This year challenged me both academically and socially. I started this new chapter of my life in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic which changed how everything worked. Not only was school different but also the social environment was different. At the beginning of the semester I knew I wanted to meet new people, and i’ll admit the first couple of weeks were difficult. Instead of meeting new people, I would tend to hang out and study with people from my high school, which was the complete opposite of my original goal, however as the semester continued I learned to get closer with the people on my floor. Since we were all part of HSS, many of us were taking similar classes so we could ask each other questions, study, and altogether spend time together. Now I spend almost all my time with the people on my dorm floor.
The second challenge I faced was in my academics. For me, high school was a breeze and I went into test not needing to study. I knew that college was going to be different, so I spent hours on hours burning myself out studying for my chemistry exams, and i’ll be honest, it worked for me first semester, but all that effort I put in burnt me out for second semester. So second semester I did not nearly put in the same amount of effort, I would sleep in, only do assignments that were required, and I did fine on test but I would’ve done much better if I were just to do a little bit more. The good thing is that now I know what works for me and I can grow from here on out, for the next three years here at OSU.