It’s hard to believe my first year as a college student is over! The transition from high school to college has been something I never could have planned for. I’ve made some really great new friends this year, and I’m glad I have a support system to help me get through finals week, and all of the courses I’ve taken over the past year. Moreover, despite the difficult classes, they’ve all taught me important things. In particular, my fundamentals of engineering class, especially the second-semester of it, has allowed me to truly understand and practice a lot of engineering principles. For example, I was assigned a group of three other peers to work with throughout the entire semester. Together, we identified a problem and designed and printed a prototype that would solve this problem. Throughout this project, we not only learned important engineering entrepreneurial skills, but were also granted access to different types of technology such as SolidWorks and 3D printers. As a result the skills I’ve learned in this class has been impactful, especially since it relates so much to my major. In addition, I feel like I’ve entered my major almost blindly, since engineering is such a broad field, thus this class has helped solidify my career path.
Conversely, outside of the classroom, I’ve acquired a lot of new skills and have gained a lot of experiences. In particular, I’ve learned how to skateboard and how to play softball. Moreover, when the weather is nice, I like to spend time outside of my dorm, therefore I’ve learned a lot of outdoor activities. In addition, I think having an outlet for stress and anxiety that result in classes is important. One thing I’ve learned about myself is that I need a creative outlet from all of my straight science and math and engineering courses. As a result, I decided to join the community orchestra, which has really helped me balance out the STEM major courses with my need for some creativity. In addition, seeing sunlight and being outdoors has also given me a mental break from my schoolwork. I think being inside, especially Morrill’s dark rooms, filled with artificial light added to the anxiety that I feel from my schoolwork, thus the fresh air and light I see when I step outside is refreshing and helps to take some stress off of my shoulders.
In addition, one of my favorite memories from the past year was traveling to CIncinnati with my roommates. In the middle of fall semester, my roommates and I went to Cincinnati, and stayed at my roommates house. In addition, we planned out some events to do while we were down there, but there were also spontaneous aspects to the trip, which was really fun. In addition, most of us had finished the majority of our homework, thus we didn’t have to stress about finishing all of our homework in between activities. As a result, the trip was mostly stress-free and very enjoyable, which also makes me look forward to trips like these next year. I’m excited to hopefully have less strict COVID-19 guidelines so that I can get to know people better, as well as the ability to go more places and do more things throughout the semester. I enjoy going out every once in a while to go bowling or roller skating, which is not only enjoyable because I’m with my friends, but it also helps me take my mind off of my stressful school work.