also gone through different challenges. The most major challenge among it includes facing my seniors and my class-fellow. I was not able to communicate well with anyone in my class or even, in my family. Surely, there was a massive lack of confidence within me at that time.

During different presentations, my public speaking fear becomes quite major and this has even cost me hardly earned grades.
In order to make that better, my parents have played quite a remarkable role. They have provided me exposure to every social event that they can. It has greatly helped me to develop my charismatic skills. However, they were not developed at such pace that can be expected from a college student. At that stage, I have become quite aware about the real problems in life. Managing of expenses, prioritizing different tasks and development of self confidence, have given me more time to actually ponder over the potential solutions. The determination of my problems and challenges associated with my life is the first step that I have taken for a better life.
I have started to enhance my skills from expressing myself and trying to become friends with different class fellows. However, I was not that much successful in it. So, I have started reading different books on socialization and becoming much better human being. I have gone through different websites and found a book from Anthony Robins called “Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial”. The book has given me the best outlook of enhancing my characteristic behaviors thereby providing me an initial thrust towards a better college student and most importantly, a better citizen.
With the progressive of classes, it is evident that the level of difficulty of different subjects increases. For coping up with this enhanced difficult level and new modes of teachings, it would require much effort from my end together with unparalleled dedication towards my studies. Most of the colleges offer full 15 hours credit courses; however, some of them even have 18 or 21 credit hour courses too. Managing these tough schedules in parallel with part-time jobs for managing expenses is a massive issue for me.
My personal interest is to pursue a professional career as a Chemist. The reason for choosing it is that it is quite aligned with my objectives in life. Choosing this field would not only allow me to become an educated citizen but also it would enable me to play my part in deteriorating environmental conditions that the world during the current decades. My fascination of this field of study lies in development of alternative fuels that are both less costly and do not possess a strong carbon footprint issue for the environment. In order to get to this decision, I have asked my mentor from the high school about the future prospects of pursuing this career. Also, I had several discussions with my teaching aid during the last few weeks of my school. Surely, this counseling has allowed me to look at different perspectives of choosing Chemistry as the major field of study. By doing so, I have determined my direction and would save some of my years instead of going to a community college in order to find out the best subject area for me.
During the college education, managing the courses and assignment is another big issue for me. I had the very same problem while coping up with my assignment during my school days. However, in order to become a better college student, I should have to manage all my tasks both efficiently and effectively. I have asked myself a number of times, why is it much difficult? However, I have found the answer by brainstorming about it. I have faced different circumstances with the passage of time whether it be learning my first words to speak as an infant or writing a journal entry for “The Frankenstein”, I have faced with the difficulties as I have become more mentally resilient and strong. However, I cannot consider myself perfect in all respects and time management is the major area of improvement for me. From time to time, I had problems managing tasks simultaneously. In order to become better in this domain, I have started reading different articles on the internet and I have sought advice of my teachers as well. They have given me valuable pieces of advice that I have been implementing every now and then. One of them that I was missing in my own perspective includes the careful judgment and prioritizing of different tasks. Based on the deadlines of different assignments and essays, I have started grouping tasks under urgent and casual categories. Another important aspect that I have overlooked was the typicality of my homework. Surely, I was not able to assess the time that I have to dedicate on each of my tasks, at hand. For doing that, I have created a small diary and I write each task based on its priority and ease of completing it, it has provided me much better outlooks for becoming a better manager of my own works and somehow provided a sense of direction for my goals.
Tuition fees are another big concern that college students quite commonly face. With the prevailing economy conditions of the United States, it is clearly evident that the inflation has exerted extra pressure on parents (Heckman et al., 2014). Like, any other college student, I will be going to face the music because my parents have a hard time to cover all my educational expenses. Under these circumstances, I have started to planning different options for myself and working on part-time basis is the only viable option for me. Surely, there are options of applying for student loans but the repayment package does not fit in my family’s budget. For getting a job, I have started to apply at different job postings on websites and through mail. And finally, I have found a suitable job that was related to writing different informative articles on the internet. Nevertheless, it was a tough job for me because I was fresh out of high school and I did not have a chance to work in a typical office environment. I think that it would provide me a strong start for my life at college and hence, provide me with much better chances of managing my finances. However, I am also looking for getting a job on the campus so that my grades would not get suffered my other job. It is quite difficult to find a job on-site because these positions are based on the educational competency of students and my high school grades were not that competing as compared to other students. Nonetheless, I will try my best to finance all my needs and start to take all my responsibilities like any other college student.
Another aspect of managing the expenses would include having the perfect work-life balance for me. Having a part time job together with 15 to 18 hours credit courses is surely the most difficult thing to manage. And most of the times, students also become a part of different clubs and sports team in order to maintain their social life too. Under those circumstances, most of the students try to stack up all the activities in a single day thereby resulting in less sleeping hours and subsequently, deteriorating health conditions. The key to avoid such havoc lies in the basics of time and task management too. I have to prioritize the work and manage events, meetings, work, games and studies. Some of the times, universities quite commonly offer jobs to students that are quite flexible and are good at managing their schedules.
