ADJUSTMENTS: Rick Strickland: dealing with the problems of transferring David McAnulty: . overcomIng cuItural barriers Lee & Sharon Wills: how marriage makes a difference 26 • Adjustments RICK STRICKLAND is a senior history major from Henager, Alabama. Having transferred from Alabama Christian College in Fall semester of 1976, he discussed some of the problems he tackled in adjusting from a small junior college to a senior college. "Most of my adjustments stemmed from transfering from a junior college of about 300 students to a senior college of about 3,000 . "At Alabama Christian, knew everyone - their first and last names, hometowns, and many times even their parents. You knew everyone and everyone knew you. You could be close friends with half the student body. At Harding there's no way you could know everybody. There's an advantage to that, though. " I think it's all . up to the person. If you 've got a pessimistic attitude, you can make excuses and complain. But an optimist will say, 'Well , I've just got more people to make friends with: and he will go through the whole year continually making friends. "There are many more activities at Harding in which you can participate. When you first get here it's easy to get involved in too many things. It's like a kid in a candy store or at grandma's house at Christmas - he makes himself sick by eating too much. Without thinking, you can get too involved . There comes the time when you just have to sit down and evaluate the situation: Why are you here? What is going to be most benefi <;jal to you in the future? You have to place what is most important spiritually first . You feel bad if you don't do that to which you've obligated yourself, but often you don' t even have time to sit down and read your Bible . That's why I went inactive in my club this year - I had to pick those things that were most important to me. I'm taking three langauges - German , Greek, and Russian. I am involved in summer campaigns, and I hope to get a Little Brother. I do the things I want to do most. "Academics are more difficult at HardiDg, but they should be at a senior college. I had a lot of fun my first two years, but when I came here, I had to settle down, and learn how to budget my time .· Perhaps it was just the "process of maturing," Although he was born in Texas, DAVID McANULTY has spent most of his life in Lille, France, where his father is a missionary. Having come to Harding this year as a freshman, David discussed some of his adjustments to a college with a different culture. "The method of teaching in the schools is basically the same. You have to be present in class and listen to the lectures. I think we had to work harder at the French schools . The material was more difficult and we had more homework . I had at least an hour's homework everyday until my last two years of high school. "There was a big difference in the testi ng systems because there was more memorization involved. Here we have true-false and multiple choice. In France we were given just the questions, without a choice of answers. You just had to know them. "Schools in France are stricter and being polite and respectful is really underlined . French people have that deep down inside them because they
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