Pup Cup

This weekend was Pup cup, enough said. Peer pressure, peer pressure, peer pressure. Pup cup is a weekend at Assumption, similar to spring weekend. There is a carnival with games and events and a barbeque all day long. Many students also drink, drink, drink, all day and all night for this event. The big day is Saturday.

Saturday mornings are my one night out of the week where I can sleep in all morning and afternoon long. My friends know I hate when people wake me up, but they decided to wake me up any way at 11:00. Seems like a resasonable time but I usually sleep until 12 and get out of bed at about 1.

At least there was a reason for Liz to wake me up: Breakfast at the Gold Star Diner. I wanted to tell her to leave so I could roll over and go to sleep, but with the peer pressure of her and some of the other girls, I had to get up. With the flick of the lights, there was no way I was going to fall back asleep. They said they did not want to waste the beautiful day away, it was pup cup so we had to get back to go to the events, and the food is cheap and delicious. This was the only thing getting me out of bed on Saturday morning.

It was well worth it. The food was great and cheap, perfect for a college student. We got back to campus and of course we do not do work, instead we go to the carnival. We thought we would only be there for an hour or so but we were there the whole day. No time or excuses to leave and do work. With finals week coming up, that was probably not a good choice, but it was pup cup, no work. After a nice meal at the barbeque, the night was only beginning and of course, we are all peer pressured to go out and again, no work!

The beach was so worth it!

Today, Sunday, was filled with peer pressure. It is once again my other roommates birthday. We celebrated last night, no peer pressure there. Assumption had a barbeque at night so we did that then sung to her and hung out. The weather was so nice; it put everyone in a good mood.

So today, it was about 90 degrees. We made tentative plans to go to my friend’s beach house for the day. I wanted to go, but I have a big test on Tuesday and I cannot study for it on Monday. That means I would have to do everything tonight. Well this morning when she woke me up, I was hesitant but when there is a group of 15 girls going and begging you to go, telling you it is going to be so fun, I couldn’t resist. I was laying in bed deciding when a few of them walked in. Some of the peer pressure ideas consisted of “it is going to be so nice out today” “we have finals in a week, soak it all up now” “we can be nice and tan and just sleep and relax on the beach today.” And of course, there was “you can do your work when we get back, we won’t be back to late, we all have work to day.”

So of course I pack my bag, and we are on our way. A pit stop at dunkin donuts and an hour and a half later, we are at Cait’s beach house. We stayed on the beach all day, it was perfect weather, hot, but with a nice cool breeze. We tried to get my other roommate to go but the peer pressure didn’t work so much on her. She did text me saying that it was miserably hot on campus and she was dying of heat. I was glad I went. We had such a good time and it was worth every minute. We stayed at the beach until about 5 and the best part was her mom had a cook out for us! Hamburgers, hotdogs, salad, pasta salad, we had the works and filled up before our hour and half ride back.

Well now it is 12:33 and I am still doing my studying guide. I don’t see how I can last much longer, I have been up since 8:30 and I have to get up at 8 to student teach tomorrow. Talk about exhaustion I don’t know how I am going to do that?

I guess when I look at it like that, I better get in bed now!

Finally, a little break in this semester

After a long day of a paper due in my 10:00 class, an hour long presentation in my 1:00 class and two papers due in my 2:30 class, I can finally hang out for a few hours. I think my main assignments are out of my way for the semester, but that does not leave it stress free. I still have many papers I need to get back so I can have a better idea of my grades. Many of my friends are going out tonight and since I do not have much work, I am going to go out. Even though I was planning on going out, I could still see a lot of peer pressure. Many people asked me if I was going out and they also said that they “cannot wait…it is going to be so much fun…everyone is going out tonight.” Although I was planning on going out, if I was not planning on going out, these words said by the right people could influence my decision.

One of my friends has a big accounting test tomorrow; she was debating whether or not to go out at 3:00 when I talked to her. I just talked to her a few minutes ago, and what do you know? She is going out. She said that she studied all she could and if she stays in she won’t learn anymore. Hopefully that is the case and when she wakes up in the morning, she can take the test successfully. Accounting is all numbers, so how hard is it for her to look at her neighbor and copy a few numbers down? Probably not hard. When tomorrow rolls around and she feels as if she does not know the answer, she, along with other students may cheat.

