Brandon's Blog

Dear High School Senior, In the book, "The Transition to College Writing" by Keith Hjortshoj, the author does a great job of including five basic, categorical differences between high school and college. As once being a fellow senior preparing for college, I realize how stressful of a time it can be. It's important to keep yourself calm, and become recognized with the significant differences between each level of education. I'm going to explain two differences, that I've experienced throughout my first year in college, and hopefully you can learn a few tips on how you can use these to your own benefit. One basic categorical difference that Hjortshoj uses in his book is, "While high school teachers are usually generalists, college teachers are specialists." As Hjortshoj explains, college professors don't follow the ideas of high school teachers, as they aren't required to follow the given state curriculum. I noticed this, as soon as I started...

First off, before I start the story behind my narrative of crossing the border of hate, I want everyone to know that this is a very personal story and I appreciate everyone's respect in this manner. Throughout my entire childhood, I’ve had to undergo the pain of crossing the border to my grandma’s house on a weekly basis. You may think this sounds wonderful, and I should be happy to go to my grandma’s house, but this couldn’t be any farther from the truth. In my visits to her house, I would often leave the house in tears, crying because she had made fun of my family. My mom had the worst of it, as my grandma would always have negative things to say about her, and the way she was raising us kids. She would make fun of my sister because of her gain in weight throughout puberty, and the blame was always on my mom. As a young boy, at age six, I remember quite frequently, my mother coming up to me saying, “It’s time to go.” I would see tears in her eyes, and I never questioned her, I...