As a first year college student, I have experienced many changes in my life during this first semester. One of the biggest differences in my life is simply the way I think of myself in academics. Having achieved perfect grades in high school without much struggle, I came to OSU terribly unprepared for all the humbling experiences that I have now gone through since the beginning of this semester. For the first time, I failed to understand my classes and was overwhelmed by the notion that I was falling behind my classmates. However, while these experiences of failure were enough to unsettle me, they were not what affected me the most. These experiences were gradually overcome as I scrambled to adjust my studying habits and reset my priorities. What shamed me the most was how shocked I was upon realizing that I was not the most intelligent person in my classes. I realized how I had lived such a sheltered life and, though I had hardly showed my pride outwardly, how the lack of experiences of failure had made me arrogant in my thoughts. When I think about all those who are smarter than me and all those who will be smarter than me, the fact that others have had these humble realizations before I did pains me more than the fact that smarter people do and will exist.
Nevertheless, I am thankful for these experiences; I have learned to accept failures and hardship and use them to reflect upon myself. I know that during the rest of my undergraduate experience (and my entire life), I will continue to encounter such humbling experiences, and I am determined not to let them be sources of discouragement but rather motivation so that I may always endeavor to better myself.