Semester in Review: Autumn 2015

Hello, everyone!

So the “Year in Review” section is supposed to be where I reflect on my past year and how I have evolved and grown as a person and student as well as my overall experience. However, college is too quick-moving to try and fit a whole year into one post, so I have decided to do “Semesters in Review”! (I will also be including summers, even if I am not at that time enrolled in any courses.)

First semester in college… It doesn’t always have to go exactly as planned, right?

Looking back on this semester, a lot of cool things happened. To just a name a few of said “cool” things… first Ohio State Football Game (let’s start with the most important things, here), first experiences in bars, first time living away from home, first college classes, first time out of the country, first time feeling genuinely challenged by my academics, and first time being fully able to make my own decisions.

Looking back on this semester, a lot of “not so cool” things happened, too. To a name a few of these… first time not having a 4.0 GPA, first time gaining any significant amount of weight, first time not getting along with the people I lived with, first failed assignments and exams, first time needing a 24-hour library (okay, the nerd in me still thinks that’s pretty cool!), and first time having to take full responsibility of the consequences of my decisions.

I started the semester with a 19 credit hour course load. “Oh yeah, I’ll be fine!”

Having never taken any advanced science classes, I decided that it would be a great idea to take the accelerated version of the first level Chemistry. “Oh yeah, I’ll be fine!”

I didn’t think my eating habits were that bad. I didn’t think I needed to work out, because I didn’t need to in high school and I was walking a lot on campus. “Oh yeah, I’ll be fine!”

I thought that requesting completely random roommates was the best idea ever and we would all love each other and be the best friends ever. “Oh yeah, I’ll be fine!”

I thought that I could prepare my lab notebook and write my lab report from the previous week all in one hour before this week’s lab, because, you know, I could get away with that stuff in high school. “Oh yeah, I’ll be fine!”

PSA for incoming first semester freshman: you will not be fine.

Listen to what you parents and advisors and older peers are telling you; listen to them when they say to take your first semester slow, to not take Chemistry lightly, to make sure that you give yourself enough time to work out, etc. Just listen! For small town girls like myself who never really found high school challenging, the transition to a big university and city like OSU and Columbus can definitely be a less than smooth one.

However, what is great about change and challenge is that they almost always yield growth, knowledge, and maturity. Yes, I may have had seven different roommates my first semester. Yes, I may have dropped down to 14 credit hours by the end of the semester. Yes, I may have not paid enough attention to my own personal health and well-being. However, it is because of my mistakes, immaturity, and lack of preparedness that I now know what I need to focus on and spend time on. I learned more from my mistakes my first semester in college than I think I have in the rest of my entire life combined. College teaches you about other people, about the world, but also about yourself.

Now, for the good stuff.

I took a Bar-B-Que Science class–which happens to be part of my major curriculum–and I can now confidently say I could probably make just about any meal you could want on a grill. I took College Algebra and I realized that I actually did learn a lot from my high school classes. I took a Chemistry class and I realized that even though I fancied myself an artistic, English-oriented kind of person, that I am perfectly capable of challenging myself and being successful in hard science courses like Chemistry. I took an English First Year Composition Honors Course and wrote the best research paper I have written to date, and I also began learning how to look at the world in different ways. I took my Survey courses and learned everything I needed to know about being an OSU student, a student in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, an Honors student, a student in the Department of Animal Sciences, and a Meat Science major. I also took a Group Studies course that prepared me for the study abroad program I would be going on at the end of the semester to Nicaragua.

Nicaragua – why are you going there?

I can’t tell you how many times I got asked that question, especially by the people from back home! It is kind of a funny thing to think about at first, that it’s my first time going out of country and that I was going to Nicaragua. After I began to explain to people, though, it began making sense. Nicaragua is the safest country in Central America, which makes it a good location for first year college students that are probably getting at least some of their trip funded by their families. Nicaragua is also the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere (next to only Haiti), which makes it an opportunity for us, as American college students, to see an unfamiliar culture, and also makes it an opportunity for us as agriculture majors. Everyone that went on the program to Nicaragua had to be a freshman major in the College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Sciences, and Nicaragua was a valuable experience for all of us because it allowed us to see the way agriculture is in the undeveloped world and outside of the US.

I have presented several times on my trip to Nicaragua, and I think that the best way to explain it is to say that it really was the grand finale in my growing up process which was my first semester of college. So far in Columbus, I had learned about how to best study, how to motivate and take care of myself, how to manage my time, how to get to my classes in shortest amount of time, how to live on my own, how to be goal-oriented and focused on my future, and how to push myself to do better and work harder when life pushes back a little. The amount I “grew up” in that first semester of college while being in Columbus was really significant, however, Nicaragua really allowed the process to complete. It was my first time flying without my parents and my first time out of country. At first, I was nervous and I was to the point where I felt like I didn’t even want to go anymore. As soon as the first plane got up in the air though, I felt this feeling of independence and absolute freedom like I had never felt before. The whole trip was like that for me–exhilarating, eye-opening, and freeing. I learned what kind of leader I am, what kind of traveler I am, what kind of role that I could personally have in global agriculture. I learned about the Nicaraguan culture, I really improved my Spanish-speaking skills, and I learned what it means to be a citizen of the world. I feel powerful, strong, and able after this trip–and after this semester in general. I feel like I have a greater appreciation for people, where they come from, and what makes them who they are. I feel that I am beginning to understand the amazing things that I can push myself to do, and how powerful uncomfortable situations truly are for me.

I always knew that I was the kind of person who did best by purposely putting myself in uncomfortable situations, by purposely making myself “suck it up” and “push through.” These new, unfamiliar situations bring out the best in me, and, at the end of the day, make me a better person overall. Whether it be taking me from a high school that had 280 people total and putting me in a college that has over 45,000 undergraduates… or taking from a hometown that was pretty mono-cultural and placing me in a hugely diverse city and then totally different country… or taking me from an academic experience that was never particularly challenging and putting me in courses that challenged me nearly everyday… or taking me away from the house and people I’ve lived with my whole life and putting me in a place I’ve never been with people I don’t know… or putting me in a circle of Nicaraguan farmers who only speak Spanish and want to know a specific answer as to what to do for their sick livestock… I have proven to myself time and time again that these are the situations that I thrive in, the situations that make me better.

I finished this semester with 3.8 GPA overall and 4.0 major GPA. I finished this semester with some amazing, brilliant, hilarious friends. I finished this semester with a renewed motivation and set of goals for myself. I finished this semester with international experience that very significantly impacted me and made me better. I finished this semester as a member of several clubs, having observed several labs, having met all kinds of people, having gone to all kinds of events, and having gained many new experiences. Most importantly, though, I finished my first semester of college with a better sense of self, with a greater desire to push, better, and challenge myself, and with the confidence to now say and say accurately, “Oh yeah, I’ll be fine!”