This is similar with papers. When a student decides to go to a bar on a Thursday night when they have a paper due on a Friday that they have not started, it is probably not going to be their best work, if it is their work at all. Wouldn’t it be much more convenient to just go to 123helpme.com and buy a paper for $19.99? Although college kids are dirt poor, $19.99 for a paper is a good barging when you are getting a whole paper written for you and you will most likely receive an A. An A will not only impress their parents, but it will also keep their GPA high, and allow them time to do what they want such as going out and partying with their friends. College kids are here to do work and perform their best in order to succeed and get a job. It seems as if it is the opposite and as if college students will do anything, or go any limit to avoid doing their work But what happens when the real word comes and hits them in the face and they are not prepared?

Its too late now

Once again, after the weekend and a lot of peer pressure, I am up late doing homework, this time, a paper. I went to Umass this weekend and so I didn’t get back to Assumption until about 2 today. Once I got back, I was peer pressured to go to the baseball game and then got peer pressured into going out to eat at the Boyton. I love that restaurant and I wanted to go but I knew I should probably stay home. Other people had work too but with simple peer pressure, everyone was going for an “Easter dinner.” The simple peer pressure worked on everyone. “We have to all go out to eat before Easter” or “we won’t be back late, you can do your work when we get back” or “come on it will be fun.” After a great pasta dinner, the next thing I know I am peer pressured once again to watch the movie Heavyweights. I was going to finish my paper but I decided I would do it after. Well that’s now and right now I am to tired and have to get up early to go to my pre practicum at a City View Elementary School. Looks like the peer pressure really did me in and I will not be finishing up my paper tonight. I guess ill finish it an hour before it is due, that is if I am not peer pressured again.

Should i go to the movies?

Last night I was under a lot of peer pressure. I was doing some homework because I have so much. It was my friend’s birthday and we had just sung happy birthday to her. One of the girls brought up the ideas of going to the movies for 6 dollar Tuesdays. Sounds like a great idea right? We’ll I had a lot of homework I should be doing and my friend, whose birthday it was, has a big test today.

After much peer pressure of “you can do you’re homework later, we’ll be back by 9” and “come on didn’t you want to see that movie,” we all went. After 6 dollars and a medium popcorn later, we were in the theater ready to see “The Last House on the Left.” I am not big on scary movies but I thought I would give it a shot. We’ll throughout the whole thing I am saying to my self “this is the worst movie ever” “get me out of here.” It had a good story line but not only was it scary, it was stupid and disturbing. Anyway we were not fans of the movie and in the end, should have stayed here and got some work/ studying done.

Now I just woke up at 12:00 and am writing this blog, cramming to finish my work before class at 1:30. My friend who has the test is saying, “that was the worst idea of my life”.

Peer pressure takes over student’s minds at school. Work is so heavy that students will do anything to avoid their homework and hang out with their friends. This, however, only leads to cheating and plagiarism. My friend who has the test today at 4 has to skip her 1:30 and study all day hoping she will get it all down by 4. If she does not…will that lead to her cheating? If she has to skip her 1:30 and miss class…will she fall behind and turn to plagiarizing? Peer pressure is not something that will ever be stopped. Everyone likes to have a good time with all of their friends and people do not want t miss out on a good time when you only live once. That could have been the best movie I have ever seen. When students get peer pressured to skip class, put off studying, put off their work and make decisions they know they shouldn’t, well, they might just take all those opportunities and plagiarize.

The week will never be over

So after a long week, it is not even close to being over. It is Thursday and a lot of people are going out. I have an essay due on Tuesday and Wednesday. It doesn’t seem that bad but it is my roommates 21^st birthday on Monday. This means I have to go out Monday night and therefore should have my paper for Tuesday and Wednesday done by Monday.

