Year in Review: II
Well at this point in my collegiate career I have reached the half-way point. I find it hard to believe that I am half-way done with what many claim to be "the best years of your life", but frankly, they have lived up to the expectations and this year more than others really pushed me and rewarded me in ways I would have never imagined.
For one, this year consisted of much harder classes. Last year, my classes were relatively easy and really did not require that much work. This year though, was arguably my toughest set of classes throughout my collegiate career. I started off first semester with organic chemistry, general physics and symbolic logic. Symbolic logic was the class I was most scared for but really it pushed me in a way I had never been pushed before. It required me to sit down and really focus in on what was being taught and understand it, instead of just memorizing and spitting it back out. The best part was when I took the time to do that, it payed off on the tests which was an even better feeling. It caused some frustration at the start with how hard the initial learning curve was but once I got the hang of it, the subject became fun and pleasantly rewarding. By the end of it, i can proudly say that my brain has become rewired in a much more logical way. Second semester came around and I thought it was going to be easier academically. I found myself being wrong seeing as how Organic Chemistry became much harder than it was second semester. As a result, my GPA certainly dropped throughout the course of the school year which was rather disappointing for me seeing as how academics is really important to me. While I was a little discouraged by the end of the year, my goal is to really improve with my last two years of college and to really put forth a strong effort academically.
While my academics certainly took a bit of a hit this semester, I felt I really excelled in other areas tremendously. For one, I started off the year by getting hired part time in my lab over at Cincinnati Children's. This was huge for me because I had spent so much time in the lab this past summer and semester and to start the year off with a job made me feel official and with much greater responsibility. Moreover, right at the end of the semester we submitted a paper for publication! If accepted, this would be my first publication which I think is a great achievement towards my professional development and a great reminder of all of the work I have been putting in throughout this past year in the lab. Moreover, I successfully put on my first initiative as a member of Student Government which was the #GivingTuesday initiative. It became super stressful leading up to the event but when we all got it together we ended up having students create 100 care kits and filled close to 3 barrels with canned foods and coats all of which went towards charity. This past year I also joined the University Funding Board and immediately really enjoyed every aspect about it. I loved the fact that it was so official and that we were making decisions that truly would impact the university by actually using the money that they pay. On top of it all I loved how close knit the board itself actually is. It ends up becoming a family to which everyone is always happy to see each other when it comes Thursday (regardless of how many budgets there are). My passion for the board was so much that I decided to take on the role of External-Vice President for the upcoming year and I am excited to see where that will take me. Finally, this past year I was the External-Vice President for the Asian American Association and this was really my first true experience in a collegiate leadership setting. It had plenty of ups and downs and of course an initial learning curve but by the end, I loved working with our executive board so much. Through all of these extracurricular I developed close friends that I never thought I would've had, which is a great feeling and makes being involved on campus that much more rewarding. On top of this, I realized that I love to stay busy and involved. While at times, I wish I wasn't I think at the end of the day I rather be busier with too much time on my hands. As a result, the busy lifestyle forces me to be more efficient in other areas of my life that I normally wouldn't be if i had more time.
Finally, one of the most important parts of my year was my trip to Guatemala. This trip has been documented in further detail elsewhere on my learning portfolio but I felt that this event was too big of an event to leave out of my year in review. This was the first time that I had left the country without my parents and that in and of itself was a very liberating experience and made me not only feel independent, but also much more mature and grown up seeing as how all the responsibility was laid upon me for this trip. Needless to say, being immersed in a culture did wonders for my global perspective and of course my Spanish speaking ability. I can confidently say I can now speak, listen and write the Spanish language with near fluency. My goal now is to maintain this level of speaking and hopefully keep on improving as well.
While I look forward to the next year, this year was tough, yet very productive year in which I got a lot of things accomplished and still have so much left to do with two years remaining. My advice for my next year self would be to not get too stressed with everything you have going on and make sure to make time for your friends and yourself. While serving your campus is important, getting too caught up in it can make you miss out on opportunities that are worth just as much with your friends. So keep a good perspective and try not to lose it throughout the year.
