Going into my first year at UC, I was admittedly very unprepared, and throughout the year i experienced many things both good and bad. As a result of my lack of preparation, more of them were bad than I would have liked, but I still tried to make the best of them. One of my lower, yet also most important, moments was failing calculus 1 in my first semester. This is what really showed me that I had come to UC unprepared for what awaited me. Sure, I had heard everybody say that college would be harder than high school, but that didn't apply to me, right? "I'm intelligent, I'll be fine" I reassured myself about college. Oh how I was wrong. Even after doing poorly on tests, I would simply tell myself "Oh, i'm sure i'll do better next time", or "I just made stupid mistakes. I'm sure I actually know the material." I simply didn't apply myself, and it came back to haunt me when I found out that I would need to retake calculus 1. To me, finding out that I had failed was an exceptionally formative moment because it revealed something that I, in my self-assured world, had never thought about. It showed me that being intelligent isn't about scraping by because you can (well, some of the time). Its about taking what you already have, and making it even better through applying yourself. A quote that I found recently fits this moment quite nicely; "Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard." Although it was obviously very bad in the moment, I think that failing calculus 1, a fairly innocuous class among all of the ones I will eventually need to take, was actually very good for me in the long term. Failing something like calculus early was the kick in the pants that I needed after coming into college being totally unprepared, and I think in the long term it has actually saved me from failing out of school completely. It has made me more aware of the need for me to apply myself in school so as not to fail, as well as the need for me to apply myself in general so as to not let myself down by wasting my potential.
Luckily, my year was not filled with solely negative experiences. One of my favorite parts about my first year at UC was playing on the club ice hockey team. At this point in my life, I've been playing hockey for over a decade, and I've been skating since I was 3. To me, hockey is an integral part of my life. Strange though it may sound, my life just isn't my life without hockey in it. However, in one of my many fits of infinite wisdom, I had gotten it in my head coming into UC that I didn't want to play hockey in college. Yeah, I know; stupid, right? It seems to be a bit of a recurring theme in this reflection, doesn't it? Fortunately for me, I did manage to dispel these strange thoughts from my head. Upon getting to UC, and seeing their table at the club sports info fair, I realized what a dolt I had been, and decided to play after all. This had a number of effects for me. For one, it was somewhat of a social icebreaker between myself and the rest of UC's campus. It forced me to realize that I would need to break out of my shell, and actually socialize with people in order to get the full experience out of college. Secondly, it helped to give me a motivation to stay in shape. For me, being in shape transfers over to other parts of my life in that it helps me to stay productive and just generally avoid slothfulness. Although the second is lesser than the first in these effects, I think they were both still important in defining my first year at UC. Hockey in particular helped me to develop strong friendships that I know I'll still have in my years to come at UC, as well as make connections outside of CEAS, something that I know can be hard for engineers.
The third major experience that I've had since starting at UC was taking my honors seminar on the achievement gap. In this case, it was not the class itself which made the impact, but rather the implication behind the class as well as the concept of it. Until I actually took an honors seminar, I still wasn't really sure what the honors college at UC was all about, and to be honest, I wasn't entirely sold on continuing in it either. Aside from being a phenomenal class to take, the honors seminar on the achievement gap is what I think really opened the door for me with the honors college, and made it all click together. Rather than just being extra classes, and a fancy title on my diploma, it led me to discover that the honors college is about people. Be they other people at UC, other people in the honors college, people in the community, or even yourself, the honors college gives it's students another level of development and thought to reach for that not everybody at UC gets to experience.
Going into my second year at UC, all thoughts for me are looking upwards. Even though I may not have found it entirely, I feel a lot closer to finding my place at UC than I did coming in at the start of last school year. I've developed better skills for making lasting relationships that I can use in making myself a place at UC. I've developed my academic skills with the goal of continuing to be successful at UC (hopefully the first time around this time). Discovering more about the honors college only adds to these even further, as it can only expand the network of resources available to me. If anything, my biggest goal going forward, and what would also be my advice to myself is to keep looking for my place at UC, because the closer I get, the more I can make UC what I want it to be, and the more that I can give back to UC in return. To me, that's all that I need to be successful. The first steps to this are that I need to continue to explore both people and academic opportunities, because in the words of Wayne Gretzky, "You miss 100% of the shots you never take", and each opportunity is a shot.
Luckily, my year was not filled with solely negative experiences. One of my favorite parts about my first year at UC was playing on the club ice hockey team. At this point in my life, I've been playing hockey for over a decade, and I've been skating since I was 3. To me, hockey is an integral part of my life. Strange though it may sound, my life just isn't my life without hockey in it. However, in one of my many fits of infinite wisdom, I had gotten it in my head coming into UC that I didn't want to play hockey in college. Yeah, I know; stupid, right? It seems to be a bit of a recurring theme in this reflection, doesn't it? Fortunately for me, I did manage to dispel these strange thoughts from my head. Upon getting to UC, and seeing their table at the club sports info fair, I realized what a dolt I had been, and decided to play after all. This had a number of effects for me. For one, it was somewhat of a social icebreaker between myself and the rest of UC's campus. It forced me to realize that I would need to break out of my shell, and actually socialize with people in order to get the full experience out of college. Secondly, it helped to give me a motivation to stay in shape. For me, being in shape transfers over to other parts of my life in that it helps me to stay productive and just generally avoid slothfulness. Although the second is lesser than the first in these effects, I think they were both still important in defining my first year at UC. Hockey in particular helped me to develop strong friendships that I know I'll still have in my years to come at UC, as well as make connections outside of CEAS, something that I know can be hard for engineers.
The third major experience that I've had since starting at UC was taking my honors seminar on the achievement gap. In this case, it was not the class itself which made the impact, but rather the implication behind the class as well as the concept of it. Until I actually took an honors seminar, I still wasn't really sure what the honors college at UC was all about, and to be honest, I wasn't entirely sold on continuing in it either. Aside from being a phenomenal class to take, the honors seminar on the achievement gap is what I think really opened the door for me with the honors college, and made it all click together. Rather than just being extra classes, and a fancy title on my diploma, it led me to discover that the honors college is about people. Be they other people at UC, other people in the honors college, people in the community, or even yourself, the honors college gives it's students another level of development and thought to reach for that not everybody at UC gets to experience.
Going into my second year at UC, all thoughts for me are looking upwards. Even though I may not have found it entirely, I feel a lot closer to finding my place at UC than I did coming in at the start of last school year. I've developed better skills for making lasting relationships that I can use in making myself a place at UC. I've developed my academic skills with the goal of continuing to be successful at UC (hopefully the first time around this time). Discovering more about the honors college only adds to these even further, as it can only expand the network of resources available to me. If anything, my biggest goal going forward, and what would also be my advice to myself is to keep looking for my place at UC, because the closer I get, the more I can make UC what I want it to be, and the more that I can give back to UC in return. To me, that's all that I need to be successful. The first steps to this are that I need to continue to explore both people and academic opportunities, because in the words of Wayne Gretzky, "You miss 100% of the shots you never take", and each opportunity is a shot.