Well, we all know that not much gets done on the weekends. As a result I know I have to stay in tonight and at least start one of them. Everyone is telling me that everyone is going out and that I should. I stood my ground and decided to go to the library for a few hours and get some of my paper done. When I came back, I went down the hall to say hi to my friends. 3 out of the 5 roommates were going out when I left for the library and 4 out of the 5 were going out when I got back. I was in the room and Kelly was in sweats. She then says, “I may as well just go out” and in ten minutes she had her spandex on with a cute white top and her black boots. The other roommate, Amanda has a test on Friday, but due to all of the peer pressure, she is going out. She studied for it, but that did not stop her.

The peer pressure faced everyday causes students to make decisions that may not be the right decisions. Although she is out right now having a great time, when tomorrow rolls around…is she going to be fully prepared for her test? If the answer is no, it may result in cheating on the test.

As you know, cheating for some students is not a big deal and they do it all of them time. Getting the answer to one question on a test is only going to lead to getting a whole paper off line for complete plagiarism. Students’ get too comfortable with cheating where it becomes a second nature to them.

It would be easy for me to say I will just buy papers off line so I can go out Thursday, Friday and Saturday night and not do any work. I know that this is not the right answer and would never do such a thing. On the other hand, for a student who is in the same predicament, does not think plagiarism is a big problem, and that they will get away with it, they may do it in two clicks of a button. Off course it seems like the easier thing to do which may get you the same or a better grade, but it is not beneficial to the student who will not be gaining or learning from the experience.

St. Patricks Day Adventures

This week was full of peer pressure for me. Let’s start with Tuesday night which was also Saint Patrick’s Day. Students will go to any extreme as well as any excuse to go out and party. Whether it is a birthday or a holiday there is usually something going on. I was not planning on going out on Tuesday night. I was just going to stay in and get a good night sleep because I had to get up early to go to City View Elementary School for my observation hours. I went to the gym from 6-7 and by the time I got back…all of my friends changed their minds to go out. Fifteen minutes later, I was also going out for the night. I had to wake up at 9 which did not seem bad at the time, until the next morning. I went to school then had Ethics class at 1:30. Unfortunately, I took a nap after school at 11:30 and was not up until 2:30, I had slept through my class! I am lucky that it was not an important class to miss.

If this was a class that I would have missed a lot, I would be in trouble. This happens to students all around where they miss their classes because they don’t feel like it, can’t or get peer pressured to do it. By skipping class, it only detriments your grade and sets you back in a class. If this is a recurrence, by the time a big assignment, such as a paper is assigned, the student will be lost or confused. These are only a few causes of plagiarism. When a student misses too many classes, they become lost and when they are lost or confused what makes sense to them but to plagiarize? I would never do this but students are already tight on time and when they have to sit at their computer and write on a subject they are not knowledgeable on, it is much easier to just type their subject into Google and see what papers they can find which fit their assignment.

Back to the real world

I finally caught up on some much needed sleep. Let me tell you, if there was a college in Mexico that students went to, I am sure there would be a lot of plagiarizing. It is so gorgeous down there! People are always out and about and everyone is drinking. I was not even in school and I was peer pressured to go out to the clubs and drink all of the time. Now that I am home, I only have a weekend to do all of my work and I am peer pressured by my friends at home to go out with them because I have not seen them in a long time.

Peer pressure affects students whether they think it does or it does not. Peer pressure to someone may be to go out and party all night, but to someone else it may be to just hang out and watch a movie. Which ever one it is, the students are still avoiding their work. This pressure students have from their peers leads to the avoidance of work. In this case, students will do anything to succeed, resulting in plagiarism.

Plagiarism, I think starts at a young age, and starts with cheating. Cheating in high school seems like something everyone does. When students see the good grades they get from not doing their own work, they then want to do that for everything. I was just talking to my brother, a junior in high school, when he was doing his homework. I looked and he was copying someone’s homework. Turns out, it is an older girl’s binder who has already completed the class. He refers to this binder in order to complete his homework. My brother, Joey, is a smart kid, but he also faces a lot of peer pressure. He is never home! He is always hanging out with his friends or making something out of wood in the shed. This “little” cheating seems like it is not a big deal because he still studies and understands the material, however, if he depends on this to much, it could become a larger problem at the college level.

Exhausted!

