End-of-Year Musings
So I've been done with school for the past couple days (had my one in-class final last Friday and then submitted my last final paper on Sunday), just chilling in the apartment waiting around for graduation ceremonies like Lavender Grad and Multicultural Grad in a couple days. Since my last post was basically a sum of the semester, I thought maybe I'd put together a collection of reflections on the past year.
Significant things that happened:
I changed my major. I didn't expect to since I was so confident at the start of college about the program I had chosen, but I'm really glad I did because I'm excited for my classes and I enjoy doing my homework and I'm more super excited about history than maybe I had realized. And I'd rather have a history-related job than a job as an ambassador or something (which is what people generally tend to guess at when you tell them you're majoring in International Studies) or at an embassy or NGO. When I first changed I had a professor tell me something along the lines of "Well, that's good because college is about finding your passion" and I thought it was sort of cheesy because I felt like it was more about the classes sounding more interesting than ~finding my passion~ but I feel like I've gotten more passionate about history over the past semester. Also I actually sort of enjoy doing historical research papers, so that's a plus.
I've also gotten more passionate about French this semester, maybe due to taking a really interesting upper division French course. Which brings me to my next point: I changed my mind about study abroad. Several times, actually. I started the year thinking that I would be spending all of next year in Ireland. I'm ending the year thinking that I'll be spending next spring in Paris. In between, I thought I would spend next spring in Italy. I've started drifting away from that mostly because I've been getting excited about French again, honestly, and I really want the opportunity to get immersed and really improve my French. Besides, I'm considering doing the summer language study program in Italy next summer, if the cost isn't a problem. I think that would really be better at teaching me some Italian at a faster pace, which is more what I want. I'm still hesitant to tell people "Yes, I'm going to study in France next spring" because I feel guilty about changing my mind so much and I'm me and I don't like committing to things in case I change my mind, but it's getting to a point where I need to be committed. Like by next semester when I start cross-cultural training.
I got into a relationship. After the confession of mutual appreciation last spring (memorably, in the rain on a small ferris wheel), we finally stopped dallying around and made it official in early November I think. Which makes it almost six months, which is bizarre. The thought had occurred to me that I might be more willing to start a relationship once I was in college, with a larger pool of people to choose from than at my tiny high school and away from my parents' nosy questions (they're sort of weird about relationship stuff- I haven't told them but it's not that unusual because my sister only told them about like 2 of her 6 or so boyfriends so I'm not the only one). And I had several people ask me out last year and it was weird every time because I sort of never expect that someone will be romantically interested in me. Yet here we are, it's been almost six months, we renewed our tumblr vows last weekend, we text constantly over vacations, we're getting better about not missing each other's mouths when kissing, we've improved a lot about displays of affection, we shared our "secret" livejournals with each other (not this one), and generally things are going well. It still sort of boggles me sometimes but I'm not complaining at all, it's actually really nice.
I lived in an on-campus apartment. It's sort of halfway between living in a dorm and a real apartment. You still have RAs, meal plan (albeit smaller since you have a kitchen), colorful door decorations, a keyswipe entry system, everyone in the building is also a college student, the hallways look sort of like dorm hallways, and it's further from stuff on campus but you still feel the safety of campus. On the other hand, you have more roommates, individual rooms, a kitchen and living room, bathrooms shared between a couple people rather than the entire floor, a bit of a feeling of greater independence, and more space (which is both good and bad because you don't feel as claustrophobic when you're there all weekend but there's also more room for clutter). I liked it a lot, and had a much better experience than trying to live with a roommate in a double last year. I also think that having a super messy roommate made me a bit cleaner since I got fed up sometimes and went on kitchen-cleaning sprees. I've definitely gained a lot of experience doing dishes and learned how awesome decent dish racks can be. More minor things I've learned include: toaster ovens are magical but if you don't have one you can make toast in the oven, be sure to dilute vinegar with water if you're trying to use it to dissolve spilled soda on tile (the floor is still sticky after being mopped about 15 times omfg), home haircuts are messy and get everywhere (especially if people don't clean up properly afterward), and sometimes it's really nice when roommates just go in their rooms and close the door because then you have time and space to yourself.
