Semester Reflections

Semester 1

To be frank, the realities of university life are vastly different from my imaginings. The actual content of my understanding of college life remains the same, the same vision of a public bathroom shared between students, and the same idea of classes and course structure. The main difference is how I thought I would feel about living on campus. Initially, the plan was to commute. Now I realize that I love living on campus and that the initial privacy concerns are void compared to the freedoms I feel I experience. The biggest adjustments have come in the form of managing my expectations, in understanding that I still need to maintain my work ethic and time management. One thing I have been consistently asked by those from my high school is whether I feel my school system adequately prepared me for college. I think, regarding workload expectations, I see little to no difference from high school to college. One thing I have noticed is the page limits on numerous assignments have been expanded, which suits my wordiness just fine. The structure of class times lends itself to actually learning and understanding the material, and the assignments in many cases have been way less severe than high school. I’ve learned that many classes to keep me busy suits me perfectly fine. For Arts Scholars, in particular, I had expectations about the class content that weren’t realized. I had assumed it to behave like a normal art class, rather than an art theory class for the most part. The first semester was fairly disappointing regarding what we did, and many activities we did felt unwelcome. The class itself was interesting and pretty fun, the field trips were great, Service Day wasn’t mentioned ahead of time as I would’ve liked, and the guest artists were interesting and nice, but also unexpected (I would have liked the ability to refuse to be recorded). I attended no AAB meetings or Craft & Chats as a result of a lack of time and a lack of interest in the specific events held. The best “happy surprises” were the other people in the program and the staff working for the program, especially Emily, who was a glorious sounding board and an amazing person to work with and be around. Looking back, the most impactful thing I felt we did was debate artistic topics. I think art theory is a genuinely interesting subject and the ideas we discussed covered the spectrum of understanding of modern art, really helping us to learn and expand our knowledge of how our artistic futures looked. Specifically when we did the “agree/disagree” activity with the statements, I felt like we learned a lot regarding perspective as many students in class changed their minds actively as discussions went on. In terms of challenges, I feel I have faced my fair share. Existing in a new environment with new people is never without challenges, and I feel I have excelled at holding myself accountable for my misgivings and mistakes. I’ve done my best to manage stress and think my time management skills need work to adjust to this college environment. I hope to keep my understanding of how I operate as a person and know to keep working with that in terms of time and stress management. I think discomfort is crucial in the artistic process, but only to a certain extent. This semester has taught me, more than ever, about the execution of boundaries and the understanding therein. You should never be made to feel overly uncomfortable or disrespected without reason or meaningful growth. I can be resilient in the face of annoyance and new experiences, but know that boundaries can and should be made. I firmly believe in trying everything once, but I’m also learning to express my concerns and ask more questions. My expectations have shaped my understanding of this course throughout this semester, and my goal is to work towards a realistic understanding of this program and what it involves to contribute to my future. I will do that through learning, about what is asked of me and what I can ask for or expect in return.