As I reach the end of my first quarter at the University of Washington, I want to take the time to reflect on my experiences and personal growth. This quarter has had many ups and downs for me as I get used to the college environment, both academically and in general.
The adjustment to living in a dorm was actually easier than I thought, most likely due to the wonderful support network of friends I have made. I have really started to enjoy dorm living because of the connections I have made in my building—the community within Terry hall has been very welcoming and I feel close to those I live with. It has been very fun to go through some of the same experiences with my peers, whether it be cooking our first real meal in the floor kitchen or deep cleaning our very own bathrooms for the first time. However, even though this transition has been made smoother by the people around me, it has been a huge adjustment to live without my parents, whom I was used to seeing on a daily basis for the first eighteen years of my life. Living away from them has made me appreciate more the time I do spend with them and I have started to cherish every phone call and funny picture of my dog I receive from them. When I first arrived at the University of Washington, I was concerned that it would be difficult to find a smaller community at such a large school. However, I have found that connections come easy as long as you put yourself out there and take the initiative to stay in touch with people. In fact, I met my best friends during Dawg Daze by trying something new: sailing. One thing that I have had to learn this quarter is that I can’t be perfect. All I can give is my best effort in my assignments and other aspects of my life. In high school, the academic environment was much different from what I have experienced so far at the University of Washington. As I experience my very first “weed-out” classes, I have had to learn how to study in a new way. My first midterms did not go so well, as I was unprepared for the midterm experience in a university setting. It also did not help that I had my first two midterms ever on the same day. However, I did not let those first grades get me down, and I changed my study habits to do better. In addition to finally taking advantage of some of the resources available to me here at UW such as CLUE, I changed my outlook on what it means to do well in college. To me, doing well means that I gave my full and honest effort—I don’t always need to have perfect grades to show for that effort. In my classes, I was actually surprised how much I have enjoyed taking linguistics 200. I signed up for the class originally because it fit into my schedule and I wanted to explore an unfamiliar subject, and I have found it to be very interesting. In fact, taking that class has inspired me to take an honors class about invented languages next quarter to learn even more and explore other areas of that subject. In honors 100, I was inspired to try out new subject areas that I have no experience in, and to follow my passions when I become interested in different topics. Additionally, I have been guided to not only pursue those topics intellectually, but turn those subjects into experiences that I can learn from (experiential learning!). As a result, I would love to see where this interest in language takes me—maybe I can become involved in a related club or take more classes in the future. This quarter, I joined to be an Honors Community Ambassador. I wanted to find a way to become even more involved in the UW community, and work on making connections with others in the honors program. This quarter, I have worked to organize Honors Gets Spooky, which was a fun experience that I learned a lot about planning and leadership from. In the future, I want to become more involved in this activity, maybe eventually leading my own event. Other activities I hope to become involved with before the end of my time at the University of Washington are research and studying abroad. I am fascinated by research, and I hope to find a position soon in order to build my skills. I am interested in a study abroad because I have never traveled outside of North America—I want to experience cultures different from mine and learn about new subjects in a practical, hands-on way. Before the end of my time at UW, I want to feel that I have explored many different things, both intellectually and in my life experiences. I feel that the best way to be sure of one’s path in life is to try a multitude of different subjects and then pursue the one that you feel the most connected with—the one you could spend the rest of your life doing.
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When I first arrived at the University of Washington, I knew I wanted to find a close-knit community of friends that I could call family. I was initially unsure of how I would find my community, so I kept my mindset open during my first days here, attending many Dawg Daze events to meet new people. One of these such events was sailing with the Washington Yacht Club. At this event, I connected with people that I now call my best friends. This experience has further convinced me of something that I passionately believe- keeping an open mind and trying new things is the key to success.
In an effort to become more involved in my community here at the University of Washington, I became an honors community ambassador. In this position, I play a role in organizing different community-building events for the honors program and will eventually serve as a peer mentor. This quarter, one event that I helped plan was Honors Gets Spooky. For this event, I was one of the heads of the costume contest committee- I made a ballot box and helped to figure out the prizes. Even though not many people dressed up, I still had a great time and the event was overall a success. At the event, I dressed up as a witch with two of my best friends.
I chose to include this lab report as an artifact for my portfolio because it was my first report that I got 20/20 on. Throughout the course of the quarter, I have learned so much about how to conduct different experiments in the lab and how to write a lab report. After receiving feedback for my first few laboratory reports, I worked hard to improve upon the errors I made in my first reports. In particular, this lab report incorporates in-depth error analysis, including adjustments to the data to reduce the percentage error. |
AuthorI'm Emily- a first year biochemistry major at the University of Washington. ArchivesCategories |