Survey: Discussion Question #4

One of the biggest aspects of my life that has changed after arriving at college is my social life. Back in high school, I would pretty much be interacting with people for about 8 hours–or however many hours school and extracurriculars happened to take up–and then the rest of the day would be isolated, sitting in my room and doing homework. However, in college, the whole notion of living an isolated life is turned upside down as we are immediately placed in dorm systems with other people. In my dorm, I am placed in a situation in which I must interact with my roommates closely and break out of my shell. I felt like that was a very good thing for me. Another thing I’ve noticed was that now that I think back on it, back in Mentor, OH, where I am from, I interacted with the same sorts of people. Like-minded individuals, living in the same area as me, with the same views, ideas, goals, aspirations, and interests. However, I quickly realized that college is absolutely different. I immediately got exposed to so many different kinds of people of all kinds of backgrounds, with all sorts of goals, ideas, and aspirations. As significant or minuscule those interactions may have been, they all affected me and changed me to some degree. However, I feel that this social exposure is still not complete. In fact, I believe it is just starting. I believe that throughout these four years of my undergraduate experience, I will continue expanding my social horizons and developing through others.