Semester Reflections

Semester 1

University life is not exactly how I pictured it in high school. I think I imagined something a lot harder. Although my classes have challenged me, I am handling them better than I thought I would. I knew there would be hard times and fun times, I just didn't know exactly what they'd look like. I am an extremely anxious person, especially when it comes to school, so I am proud of myself for being able to succeed here at UMD. 

I met my best friends, something I had hoped would happen. I also love my roommate. Some people have roommate horror stories so I'm happy I do not have to be one of those people. 

I make sure to call and text with my family often, I definitely miss them a lot. That has most likely been the most challenging part of college for me. It has brought me a lot of anxiety to be away from home, even though I still love it here. To make myself feel better, I still communicate with my family often and even visit home once and a while to see my animals. I am also surrounding myself with people that make being here all worth it. I am excited to meet even more people as I join more clubs in the future. 

I'm not sure what I was expecting out of Arts Scholars, It's more involved than what I was expecting from a 1 credit class. Thankfully, it is not as bad as some other scholars' programs sound. I haven't met anyone in the program that I connect with so that has not made my experience amazing, but it has been nice meeting all kinds of different people who all love art like I do. The field trips have been a little overwhelming, going to service day right after I moved into college was a whirlwind. I thought I'd feel more accomplished from that experience. For my service day, I cleaned out a women's office closet for a couple of hours. I was happy to help her out, it was just not what I expected. A different field trip I went on was to the interpretive dance experience called Supercell. That was absolutely out of my comfort zone. It was a different type of art than I am used to and I don't know how to feel about it. The TRYathlons were fun, my favorite ones were making necklaces and stress balls. I love arts and crafts, and I don't have a lot of time to do them now. This was nice because I was forced to do them for my grade and ended up being fun. I enjoyed my field trip to the Prang Collection. History is not my strong suit, so tying art to Japanese history was super interesting. I learned about the censoring of Japanese art from other world powers. I'll be able to use this to teach other people about how art is so powerful that it is censored in some situations and sometimes loses its meaning when it is censored. 

Overall, I am happy with my college experience so far. This first semester has been good and I'm excited for my future at UMD!