School is hard. It takes a lot of effort and there are some very long nights. Being a full time student and working part time at a grocery store for the last 4 years has been such a learning experience for me. Life is not just handed over to you. Everything you accomplish must be earned. I started my job at Supervalu right when high school ended and have been there since. When I first started, work was boring and I didn’t enjoy it much. But I figured out if you show up to work on time, work hard, and have a good attitude work is a lot more enjoyable and your bosses will appreciate your effort. I started out as just a bagger but have worked my way up to Night Manager. They noticed how hard I was trying and decided to reward me. I first started my college career at SWIC. I took most of my general education courses there. I was introduced to college life and the new style of learning that comes with it. I had an enjoyable 4 semesters. I went to a pretty good high school that gave me a great education. So my classes at SWIC were never very challenging. I just kind of cruised along, going with the flow and doing a pretty good job in my classes but not giving it my all. I took my general education classes like political science, reading, writing, chemistry, biology, calculus, and philosophy. All the things to make me a well-rounded person but did not really pertain to what I was getting my degree in. I believe it was a great decision to start my college career at SWIC. I saved a lot of money by not taking all 4 years at SIUE and will still get the same degree. When I started at SIUE my classes were a little bit harder. I was now taking classes that applied to my major so I was learning a whole lot of new things. It was also a lot more fun. I was actually interested in my classes. I am obsessed with anything related to technology. Designing computer programs and systems challenges me and provides me with a lot of enjoyment. All of my CMIS classes were exciting and I loved going to them. I learned many different programming languages and got to see all that goes into making a computer program. There is a whole lot of planning and time dedicated to the making of and designing computer and network systems and I learned many different ways of going about how to build them and deal with the many challenges that I will face. The aspects of business that I am learning are also very intriguing to me. I loved learning about how businesses run. The things I learned in classes like production, marketing, management, and economics came very natural to me. It was fun figuring out how a company is made and what it takes to keep it running successfully. The group projects that we must do to graduate were some of the best learning experiences I had. We were assigned to groups and given a problem to work out. We had to help each other and do a lot of outside research and learning to complete the projects but I believe they prepared us way better than studying for a test ever could have done.