Well at this point in my collegiate career I have reached the half-way point. I find it hard to believe that I am half-way done with what many claim to be "the best years of your life", but frankly, they have lived up to the expectations and this year more than others really pushed me and rewarded me in ways I would have never imagined.
For one, this year consisted of much harder classes. Last year, my classes were relatively easy and really did not require that much work. This year though, was arguably my toughest set of classes throughout my collegiate career. I started off first semester with organic chemistry, general physics and symbolic logic. Symbolic logic was the class I was most scared for but really it pushed me in a way I had never been pushed before. It required me to sit down and really focus in on what was being taught and understand it, instead of just memorizing and spitting it back out. The best part was when I took the time to do that, it payed off on the tests which was an even better feeling. It caused some frustration at the start with how hard the initial learning curve was but once I got the hang of it, the subject became fun and pleasantly rewarding. By the end of it, i can proudly say that my brain has become rewired in a much more logical way. Second semester came around and I thought it was going to be easier academically. I found myself being wrong seeing as how Organic Chemistry became much harder than it was second semester. As a result, my GPA certainly dropped throughout the course of the school year which was rather disappointing for me seeing as how academics is really important to me. While I was a little discouraged by the end of the year, my goal is to really improve with my last two years of college and to really put forth a strong effort academically.
While my academics certainly took a bit of a hit this semester, I felt I really excelled in other areas tremendously. For one, I started off the year by getting hired part time in my lab over at Cincinnati Children's. This was huge for me because I had spent so much time in the lab this past summer and semester and to start the year off with a job made me feel official and with much greater responsibility. Moreover, right at the end of the semester we submitted a paper for publication! If accepted, this would be my first publication which I think is a great achievement towards my professional development and a great reminder of all of the work I have been putting in throughout this past year in the lab. Moreover, I successfully put on my first initiative as a member of Student Government which was the #GivingTuesday initiative. It became super stressful leading up to the event but when we all got it together we ended up having students create 100 care kits and filled close to 3 barrels with canned foods and coats all of which went towards charity. This past year I also joined the University Funding Board and immediately really enjoyed every aspect about it. I loved the fact that it was so official and that we were making decisions that truly would impact the university by actually using the money that they pay. On top of it all I loved how close knit the board itself actually is. It ends up becoming a family to which everyone is always happy to see each other when it comes Thursday (regardless of how many budgets there are). My passion for the board was so much that I decided to take on the role of External-Vice President for the upcoming year and I am excited to see where that will take me. Finally, this past year I was the External-Vice President for the Asian American Association and this was really my first true experience in a collegiate leadership setting. It had plenty of ups and downs and of course an initial learning curve but by the end, I loved working with our executive board so much. Through all of these extracurricular I developed close friends that I never thought I would've had, which is a great feeling and makes being involved on campus that much more rewarding. On top of this, I realized that I love to stay busy and involved. While at times, I wish I wasn't I think at the end of the day I rather be busier with too much time on my hands. As a result, the busy lifestyle forces me to be more efficient in other areas of my life that I normally wouldn't be if i had more time.
Finally, one of the most important parts of my year was my trip to Guatemala. This trip has been documented in further detail elsewhere on my learning portfolio but I felt that this event was too big of an event to leave out of my year in review. This was the first time that I had left the country without my parents and that in and of itself was a very liberating experience and made me not only feel independent, but also much more mature and grown up seeing as how all the responsibility was laid upon me for this trip. Needless to say, being immersed in a culture did wonders for my global perspective and of course my Spanish speaking ability. I can confidently say I can now speak, listen and write the Spanish language with near fluency. My goal now is to maintain this level of speaking and hopefully keep on improving as well.
While I look forward to the next year, this year was tough, yet very productive year in which I got a lot of things accomplished and still have so much left to do with two years remaining. My advice for my next year self would be to not get too stressed with everything you have going on and make sure to make time for your friends and yourself. While serving your campus is important, getting too caught up in it can make you miss out on opportunities that are worth just as much with your friends. So keep a good perspective and try not to lose it throughout the year.