Semester Review
Well that was interesting haha. Going to college during COVID was different and challenging. Well first off, going to a new school and starting fresh was also hard within itself. I had to figure out the style of the class, make new friends, understand carmen. But the hardest thing was commuting. There would be times when my friends would want to do something late at night or hangout all day and my schedule/classes didn’t allow that, so I missed out on a few fun opportunities. I’ve said this earlier but sometimes it felt hard to connect with others. I also struggled with finding a good balance between school, me-time, working, home-life, and social-life…but honestly I’m not sure if anyone ever really finds a perfect balance. I think this will just be a thing I will always have to change and alter throughout my college experience.
With all that said something that I achieved was finishing my first college semester, despite all the challenges from COVID and commuting! I think for me it can be easy to get cut up in all the negatives but not everyone gets to even attend a college (let alone successfully pass a semester). Commuting really allowed me to grow into someone who is more independent and self-aware. I now can more clearly figure out how I’m feeling and why I might be feeling that way (compared to just ignoring it and moving on with my day). Even though no one has liked COVID, being at home has allowed me to be safe and be closer with my family. Another good thing that happened this semester is that my whole family was able to stay safe (no one got it and very fortunately not even COVID scares).
One thing that I do really enjoy about college is I feel like I’m finally making steps towards my career. My high school didn’t really have a lot of environmental topics available, we only had AP environmental science, environmental club, and AP bio if that counts; compared to here at OSU, there are tons of different clubs that are environmentally focused, lots of classes, many professors and alumni doing awesome things, the list goes on. So being here at OSU really makes me happy in that sense.
A goal of mine for next semester is to just push myself harder. Both academically and socially. This semester academically was ok, but for spring I want to try building more interactions with my professors and find a friend in each class (even though all my classes are online again). I think this will help me be more serious about assignments and make they classes feel more personal (instead of just going through the motions and feeling distant). Socially, when classes first started this semester a big goal of mine was to join a couple of clubs. However, that didn’t happen because I decided to focus more on my schoolwork and zoom meetings didn’t sound that appealing to me. For spring semester my new goal is to find at least two clubs and stick with them all semester. Even if I only end up finding one club, I also still want to grow closer with the people I know in SENR (hopefully because it’s spring more people will be willing to meet up outside).