Social Awkwardness in College: Issues Involving Non-Traditional Students

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Most college students who are recent high school graduates have brief job experience and life experience to guide them. As for my level of experience, I served four years in the Army and have worked numerous jobs, such as delivering furniture, telemarketing, sales counter, data entry, tutor, student worker, and sales associate. I have encountered many different people along the way and have had to learn how to get along with different personality types. I have gone through times in my life so far where things were going well and other times where things were going terribly. Take for instance in January 2010 when the recession that began in 2008 was still digging in. My boss at the job where I had worked for four years decided he had to make cuts which included trimming orders to what was necessary for customers without his approval, changing the delivery schedule to save on fuel costs, and combining some job duties to eliminate non-essential staff. My duties were absorbed into other areas making me non-essential, and I was let go. I searched for a job for two and a half years applying submitting resumes everywhere until I heard about a plan to retrain former service members in a high demand field leading to my journey starting at Jackson State and continuing here at Union. All of these experiences provide me with insight which helps me see certain things differently when I am listening to a lecture, writing a paper, and asking questions.

Deep down I know that it’s my own awkwardness and insecurities which lead to me feeling like I don’t fit in. I am my own worst enemy in this circumstance very similarly to the hard time I have speaking in front of people. It is up to me to figure out how to overcome my fears and anxieties and take chances. Ultimately, we are all very similar after all. We are college students at Union University striving to achieve our goals in life which include learning everything we can while we are here and obtaining a degree which will provide us with better job opportunities in our chosen career field, being a part of some of the organizations and doing our part to make Union and Jackson - Madison County a better place, and eventually, landing a position in our field of study where on the most basic level we will be happy and earn a good living. I will not be very successful in reaching these or any of my other goals by allowing anxiety to control me.

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