I can imagine that the first semester of college is intimidating for everyone, let alone being an out-of-state student who is attending one of the largest universities in the world. Needless to say, coming to Ohio and to The Ohio State University has exceeded many of my expectations both academically and socially. I had always heard from adults and recently graduated twenty somethings that “college is the best four years of your life.” With this in mind, I have really tried to go outside my comfort zone my first semester here. There is so much to experience here at OSU academically and socially. Not only are football games super fun, but I have been to a couple of lectures by esteemed faculty that have really stimulated my thinking. I know that there are all of these opportunities here at OSU that other students at smaller universities will never experience, so I am trying to relish in the opportunities that have already been given to me at this university. Academically, I think I have done a good job in my classes. College classes go by at a crazy clip so I am pretty proud of how I have handled the work load and studying required to do well in these classes. This is not to say that I haven’t been confused or stressed out this semester, but now I know that I can rely on my new friends or the myriad of assistance that is given to students at the Yunkin Success Center and other places. There is still so much that I hope to experience and take part in at my time here at OSU, but I think this semester has put me on a path for success for my next three and a half years. I have been blessed with strong friendships, academically stimulating classes, and support from back at home in New Hampshire that has helped me make OSU not only my home-away-from-home, but the school that I am proud to be a part. I can only hope that this first semester is a sign for the positive experience I will have as I continue on at this university and as a buckeye.

The lesson in strengths was both beneficial, yet a bit disheartening as well. Four out of my top strengths were in the strategic thinking category, and one was in the executing category. While I think these strengths: context, input, intellection, learner, and responsibility do encompass different highlights of my character, the way in which the strengths were discussed discouraged me to pursue areas in which I was weaker.  I completely understand the idea of positive psychology in trying to enhance what you’re good at, but I do not agree that we should, as the speaker said, disregard our weaknesses. This makes no sense. This thinking discourages initiative in students and should thus this should not be taught to forget about them. Weaknesses should be built upon using your strengths. Why get better at something that you already thrive in? It makes much more sense to me to use your strengths to enhance your weaknesses. With this in mind, I also don’t think that I am only defined by my top five strengths. For example, in high school I was my class president for all four years. Based on my strengths however, I would not be good at this leadership role because I did not place in any strengths in the influencing or the relationship building categories. While knowing my strengths are important, I do not believe that they should be the defining characteristics of who I am as a student.

“My happiest moment was in my junior year we were doing the musical production Legally Blond. I had wanted to pursue musical theater at this point so I was obviously going for a large role. I put all my time and effort into auditioning for the role of Paulette. I remember the cast list going up and being really nervous and walking over to it and just scanning down it and seeing that I got Paulette, and I just immediately started crying like tears of joy. I know it sounds really lame, but that was definately my happiest moment.”

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