Reflecting back on my first semester at OSU seems weird. It doesn’t quite seem possible that a whole semester has gone by already. I definitely learned a lot this semester: Thompson library has good bagels, RPAC smoothies are sub-par, the oval is a peaceful place to study, etc. As for my fears, most of them are gone. I was a commuter student this semester and so I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to get plugged in or that I would have a hard time making friends. I made myself try out new groups and clubs and because of that I felt connected. I ended up joining an all female workout group called Chaarg and I love every second of it. I also was afraid of how different college would be academically compared to high school, but at the end of the day I buckled down and survived that too.
The scholars program was a highlight of my first semester. It was a place where I knew I had friends and people that had something in common with me. The seminar once a week provided a nice break to my frantic schedule and also provided me with useful information about life, campus, and my future. The fact that I had to meet a certain amount of points was also useful because it pushed me to try new things. I got to experience things like the Greek and Italian festivals, I was able to read a new book (Inferno), and just spend time with the other humanities scholars. I would love to stay in the humanities program so I can continue to go to cool events and also I want to be a mentor group leader. My group leaders were incredible and I want to be able to do that for other first year students.