I have been in Cancun and have not had a chance to write on my blog, so here is a quick update. I got back from Cancun about an hour ago! It is gorgeous there! I was worried about going there because of all the things going on there, but it was not dangerous at all, I loved it and had a blast. Now that I am back though, I have a lot of work to do! Obviously I am exhausted and want to sleep all day, but I am not on spring break and here comes the peer pressure when I need to do work. I got about 5 hours of sleep the whole time I was there so I am going to catch up now and I will write some more tomorrow!

So it’s Sunday night and I have not had internet all weekend! I could not connect on my computer. I think something was messed up with my cord because my roommates had it. Thank god I got it back because I have a paper due tomorrow, actually the one I am writing on about plagiarism. I interviewed a girl named Jen who did plagiarize. I thought it was interesting though because she didn’t even know she plagiarized. She was not pressured from any out side forces, she was just a freshman and unsure of the rules on exactly what to put in quotation marks. She did mention however that students, including her and me are faced with pressure everyday, especially peer pressure. She has heard of students buying papers from each other and copying and pasting things from the internet. She also mentioned that students just want to go out and drink with their friends, so they will go to any extreme to get their paper written, even if it is buying one from the internet.

I was searching on you tube and found some informative clips that I put on the right side of the page. This is my first blog so I did not really know how to do. When I went to put one of them up, 4 different ones came up. The ones that are up are actually interesting so take a look at them!

Just booked my trip to Cancun!

I do not have much work this week which is good because I won’t have to worry about getting my work done and socializing. I do however; have three papers due on Monday which I need to get a start on. I did just book a trip to Cancun though for spring break! My friends from home wanted to go and needed an answer because we wanted to book before the price went up. After some peer pressure and thinking, I booked it! This did however push any work I should have been working on back. I did not get much of anything done tonight! I did some interviews for my class about plagiarism. They were very interesting, one of the girls I interviewed was caught plagiarizing and had to sign a form with the dean, but as far as that no one knows about it and it will be out of her file in five years. Not a big punishment for plagiarizing huh? She didn’t copy or take somebody’s work but she unintentionally copied a few quotes from the book her class was reading. She did it unintentionally but believes students face peer pressure every day especially on the weekends when they are pressured to go out, drink and party every weekend. She also believes that students do it to ease their way out which is definitely true but it seems as if that would be involved with peer pressure in that they want to get it done as quickly and as efficiently as they can with out doing all of the work. It makes sense especially being in a college environment and if they can get away with it. I personally believe it is wrong and would never do it but I see it all of the time.

What a long day!

Today is a long day; I have been in classes since 10:00 and am just getting back to my room at 530. I had a big test at 10, which i hope i did ok on. I still have a gym class, step and strength at 6 tonight. Peer pressure in my life recently has not been too bad. I had my magazine writing class 230-345 then decided to go straight to the libarary to get some reading done. I knew if i went back to my room, my roomate would be there and people from the hall would be comming in and out of my room distracting me, as they are now. Cait just came down the hall saying what are you doing, come down to our room and hang! Ashley, my roommate knows I get out of class at 3:45. At 3:53 I get a text saying where you are, get back here and hang! That is tempting especially when I had class all day! If I had been at the library for a while I probably would have gotten out of there in a blink of an eye but I just got there so I put my phone on silent until I finished reading. The book I am reading for class is very interesting, I like it a lot it is just time consuming with all of the other work I have. If there was spark notes, I am not going to lie, I would most likely be using them. However, I also have to write a paper about this book. Hopefully there is not too much peer pressure, in about 2 weeks when it is due. If there is, I will be in deep trouble. The rest of the week is not too bad with work, but we will see who's going to peer pressure me into going out this week!

another 21st birthday!

