Wow. 15 weeks–gone in a flash; It would seem that my first semester at OSU is slowly coming to a close–but ironically, it went by a lot faster than I thought it would have. Going into college, a completely new environment with a whole new dynamic of people, one of my main fears was not being able to find a group of people that I would fit in with, so within the first couple of weeks, I tried making a good first impression of myself on others, often through music and my sense of humor. While it was a bit harder to connect people in my classes, I ended up finding a stable and positive group of friends to surround myself with, who happen to live in Baker West with me–all of whom, to my pleasant surprise, are in Arts Scholars as well.
However, aside from fears in the social aspects, I did come in to college with fears in the academic department, as I have heard many rumors surrounding the increase in difficulty from high school to college. To be specific, I heard about the difference in workload and the pace at which information is crammed into a student in a specific amount of time. While I did have some academic difficulties during this semester, it felt like the difficulty was highly exaggerated–but that’s likely due to the fact that I had quite a bit of background knowledge on most of my classes coming in from high school. So, in order to combat the increasing difficulty in classes that is inevitably going to come as time goes on, I’m probably going to try and adopt healthier study habits–like having a consistent sleep schedule, and scheduling time dedicated to studying–as well as making connections with other classmates, to provide opportunities to study as a group, allowing ourselves to learn from each other. In addition, I’ll probably take advantage of the resources available to me at Ohio State, like tutoring sessions, office hours, and talking to TA’s.
Moving on, my experience with the Arts Scholars has been enlightening, exciting, humbling, and very positive. Through Arts Scholars, I was introduced to an entire plethora of fine arts, located right here in Columbus, of which I wouldn’t have been aware of existing in the first place. Not only that, but I’ve met a ton of fantastic people in Arts Scholars with great personalities, with enlightening and new ideas, with skills that show me I still have much to learn about the arts. Moving forward, I’d like to take the chance and introduce myself to new forms of art through the opportunities presented through Arts Scholars and getting involved in intellectual discussions about the concepts of art itself collaborations with other people in the program. I would also like to get more involved with my Arts Scholars family, hopefully showing up to family nights with all of us together. Overall, I would like to enrich my college experience by involving myself more with Arts Scholars and the opportunities it presents.