One thing that worked well for me was having my first block to dedicate to college work; I think this allowed me to have much less stress about it because I wasn't having to dig out time from other things to work on college. Another thing that I really appreciated about this course was the independent dynamic. Ms. Thielend and I only met once a week, and sometimes we would skip a week due to other conflicts. This allowed me to keep focusing on the task at hand and if I needed help, I could go to her, but it wasn't a necessity. My timeline for the college application process was different than most, but I think that was mostly due to this Flex course. I ended up starting a little later than many of my peers; this had me feeling slightly behind at the beginning, and is something that I would do differently if I did it again. However, because I dedicated so much time to the process, I submitted all of my applications sooner than a lot of my peers, and it was so refreshing to be done with it so early. Additionally, Ms. Theilend was extremely flexible, especially with our meetings, and was focused on this course being a student-led course, which I appreciated. I would absolutely recommend this course to other students. It was an excellent way to keep on track of work while at the same time being very independent and getting to do things on your own terms.

I learned that it's a much better strategy to just get things done instead of waiting or procrastinating, and I also came to know that I like learning independently without structured class time. Overall, I realized that I want to be a social worker and work in schools in order to make connections with kids.