Getting there is half the fun...

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 Welcome to Converse College and our Student Success Seminar! Much like Kermit and Fozzie Bear, you are all on a journey to, well, somewhere. And while you may not know exactly where you're headed, you're in for a fascinating journey (though, hopefully, you won't have to spend large amounts of time in your uncle's Studebaker). You'll hopefully see some snow and see the sun rise (though not in the West), and you'll surely come upon many forks in your road. But, with a little planning and some good luck, you'll have friends to share your journey with and a map to get you to your destination. And that's where we come in.

We, your SSS professors, will be spending this semester helping you start your journey with the right supplies (which may or may not include a banjo). We'll talk about how to manage your time, finances, communication, and stress level so that you can concentrate on the most important aspects of your college journey--learning more about yourself and the stuff that's not yourself so that you can get your exterior and interior lives working together a bit better. This is a "class" where all questions are permitted and where openness and acceptance are valued.

As a part of one of the main focuses of this class--the art of communication--we'll all be keeping blogs throughout the semester. We'll post topics on this blog as the semester progresses--every two weeks or so--and you'll respond to the topics on your own blog. Your posts are due by Friday nights at 11:00 pm (pre-weekend zaniness/forgetfulness). Each entry should be at least 300 words long and must be in grammatically correct Standard English. Do remember that blogs, like everything else on the internet, are accessible by anyone, and that it's entirely possible that future employers, dates, and realtors will Google your name at some point. Also remember that blogs, like any other writing venue, are first a foremost a form of communication: as you set up your blog, take into account how it communicates who you are. Once you've set up your blog, please leave a comment at the end of this blog entry so that I can add you to the list that will live on our blog. You need to set up your blog by our next classmeeting (Thursday, August 30) so that we can help you if you run into technical difficulties.

And so, friends, here is our first Blog topic, due this Friday, August 31, by 11:00 pm.

Please expound on these four questions:
1. Why did you decide to come to college? (After all, it's not exactly free.)
2. Why did you decide specifically to come to Converse? (Again with the "not free"...)
3. Why did you decide to study music in college at Converse (I'm sensing a theme here...)
4. If you were a muppet, what sort of muppet would you be? And would you play the banjo?

Enjoy your blogging, and we'll see you in Rhode Island class on Thursday!