Three Tips For New Semester
A new semester begins; it’s hard to believe that I am halfway done with my graduate year. Though I achieved and learned a lot last year, I believe there is still room for me to improve. To achieve more and be a better person, here are three of my tips for myself and for you:
Firstly, always remember your efforts pay off. Don’t give up early and don’t be disappoint about yourself. If you devote to something, though you can’t see the outcome at once, it will benefit you later or in the long run. Last semester, I strived for my project which is about collecting and analyzing data on recycling facts in New York State. At the beginning of the semester, everyone is skeptical about my story. A professor who was previously a data reporter doubted the difficulty in getting the data and tried to persuade me to change my story idea. Another professor who was good at searching data directly told me that the data I wanted didn’t exist. However, I didn’t give up. I did desktop researches, interviewed NGO volunteers in environmental industry, made phone calls and sent emails to environmental organizations, and finally found my data resource. After making an FOIA request, another question arose: as all the recycling information is recorded on paper and all the sheets were scanned to PDF files, they were actually pictures and I failed to use any tool to convert them into spreadsheets. In other words, I had to type all the data manually. There were almost 10,000 numbers which took me more than 20 hours to create my own data set from, but I finished it, successfully analyzed it and found some interesting things about recycling in New York State.
Secondly, it’s never too late to learn something new. I majored in Journalism during my undergraduate years. Before coming to Syracuse University, I’ve never had any experience with computer science and coding. I don’t really like math. I don’t like numbers. Though I chose my major, Computational Journalism, I was worried that code might make no sense for me. But I gave myself a try. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone. I told myself: big data is the trend. It’s important and necessary to learn some coding so that you won’t be left behind. Then I took the class of Python Programming in the Computer Science (CS) School. Almost all my classmates have CS background, which stressed me out, but I did my best to learn it, to follow my professor, and to acquire as much knowledge as I can. And I did learn something new. I can’t say that I can defeat other CS students but at least I can say I am better than those who know nothing about data. I am more competitive than myself 6 months ago. Be better prepared and learn something new. You never know how new knowledge can help you in your future career.
Last but not least, try to build good habits and make them stick. Keep a bedtime routine, exercise regularly, and read books for two hours per day. Those habits can change your lifestyle in a good way. I am personally interested in designing so I practiced it every week last semester. Now I have enough work to put into my portfolio. To build good habits, sometimes you shouldn’t have blind faith in a “21 days rule”. Once I counted 21 days for forming a new habit, I quickly gave up after 21 days because I told myself “I just have to get to 21 days”. It’s better to set micro goals and macro goals, and sometimes treat yourself if you stick to one thing for several days.