I was on club exec boards. I was super involved in clubs last year but this year I stepped it up and got involved in running them. It was more work than I expected (especially for UCC) but I learned a lot and it was a super valuable experience which probably helped contribute to the fact that I have a job for next semester. I'll be working at the Multicultural Center, which is where most of the clubs meet, and they wanted relevant experience so yeah I think it helped a lot with that. Next semester I'll actually be president of a club but we're hoping to find new exec members during the semester since both of our returning eboard members are going abroad in the spring.
There were also minor landmarks like presenting a paper at an on-campus conference (and winning a money prize for it) or the death of the last remaining benefactor of the couple that set up funds for my scholarship program. I didn't make as many new friends in terms of sheer numbers as last year (probably since I wasn't starting from scratch) but I made friends with some off-campus local Homestucks and a bunch of seniors who are graduating in a few days.
I'm halfway through college (which is super weird) and I know how to write long research papers with only minor stress (the trick is doing research ahead of time and spacing things out so you don't cram it all at the last minute), how to navigate (mostly) the red-tape nightmare that is Student Life and its associated properties (lookin at you ASUOP), what it's like to be in student clubs and run them, how to cook things both in a microwave and easy meals for a kitchen, how awesome the 99 cent store and Dollar Tree are when it comes to buying groceries, the ups and downs of having vs. not having a car on campus, apartment vs. dorm life, and ups and downs of roommate living. I've seen tuition go up both years I've been here and friends not return in the fall. I've made tons of friends and drifted away somewhat from a lot of them while getting super close with others. The people I'm close with have changed significantly from last year compared to this. I still have tons of stuff to learn both academically and life-wise, but these are a sampling of things I now know that I did not when I graduated high school.
It's bizarre to think sometimes that I spent years waiting for college and now it's here and it's awesome and I love it (most of the time) but I'm halfway through with my bachelor's degree. People said the spring semester would fly by and I don't feel that it did, really, since I've had time fly a lot faster and there were times this semester seemed to drag on and on, but I still don't feel quite ready for it to be summer for four months, or for me to be halfway done with college. Makes me think about grad school.
Significant things that happened:
I changed my major. I didn't expect to since I was so confident at the start of college about the program I had chosen, but I'm really glad I did because I'm excited for my classes and I enjoy doing my homework and I'm more super excited about history than maybe I had realized. And I'd rather have a history-related job than a job as an ambassador or something (which is what people generally tend to guess at when you tell them you're majoring in International Studies) or at an embassy or NGO. When I first changed I had a professor tell me something along the lines of "Well, that's good because college is about finding your passion" and I thought it was sort of cheesy because I felt like it was more about the classes sounding more interesting than ~finding my passion~ but I feel like I've gotten more passionate about history over the past semester. Also I actually sort of enjoy doing historical research papers, so that's a plus.
I've also gotten more passionate about French this semester, maybe due to taking a really interesting upper division French course. Which brings me to my next point: I changed my mind about study abroad. Several times, actually. I started the year thinking that I would be spending all of next year in Ireland. I'm ending the year thinking that I'll be spending next spring in Paris. In between, I thought I would spend next spring in Italy. I've started drifting away from that mostly because I've been getting excited about French again, honestly, and I really want the opportunity to get immersed and really improve my French. Besides, I'm considering doing the summer language study program in Italy next summer, if the cost isn't a problem. I think that would really be better at teaching me some Italian at a faster pace, which is more what I want. I'm still hesitant to tell people "Yes, I'm going to study in France next spring" because I feel guilty about changing my mind so much and I'm me and I don't like committing to things in case I change my mind, but it's getting to a point where I need to be committed. Like by next semester when I start cross-cultural training.
