Well. That was fast.
I went from tearing up as my parents left me in this strange world on move in day to crying not once, not twice, and not three but FOUR TIMES on the day they came to take me back home. (I would highly discourage any student from reading the letter your parents wrote to you for the first day of school on the day that you are leaving that school for 3 and a half months). Oh, how the tables have turned.
First semester was about getting my feet wet. I was timid, anxious, friendly, frazzled, and unsure. Not that in my second semester I underwent some huge transformation where I was now ready to take on the world, but I had definitely gained confidence. I found good people, worked hard for good grades, took time to go to High Street for good food, got involved in good organizations – I found my foothold. I continued my four-year journey of making a school of 40,000 undergrads just a bit smaller. I was able to do this through my academics, my involvement, and my social life.
This year, I took several challenging classes under the Pre-Nursing major. First semester, I grappled with Chemistry and Biology. In the second semester, I struggled through Anatomy and Physiology. Despite the level of difficult of these classes, I was able to achieve success due to the study skills I was taught in high school, the motivation and determination I had to do well, and the people in my classes who I was able to study with throughout the year. While success in school was important to me, I also wanted to focus on other aspects of being a member of the Ohio State community, such as getting involved.
During the spring, I decided, somewhat against my own will, to participate in formal recruitment (which is basically just a fancy phrase for talking to girls for 12 hours a day to see which sorority you fit best in). After a total of two weekends of over 36 hours of small talk, I received a bid from Kappa Delta at OSU. While wary of Greek life at first, I have found that it has already provided me with connections, as the volunteer coordinator at the hospital I am volunteering at over the summer is also a KD, and some great friends (the kind that dragged me out of the library when I was in there too long and who also made sure I got some rest before those 8 am Physiology exams on Friday). Both the sorority and academics, believe it or not, have contributed to my social life.
The whole social piece of college, like I mentioned in a previous reflection, was the last part of college to fall into place for me. However, this semester, with the help of a social sorority, a dorm without air conditioning, and hard classes, which always manage to bring people together, I was able to succeed socially this semester. Unfortunately, this led to some tear-jerking goodbyes, but it was worth it nonetheless.
Over the course of the first year, a lot has changed. I can do my own laundry, I am slightly more comfortable talking on the phone, I can confidently eat lunch by myself, I can survive an 8 am, I can make small talk for 12 hours in a row, I can stand for an entire football game, and I can bear dining hall food. These are a few of the accomplishments I have made in my first year, and I don’t plan to stop making them anytime soon. College goes quick, so I’ll have to pack as much punch into the next few semesters as I did in the first year. I’m sure at the end of these four (give or take a couple) years I’ll be saying the same thing.
Well. That was fast.