Tonight is Thursday and the 21st birthdays are not stopping! It is Cassie's birthday tonight but I really shouldn't go out. I have a lot of homework and also am supposed to go to Rachel's Challenge tonight to support my friend Ryan who is running it. I was debating what to because Cassie and all of her friends wanted me to go. Well I decided not to go out for her birthday despite all of the pressure. I get peer pressured really easily so I am surprised and happy with my choice. Instead of getting work done however, I went to the Rachel's Challenge. It was actually a really good presentation. It was at Wachusett High School where a speaker came to discuss Rachel Joy Scott's death from Columbine High School. Ryan really wanted us to go so I went with my friends. It was a really good program and am glad that I decided to go to that and not go out. Rachel’s Challenge is very interesting and the speaker talked about all of the coincidences in her life. For example Rachel wrote in her journal that she wanted to start a chain reaction to better the community and make a better influence on everybody’s life. This is ironic because today she is doing so through the speeches her family and friends are giving today. She also had a feeling that she was going to die young and was the nicest person in the school. She somehow wanted to and knew she was going to make a difference in the world, which she is. It is a very moving presentation but definitely worth seeing! Now that I am back, I don’t want to but I know I have to do some work. It is now 11:00 and my friends have been in here all night chatting so I haven't gotten much work done. I want to get work done tonight because I know there will be a lot of peer pressure tomorrow and the rest of the weekend where I will not be able to complete my work, or at least to the best of my ability. I have a lot of work coming up next weekend between reading 162 pages in a novel and my first big test in my Education class. I hope I can sneak some work in with out being peer pressured to not do it! I am going to get some reading done before bed and hopefully some more tomorrow!

skip class?

Today is is Jenny's actual birthday. She is skipping all of her classes and the other girls do not have classes on friday besides Ashley and I. We are both in ethics from 1:30-2:20. We were starving and wanted to go to the diner. Jenny and the other girls were telling me to skip class, and that it is just one skip, no big deal. We'll I have an assignment due so i knew i had to go. Ashley was saying we should just pass in our assignment and leave but i did not really want to do that. Although they wanted us to skip, we went and were going to play it by year if we were going to leave early. We ended up sitting through the whole 50 minute of class becuase he did not collect our assignments until the end. It was very boring. If i was to skip class, i could have missed something big, such as an assignment. It could have been something as simple as write a paragraph, but if i was not in class to do the reading, plagiariasm could be a possibility where i look up a summary of the reading and write a paragraph based on that summary, mabey even take some sentences. Although I would do the reading, and write my own paragraph, plagiarism could come of this assignment If someone was not in class. So anyway, I went to class, took some notes then we went to the diner and my sandwhich was delicious!

It's Thursday!

Today is Thursday, so close to the weekend, but not yet the weekend. I just had a class in the library and am still here because now I have to do a project with a classmate. I know if I head back to the room, my friends will say, “why are you doing work? It’s a Thursday we have to go out!” It is my friend Jenny’s 21^st birthday tonight at midnight. She is going to want to celebrate hard all weekend and not do anything but hang out. To be honest, my weekends usually consist of hanging out and not doing much. I am always thinking of doing my work but I always hear, “It’s the weekend! No work on the weekend!” I have a lot of projects coming up next week; interviews, a test, and a project I have to work on which we also have to make into a film. Tonight I should get ahead start on some of this work, but I know that Jenny will be disappointed if I do not go out tonight. The pressure is on to finish all of my work before it is time to go out. I don’t have much left but I will finish it before I go out. If a student was in this situation and had a paper that they had not started yet, this would be a perfect opportunity for them to get their paper in a click of a button. I looked on line to see what options a person would have in this situation and I found numerous sites which offer papers. Most of them are around twenty dollars, but to a student, twenty dollars to write a paper that would take 5 hours, is worth it in their eyes.

Hi, my name is Michelle and I am a junior at Assumption College in Worcester. This is my first blog where I will write about the peer pressure in my life and in others lives. Peer pressure is faced by a lot of students which affects their time management. Students pressure other students to do things that they either don’t want to do or don’t have the time to do. Plagiarism is becoming a big problem and one reason can be because students are pressured to do other things, except their work. Right now it is 11:48pm and I am writing this blog. The lights are off in my room, the tv is on and my roommate is hounding me to get in bed, watch tv and stop doing work. I want to get in bed, but I know I need to do this. Although this is only a small amount of peer pressure, it works. This does not lead to direct plagiarism, but it is a form of plagiarism which would lead me to not do my work correctly or efficiently. Leaving at that note, Chelsea Lately is on so I will continue writing tomorrow!