Semester Reflections

Semester 1

One semester in at the University of Maryland and I already feel like a completely different person from the girl who stepped foot on campus in August. Living on campus is definitely a large attributor to that fact, as it has been wildly different from living at home. There always seems to be something going on here: whether it be a group of guys playing volleyball or someone parading around in a dinosaur costume, or even just a movie night happening in the dorm, it’s always a nice sight to see. This experience, while obviously educational, has helped show me some of the freedom that comes with adult life. The freedom that can be both negative (such as having to deal with communal laundry) and the freedom that can be positive (such as being able to go for a pleasant stroll at any time of the night). While it has been an adjustment to live with a roommate for the first time, I feel glad that I’ve gotten to adjust at all.

I’d like to expand on that “educational experience” line. The workload I’ve gotten through my first semester has been more packed than anything I’ve been used to — the work hasn’t been overbearing, but every day that I’ve spent in a class has had a purpose. There’s minimal work, but each assignment is diverse in its expectations and rubrics, pushing me to both use what I’ve learned and to try something new each time. I’ve learned that in order to complete these assignments to the best of my ability, I have to assign more time to it than I expect: enough time to get the work done, then a bit more to refine. This is a skill I’m still working on, but I know that spending that extra time to refine it will help me in the long run.

Time management in general is a skill that will help me in the long run. Being in college has mostly taught me that I need to relearn new systems to meet the task at hand. It has definitely been a challenge both managing time with a new type of schedule while managing my relationships with the people around me, and it’s a challenge that I’ve been grappling with since the beginning. I’ve met the time challenge in a much more focused fashion, as it’s mostly dependent on only me: allocate the times where I don’t have to be productive, so I know when I absolutely have to be. It’s a work in progress (as mentioned previously), but I will continue it to the next semester. The communication challenge, on the other hand, has been harder as it deals more with the people around me than just myself. I’ve learned that it’s better to let go of the reins in a fashion, and to always get out at least once a day. It may mess with some timing, but it’s always better to get a breath of fresh air than to stay cooped up in front of a computer all day.

In all honesty, when I realized that classes only happened two to three times a week, I was scared that each session would be jam-packed with content and quizzes. That fear went completely out the window after I learned that everything was much less intense than I thought it was going to be. The cycle I’ve just described — overwhelming fear to being pleasantly surprised — can be associated with most of my experiences in college. I have to keep reminding myself that the world is much less scary than I make it, and that my expectations aren’t going to match the results. I’ve learned that having lofty expectations in general can truly only be detrimental, as it’s better to be pleasantly surprised rather than very disappointed. For example, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that having to walk to a dining hall to get food just so happens to be a great way to wake myself up on earlier mornings. Moving forward, I know that while it’s impossible to not have expectations, it’s much more important to keep in mind that the world isn’t built around that mind.

Finally, I’d like to end my reflection by going into my time with the Art Scholars program. To be honest, I had absolutely no idea what it was when I was first getting into it. No matter what I read about the program, I felt like I just couldn’t wrap my head around what it would be like. It wasn’t until after those first few months, and it wasn’t until after the exhibition we’ve just had that I feel like I’ve begun to understand the purpose of the program. It’s about looking at art as a concept, spinning it around in your hands to get multiple angles, then smashing it apart to put the pieces together in a way that makes sense to you. Going off of that example, I’ve appreciated just how “hands-on” scholars has been as a whole. I’ve gotten to go to workshops out of my own volition and come out with an entirely new skill, no matter how uncomfortable I thought it would’ve been when starting it. A theme that runs throughout the program is being brave: pushing limits, stretching yourself father and farther each time, but knowing when it’s time to relax. Feeling this process hands-on, stretching myself in real time, it has helped me to become more interested in learning about art, and honestly, learning as a whole. It has only been one semester of college, and it might only get harder from here on out, and I might only keep learning more and more about myself here on out, but I’m glad that pull back from the wheel and appreciate how far I’ve come in the time I’ve already spent here.

Sunset in DC from a picture I took.