I got into a relationship. After the confession of mutual appreciation last spring (memorably, in the rain on a small ferris wheel), we finally stopped dallying around and made it official in early November I think. Which makes it almost six months, which is bizarre. The thought had occurred to me that I might be more willing to start a relationship once I was in college, with a larger pool of people to choose from than at my tiny high school and away from my parents' nosy questions (they're sort of weird about relationship stuff- I haven't told them but it's not that unusual because my sister only told them about like 2 of her 6 or so boyfriends so I'm not the only one). And I had several people ask me out last year and it was weird every time because I sort of never expect that someone will be romantically interested in me. Yet here we are, it's been almost six months, we renewed our tumblr vows last weekend, we text constantly over vacations, we're getting better about not missing each other's mouths when kissing, we've improved a lot about displays of affection, we shared our "secret" livejournals with each other (not this one), and generally things are going well. It still sort of boggles me sometimes but I'm not complaining at all, it's actually really nice.
I lived in an on-campus apartment. It's sort of halfway between living in a dorm and a real apartment. You still have RAs, meal plan (albeit smaller since you have a kitchen), colorful door decorations, a keyswipe entry system, everyone in the building is also a college student, the hallways look sort of like dorm hallways, and it's further from stuff on campus but you still feel the safety of campus. On the other hand, you have more roommates, individual rooms, a kitchen and living room, bathrooms shared between a couple people rather than the entire floor, a bit of a feeling of greater independence, and more space (which is both good and bad because you don't feel as claustrophobic when you're there all weekend but there's also more room for clutter). I liked it a lot, and had a much better experience than trying to live with a roommate in a double last year. I also think that having a super messy roommate made me a bit cleaner since I got fed up sometimes and went on kitchen-cleaning sprees. I've definitely gained a lot of experience doing dishes and learned how awesome decent dish racks can be. More minor things I've learned include: toaster ovens are magical but if you don't have one you can make toast in the oven, be sure to dilute vinegar with water if you're trying to use it to dissolve spilled soda on tile (the floor is still sticky after being mopped about 15 times omfg), home haircuts are messy and get everywhere (especially if people don't clean up properly afterward), and sometimes it's really nice when roommates just go in their rooms and close the door because then you have time and space to yourself.
I was on club exec boards. I was super involved in clubs last year but this year I stepped it up and got involved in running them. It was more work than I expected (especially for UCC) but I learned a lot and it was a super valuable experience which probably helped contribute to the fact that I have a job for next semester. I'll be working at the Multicultural Center, which is where most of the clubs meet, and they wanted relevant experience so yeah I think it helped a lot with that. Next semester I'll actually be president of a club but we're hoping to find new exec members during the semester since both of our returning eboard members are going abroad in the spring.
There were also minor landmarks like presenting a paper at an on-campus conference (and winning a money prize for it) or the death of the last remaining benefactor of the couple that set up funds for my scholarship program. I didn't make as many new friends in terms of sheer numbers as last year (probably since I wasn't starting from scratch) but I made friends with some off-campus local Homestucks and a bunch of seniors who are graduating in a few days.
I'm halfway through college (which is super weird) and I know how to write long research papers with only minor stress (the trick is doing research ahead of time and spacing things out so you don't cram it all at the last minute), how to navigate (mostly) the red-tape nightmare that is Student Life and its associated properties (lookin at you ASUOP), what it's like to be in student clubs and run them, how to cook things both in a microwave and easy meals for a kitchen, how awesome the 99 cent store and Dollar Tree are when it comes to buying groceries, the ups and downs of having vs. not having a car on campus, apartment vs. dorm life, and ups and downs of roommate living. I've seen tuition go up both years I've been here and friends not return in the fall. I've made tons of friends and drifted away somewhat from a lot of them while getting super close with others. The people I'm close with have changed significantly from last year compared to this. I still have tons of stuff to learn both academically and life-wise, but these are a sampling of things I now know that I did not when I graduated high school.
It's bizarre to think sometimes that I spent years waiting for college and now it's here and it's awesome and I love it (most of the time) but I'm halfway through with my bachelor's degree. People said the spring semester would fly by and I don't feel that it did, really, since I've had time fly a lot faster and there were times this semester seemed to drag on and on, but I still don't feel quite ready for it to be summer for four months, or for me to be halfway done with college. Makes me think about grad school.