<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Reading</span>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>I had to miss my first week of college, unfortunately, and reading was taken up by worries of how I’d survive my first year. While being abroad, I spent around 3 hours this week reading up on tips from college students about what they wish they’d known before going into college. I looked up every possible article about how to make my first year better, whether it be communicating more with teachers or scheduling my work out beforehand. Furthermore, I read some syllabuses to give myself an idea of what would lie ahead once I came back. I noticed I already had a psych paper due in a month and there would be quizzes every week. Well then. My FIQWS class seemed intriguing since I’ve never done a labor log before. There was a ton of reading up on how I should stay organized for school, what people think of the professors I have and more related to prepare myself. </span>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Writing</span>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Although I had given up journaling for a while, I spilled out my thoughts on a piece of paper. Since I wasn’t able to do my homework or had access to all academic material, it felt like I needed to let out personal feelings. For two months, I had been overseas on an unplanned trip visiting family I hadn’t seen since I was a kid. Many things had gone wrong and it felt like it was necessary to not just write what was going on in my head, but to plan out the upcoming month. By viewing calendars and lesson plans, I formatted how to get into school life again.</span>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Communicating</span>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Scrolling through posts from friends, one had caught my eye. My friend had her browser opened up to the That’s So Gay! homepage with the caption “excited for this class.” Now hold on…I was in it too. One of the best parts of this week was realizing my friend who I haven’t seen since middle school would be spending two classes with me. We discussed with one another how the class worked, and I asked her to help me understand work that I missed out on. We spent around an hour talking about the environment and homework of this course. </span>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Reflecting</span>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Overall, it’s been a pretty emotional summer for me, and the first week only added on stress. Though there wasn’t much academic reflection, it was personal and familial wake-up calls that I could apply to my college life. For instance, I realized I was the youngest in my family to be in college. Some didn’t get the chance to continue their education, and others waited many years to even remotely find the time and money for it. I was fortunate enough to get a shot in a city I passionately love and where opportunities are endless. Furthermore, seeing someone in their last stages of life made me think about how minuscule the eras in our lives are and how much it shapes us in the future. Four years of high school went by so fast and now I’m here working on an arts degree, breaking tradition from the whole “engineer or doctor” focus. This has driven me to be more dedicated to school since we need to make the most out of the chances we get and we never know when issues arise.</span>
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