The most important thing I learned in my first year at Ohio State is how much I love it there. I was wary at first; I was unsure how to feel about being away from home and making all new friends. By the weeks before spring break, I loved OSU more than I ever had and I was closer than ever with my new friends. I have always loved learning and school, and my college classes were no different. As an English major, my first college literature class was an amazing experience for me. It was just a survey class, but it really made me certain that I was in the right major. In this class, I learned how much I love literature, even when it isn’t fast-paced, hard-to-put-down thriller novels. Reading and deciphering T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land impacted me because it was the first piece of really difficult literature that I’d ever read. I learned a lot about difficult works and how to understand them. I think that reading this piece reassured me that I was in the right place. As I’ve been away from home, I learned a lot about friendship. I grew apart from many of the friends I had in high school, and found that I miss my college friends more than I’ve missed my high school friends. I learned what real friendship is and I found a community of best friends through ENR Scholars. As a person, I became more independent and confident. I became independent from my parents since I wasn’t living with them, and I noticed this the most when it came to eating meals. My mom wasn’t there to make dinner or have me or my siblings go pick up dinner; I had to order something or go get something myself when I was hungry. I am in a literature class this semester, Methods for Studying Literature, which has about 15 people in it. Before shifting to online instruction, we had a lot of discussions and class contributions. I was nervous and intimidated at first because I didn’t want to sound dumb, but the more I contributed and participated in discussions, the more confident I felt. I learned to speak up and share my ideas because my contributions are meaningful and I shouldn’t be afraid of sounding dumb. My favorite memories from this year are hanging out in the common room with my suitemates and people from the floor. We had a lot of movie nights that were really fun. We had a fish in our suite, and soon before spring break, the fish jumped out of the bowl and passed away. Our whole suite made a little paper casket for the fish and walked down to the river, playing Taps on a speaker, and gave it a viking funeral. Although it was sad that the fish died, this is one of my favorite memories because we were all together as a suite for, unfortunately and unexpectedly, the last time. Next year, I look forward to living with my same roommate again and living on the same floor as some of my other friends from Scholars. I also look forward to the classes I’m taking next year, one of which is a true crime literature class. I look forward to being back on campus and seeing all of my friends again.