Personal Review

Walking into my first semester of college I have heard all my friends tell me that it is a culture shock when it comes to both academic and social life. I came in thinking that I would be face down in the books all day every day. After the first week of actual classes, I realized my friends couldn’t have been more right. In the beginning of the semester I had trouble keeping track of every assignment I had. However, around October I got into the swing of things. I found my rhythm and felt that I had my academic life under control. This is when I realized that my friends had also been wrong. After working through the rough patch of the first month of college, I found a balance between doing school work, social time, and personal time. I am not saying that it was a walk through the park, but I was able to  accomplish all of my assignments.

Then the first wave of midterms came. I was pulled into the riptide of studying the wrong way. My biology grade reflected that I had just scratched the surface of understanding this type of material. Even though this test damaged my grade, it was a learning experience. I learned the timing and the type of studying that works for me. Beginning to study about two weeks before the test, reviewing terms and definitions first, followed by connecting the information together. This technique was used in the second and third midterms, and my grades reflected my new habits. Now I will be able to continue to use and improve my study habits in each class that I take in the upcoming semesters.

Artifact #2

With a few months into the semester, I have been studying and doing work for the majority of my time. About a month ago I finally had some down time and decided to play sand volley ball with other students in the STEM  program. Afterwards, my friend asked if I wanted to get insomnia cookies with her. I agreed and we walked to the shop not far from our dorm. I ordered chocolate ice cream, and patiently waited. When she gave it to me, I began to devour it right away. Then I noticed something. My tongue started feeling itchy, it was getting harder to breath, my throat was swelling, and my lips doubled in size. I was getting worried that I was having an allergic reaction to peanuts, but that couldn’t be it because I got chocolate ice cream. A girl in line asked for chocolate ice cream and the employee informed her that they ran out of chocolate ice cream. When I heard this I rushed to the front desk and asked what was in the bin that appeared to be chocolate. She told me it was chocolate peanut butter. I told her that one of the other workers gave it to me in place of chocolate and that I had an allergy. My friend called my roommate to get my epipen. We met her on our way back. On a casual Wednesday night, I injected myself with an epipen on the side of High Street. I then had to ride in a police car to the Wexner medical center where I relapsed, had two anaphylactic shocks. I was given two extra injections of epinephrine, steroids, and benadryl. I had to stay the night at the hospital. What I gained from this experience is that I realized how good my friends treat and take care of me. I also learned to always be careful with ordering food that may contain peanuts.