Wow, it has only been 8 weeks and I am making so many friendships through ENR that I can’t remember all of their names. One particular name I will not be able to forget is Julia. While she is not my assigned mentor, I think she has taken over that role, and truly put her kindness to good use. While on the camping trip, I hung my hammock close to her tent so I was forced to get to know her. On the first night we ended up talking about our lives with each other and it was very nice to get to know someone on a meaningful level like that. I decided to conduct my peer mentor meeting with her, because she has quickly become someone whose opinion I value.
The first question I asked Julia was what her major is and how she decided on her major. She told me that her major is Biology and she is in the pre med track. She picked this because she loves to help people, and really wants to make other lives’ better. I think I can use the same logic she did when deciding my major. I enjoy dealing with numbers and solving problems, so I might pick something in the mathematics area.
I later asked Julia how I can make the most out of ENR. She told me that I should go to as many events as I can, and get to know as many people as possible. I think this is a very good idea, and I have partly been doing it. I go to all the events that I can fit into my busy schedule, but there are still some that I must miss. Maybe if I work on my time management skills a little more I can make room for more fun activities. I also am not very into talking to new people; however, ENR is making that easier as I am going to have to meet them eventually so I may as well build a relationship with them as soon as I can.
Later in the conversation we began talking about involvement. This was a short section of the chat as she is only involved in ENR. I think I will learn by doing in the case of involvement. I have become involved in the water polo team here, and ENR, and they have really made making new friends easier.
Julia plans on going to medical school after graduation. She knows that this will be hard, but I think we both know she can do it. Her back up plan is to be a physician’s assistant. I noticed that her back up plan was closely related to her first choice. I think this is a good idea because many classes and skills will transfer over. I will have to think about this when deciding my own major and back up plan.
The last thing I asked Julia was any advice she wished she was told freshman year. She told me that without question it is to not be afraid of failure. She told me that everyone fails at something or messes up at some point in their life. And it is going to happen at least once during your freshman year. Whether it is a grade, relationship, or just losing your phone; you will fail in some way. It doesn’t matter what we do, but how we hold ourselves after it happens. I am going to try to think about this and not be afraid of failing. I think that if I do poorly on one test, I can make up for it with my other ones. Failure is not the end of the world, and that is something I will always keep in mind.
Here is a picture of Julia and I soft smiling: 
