I took political science my second semester of my freshman year, and let me tell you, just because it is a 100 level course does not always mean it is going to be a walk in the park. This class taught me a lot and I struggled a lot. When I first entered this class I was not excited at all, because I am not interested in politics and the government very much at all, but I figured that since it was a 100 level class, it would not be that bad at all. I was completely wrong though. I think that because I was not interested in the class and because I had in my mind that it was going to be easy, I let the first exam full me. I barely studied for the first exam and ended up getting a 64, leaving me with a D in the class for the first half of the semester, because this professor only has about five huge assignments in her class, so if you mess up once you are already kind of in trouble. I ended up having to work really hard to pull my grade up and the start of this was with our first paper, which was on whether we agree with the arguments of Federalist Paper 35 or not. I was extremely nervous for this paper, as my grade greatly depended on this grade. I ended up working on this short paper for about a week, making sure it was as close to perfect as it could be. In the end I got a 100 on the paper, and my grade started slowly coming up with my improving grades.

From this class, I took that just because a class is supposed to be easier, does not mean that it is. You likely will not get by easily in most classes, and you have to work hard no matter what. I will never go into a class again thinking that I can do the minimum to pass, and will always go in with a hard work ethic and the determination to work as hard as I can no matter the difficulty you believe the class will be. Every class and professor is different, but they all have the intention for you to do the best that you can. This class and this first paper taught me that if you are struggling, you just have to work a little harder and you can do it, if you put your mind to it.