Year in Review

Ready for Sophomore Summer

After struggling to find my academic way, I finally hit my stride. My second year on campus was challenging yet I felt as though I had everything under control. I pushed myself to stay on top of things and be as organized as possible. I had a plan and goal coming onto campus in August and I stuck to it!

Exploring Columbus ~

  • Fun Things Around Town
    • The Columbus Zoo Lights at Christmas are perfect to get you in the holiday spirit. Plus, Scholars usually makes a trip out of it, which means you get to go for a discounted price!
  • FOOD!!! – students have to eat right!?!
    • The North Market is possibly my favorite place to go on the weekends to grab a bite to eat. It’s inviting atmosphere and hustle and bustle should not be missed! Bonus: you can get there on the bus easily with your BuckID

Involvement Highlights ~

  • Experience Ohio State for the Day – Host
    • I wish I had know that you can tour campus and attend classes with actual college students when I was looking into OSU. Through EOFD, I tour perspective students and take them to class with me. They are able to see what actual life is like as a student and have the chance to interact with professors and ask any questions about being me!
  • Pen Pals
    • When school was about a week in, I received an email that I was appointed to be part of the Logistics Committee for a wonderful club here on campus! Pen Pals connects local elementary aged students with an OSU student with hopes of encouraging young children to pursue higher education. Every other week college students write to their pen pals from a local low income school and the Logistics Committee goes through every journal and ensures each elementary aged student gets a response. The club also hosts these elementary students and gives them a chance to come onto campus and meet the students they have been talking to throughout the year.

Summer Plans ~

  • Working – yuck!
    • I have a job working at the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Veterinary Medicine in their Referral Center for Animal Models! I am beyond excited to have this opportunity and can’t wait to tell you all about it once summer ends!

Summer 2017 and Upcoming Year!

The college cliche is that summer goes by way to fast. I honestly don’t agree. This summer I felt I had more than enough time to be home, see friends, have a job, travel, and do everything I wanted. By the end of July, the few weeks left at home could not move fast enough! Columbus, I was ready to come back.

I was able to spend time with my local equine vet and ride along with her during the day. It never ceases to amaze me when we would walk into a barn and preform something like an enucleation on a horse standing up in its stall. An eye removal on a human would be in the most sterile surgical suite and they would be under anesthesia. With veterinary medicine, field surgeries are necessary. Vets do not have the luxuries that medical doctors often experience and the quick pace and intensity of the field draws me to vet-med even more! Keeping a journal of my time spend with vets over the summer was one of the smartest things I could have done. It is so important to look back at it and connect everything I saw and assisted with to the things I am learning in class.

As summer concluded, I thought about my freshman year and what changes I wanted to make going forward. I thought about my performance in class (leaving room for improvement for sure!) and my involvement in extracurriculars. As a sophomore, you know how campus works and I think that leaves more room for you to be an individual on campus. Last year I struggled to maintain my point of view and this year I want to pursue clubs and events that I feel strongly about no matter the opinion of those around me. Sophomore year I want to be true to myself and show OSU who I really am.

Year One: Complete

Second semester could not have been more different from the first. This year, I was reminded of how quickly things can change. I am not someone who deals with change very well, but at least I know that. Right? The point is if you had asked me if I thought I would have a completely different set of friends or if I would have added a minor in Biomedical Engineering, I would say no. But those things are true. I really don’t speak to my roommates or original friends and I have contemplated changing my major but, settled for adding a minor. Things have certainly not gone as planned but, that’s life.

I have new friends which is good! I love my friends, but I no longer have these wild plans to live with them junior and senior year or crazy plans to road-trip across the country to visit them like I once had. Although, I think that is a good thing. Before, my friendships were not based in reality; rather, they were based in crazy dreams with no real goal or endpoint. I had high school relationships and I was in college. Second semester showed me that I wanted to be grown up and be more responsible. I want to surround myself with motivated, serious people, who also know how to have fun because we are in college and not an old folks home for goodness sake.

I added a minor! So that’s fun! I really thought about switching my major this semester but, ultimately it didn’t make sense. I still want to go to graduate school for veterinary medicine and would be an undergrad for what seemed like forever if I tried to switch majors and get all my pre-requisites for vet school. Thus, I settled for a minor in Biomedical Engineering! I am beyond excited and really want to look into getting involved in research in the fall, once back in Columbus.

Overall college has been everything I expected and more I could have never imagined. College really is a place where you learn who you are. I have realized what I want out of the relationships I form and what I want academically and that grade forgiveness is your friend and you should NOT be ashamed to use it. I think Ohio State has more to offer than I ever thought and I have to go out and grab those opportunities by the horns because they aren’t always going to be there.

Semester in Review

Coming to campus in the fall was nothing less than intimidating. I was nervous about making friends, studying, and everything in between.  The first semester here on campus exceeded my expectations; I learned far beyond what I could have imagined. I have developed close relationships to people in a few short months that rival those I have forged for years. Academically, I have had my fair share of triumphs and defeats. College is not the time to learn what is a good study habit and what is not. I have been to the library until odd hours of the night… or morning. I have been to office hours and not to class. I have learned that may not be the best strategy, but a strategy none the less. I have learned that there are people in my corner and people who care. This semester is quickly coming to a close. Exams are peaking there heads around the corner and stress levels are rising, but I would not want to trade it for anything.

Thus far, college has been everything I could have hoped for and more. I cannot wait for what next semester holds and the next three years!