1st Semester Reflection

Well, where do I begin?

I came to OSU thinking that it would be the most incredible experience of my life. I was worried that my homesickness would get in the way of me having fun. It ended up not, so that is good! The first day of class I had an 8am… Never ever doing that again! My typical routine was get up go to class, come home take a nap, and then watch Netflix and do my homework. Parents weekend came around and my parents didn’t show up. They do live in Wisconsin… but I was hoping they would try to make the trip. So that weekend was kind of bad, I was missing my family and everywhere on campus I went, students were with their families. Not even two weeks later, I got the news that my grandpa had passed away. My family was in Wisconsin and the rest of my family lives in Toledo, I was all alone when I got the news and remained alone until days later when my dad picked me up to go to my grandma’s house. That was a pretty tough time and ruined the mood of college being awesome. It just sucked that I got to see my family due to a funeral rather than them voluntarily seeing me. After that I had my midterms, which I didn’t do too hot on. This was the first time I have ever had test anxiety! So that was also awful. The test anxiety kept getting worse and I am still currently trying to figure it out!

I know that whole paragraph made me sound like a Debby Downer… but a lot of really good things happened! I made really great friends who were there for me through everything I have been through. My boyfriend and I made it in a long distance relationship for a whole semester and defied those odds! (Our 1 year anniversary is coming up soon!) I was able to get over being homesick… which is really awesome for me! It used to be a huge burden. I got to know the feeling of being independent! I have been able to immerse myself in different cultures, see different types of art, and experience Columbus with my friends. And a lot more good things happened.

In conclusion to this reflection. I would say my first semester of college was not at all how I imagined it. Despite the bad things that happened to me, I have made some life-long friends and unforgettable memories. The hardest semester is over, and I’m excited for the road to come!

Humans of OSU

Sangeetha Naidu

Conneticut, USA

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Why did you come to OSU?

“I didn’t want to stay in my state. I wanted to explore and have my own adventures. Being independent from my family and my old life, I wanted to make something of myself. By myself.“

About Me

My name is Avery Preston!

I am from Hartland, WI which is a small town 40 minutes west of Milwaukee. I am majoring in molecular genetics. During my time at OSU I am planning on getting into undergraduate research. Part of the reason why I am majoring in molecular genetics is because that is the field I am most interested in researching. Along with research, I am hoping that through my experiences at OSU, I will be able to become a well rounded student and person. My goal is to be accepted into medical school and I believe OSU can help me prepare and be qualified to get into any medical school I want.

In high school I played softball. I have learned so much about teamwork and perseverance from my time playing softball. During my junior year, I was the starting shortstop of my high school team; however, I was not performing to the standards I had been known to perform too. This caused my coaches to pull me from the line-up. Communication wasn’t strong, so I wasn’t exactly sure why I had been pulled out nor what I could do to improve, so I could get back my spot. This hurt me and confused me. I was very upset, I was crying after practices and games, and I was so frustrated that I didn’t want to show up to anything. After a few weeks of this I decided to talk to my coach to help me understand what I had done wrong and how I could improve myself. His advice to me was that I needed to just play in games to work through my rough patch. This piece of advice frustrated me more because my coaches weren’t giving me the opportunity to play in any games. This drove me to practice harder, put more work into my mechanics and fundamentals, and take time outside of practice to develop as a player. My coaches noticed this and put me in during post-season as the third baseman. The following year I came back ready to play and be a leader on the time. I ended up being the starting shortstop with leading BA and holding records in almost every offensive category in my school as well as having the leading on base percentage and tying for first in home runs per season. This awful experience pushed me to my max mentally and emotionally; however, I was able to work through all of that and come out stronger and better.

Artifacts

My First Week at OSU:

My first week was actually really fun! Surprisingly enough, I haven’t been homesick yet. I thought it was going to be really hard to transition from being at home with my family of six to being all alone here. Thankfully, I have made so many friends, and I feel comfortable around these people which is rare for me. I really think that these relationships I have formed will help me with such a huge campus!

My classes have honestly been pretty boring. I was hoping that we would start off fast paced right off the bat, but it really wasn’t. I am hoping that they will start to get interesting soon. My favorite class is my introduction to research taught by the molecular genetics department. It’s really nice to be able to take a class that I am already super interested in.

I say week 1 was a success!

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Career

[“Career” is where you can collect information about your experiences and skills that will apply to your future career.  Like your resume, this is information that will evolve over time and should be continually updated.   For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

G.O.A.L.S.

[ “G.O.A.L.S.” is a place where students write about how their planned, current, and future activities may fit into the Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S.: Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement. For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.

Global Awareness: Students cultivate and develop their appreciation for diversity and each individual’s unique differences. For example, consider course work, study abroad, involvement in cultural organizations or activities, etc .
Original Inquiry: Honors & Scholars students understand the research process by engaging in experiences ranging from in-class scholarly endeavors to creative inquiry projects to independent experiences with top researchers across campus and in the global community. For example, consider research, creative productions or performances, advanced course work, etc.
Academic Enrichment: Honors & Scholars students pursue academic excellence through rigorous curricular experiences beyond the university norm both in and out of the classroom.
Leadership Development: Honors & Scholars students develop leadership skills that can be demonstrated in the classroom, in the community, in their co-curricular activities, and in their future roles in society.
Service Engagement: Honors & Scholars students commit to service to the community.]

Year in Review

[ “Year in Review”  is where you should reflect on the past year and show how you have evolved as a person and as a student.  You may want to focus on your growth in a particular area (as a leader, scholar, researcher, etc.) or you may want to talk about your overall experience over the past year.  For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]