I have applied for different colleges and it might be possible that I would get an admission in a distant college from my home. In this regard, one of the most severe circumstances is homesickness. I have heard about the homesickness in different students within my family in their freshman year. The homesickness might be because of the fact that it is the first year of students away from their homes. Surely, it poses severe mental fatigue leading to loss in academic performance. If I have got an admission in a distant college from my home, I would have to face the very same circumstances. For doing that, I have thought about visiting my home every ones in a month while keeping connected with them using different mobile phone applications that can enable me to be a part of my family all the time. It would not completely eradicate the feeling of homesickness; but, I am quite sure that it would reduce those negative emotions and feeling from surfacing into my minds and affecting my grades.
With such massive level of stress, sometimes, college students’ get sick and/or have a developed health condition. The reason behind it might be because of the lack of sleep along with high levels of stress during the college education (Pilcher et al., 1997). Also, if a person is living away from home, s/he might be living in different dorms which enhance the health related risks thereby leading to more chances of contracting with specific viruses or diseases. The thought has also crossed my mind during the time of applying for college. For getting better health perspective, I thought that I should have to become more resistant against those viruses and diseases. So, I have started to read more about balanced and healthy diet. I was not quite health conscious when I was a college student. However, reading about the good and constructive dietary habits has urged me to become much more careful in eating different food. From that time onwards, I have also fixed a schedule for going to sleep at a specific hour at night so that I would become more used to the routine that I am going to face as a college student. Cleanliness is another important aspect of having a good health. Personal hygiene and cleanliness of my surroundings has become my priority and I have also started to apply the very same principles at my home (Garfield Gates Hubpages, 2015).
Besides all these core aspects, college life is surely an enigma even for the students who are currently attending their college. It can either become the best experience or the worst experience of their respective lives. From that, I have also pondered over the difference in lives of high school and college. Surely, life of college student is quite complex and requires him/her to fit in with the new environment. Apart from that there are some college rituals that are quite strange and somewhat unique. Titles; like, dean, professors, and lecturer become more interesting for the students as they progress and it surely develops a specific outlook of student towards that specific teacher based on his/her title. Another core characteristic of college life is its food. Surely, it is not even near to home cooked food. The main reason is that the college food quite commonly contains a large amount of starch and unsaturated fats that are harmful and can lead to gaining weight of students. Apart from that, college provides a union of people belonging to every race, caste, and religion that provides somewhat more diversified outlook of life as a college student. However, one of the menaces that surround high schools and colleges is drugs usage. College freshman are most prone to be involved with these activities in order to become friends with the wrong students. It is quite alarming for students in high school and their parents as well. It is because the college student lacks the sense of maturity at that time. There are different ways to develop distance from such activities and the family background play quite a prominent role in it (Wills et al., 1992).
Leaving behind previous friendships is the hardest thing to do. College students quite commonly leave behind a number of old friends at high school. The only way they are connected is through emails and vacations. It surely develops great stress in the students of finding new friends all over again. In some circumstances, it becomes quite difficult for students who cannot find the like-minded friends and social circle. While becoming friends with different students, they are confronted with various challenges including differences like racial differences, cultural difference, religious views and lifestyles, to name a few. Although, it may look quite hard for college students, I think that it allows the students to create a new identity for themselves and start over their lives by looking at the mistakes in the past. Surely, there would be different feeling of acceptance as well as rejection that the college student has to cope up with from time to time (Macalester College, 2015).
All in all, college life as a student is more complex and enigmatic than the school life. It is quite difficult to cope up with and hence require substantial efforts for becoming the best student. Managing different social events, educational outlooks and work is one of the most difficult things in college students’ lives. They have to make substantial adjustments in their behaviors and habits to become familiarize with that environment. It would also include managing tons of work under a given deadline while getting proper care of health related issues. Also, it would call for better management skills for having better future prospects. Having all these troubles at hand, leads to a much promising reward of successfully getting a college degree and hence, becoming a much better part of the society and most importantly, allows students to serve as a pillar for nation.

References
Garfield Gates Hubpages,. (2015). 10 Common Problems Students Face During College. Retrieved 30 April 2015, from http://garfieldgates.hubpages.com/hub/common-problems-for-college-students
Heckman, S., Lim, H., & Montalto, C. (2014). Factors related to financial stress among college students. Journal of Financial Therapy, 5(1), 3.
Macalester College,. (2015). 25 Challenges for Students and Their Parents – Parents & Families – Macalester College. Retrieved 30 April 2015, from https://www.macalester.edu/parents/tipsforsuccess/25challenges/
Pilcher, J. J., Ginter, D. R., & Sadowsky, B. (1997). Sleep quality versus sleep quantity: relationships between sleep and measures of health, well-being and sleepiness in college students. Journal of psychosomatic research, 42(6), 583-596.
Robbins, A. (2007). Awaken the Giant Within. [S.I.]: Free Press.
Wills, T. A., Vaccaro, D., & McNamara, G. (1992). The role of life events, family support, and competence in adolescent substance use: A test of vulnerability and protective factors. American journal of community psychology,20(3), 349-374.