Semester one at College Park was certainly one to remember. The virtual format of all classes brought new challenges and opportunities that I would have never expected. Taking online courses this year was my first time taking an online course, besides the remainder of my senior year due to covid. Online courses are not how I thought they would be, specifically when it comes to meeting classmates and peers. In each of my classes there was at least one live discussion per week and some classes had multiple live lectures during the week. Other classes were asynchronous and allowed me to watch lectures anytime. The thing that hindered meeting others was that everyone had their cameras off and rarely participated, so it was hard to connect with others as I would in a real classroom setting. Another challenge was time management with asynchronous lectures, specifically getting behind sometimes because there was never a set time for me to watch these lectures, resulting in me being lazy and pushing them off. The major challenge of this year was MATH141 and having to teach myself, since the live lectures were pretty much useless in terms of learning. I would spend at least 3 hours doing the chapter notes and homework problems, sometimes more, causing me to get behind in other classes. Overall, the workload this semester was more than I expected but it has definitely prepared me for the coming semesters and harder classes.
This year's learning in CPSG100 was not at all what I expected from this program. The content about human history and how it relates to science was not a subject I expected to learn in this class. I took ANTH260 this semester, which is an introductory anthropology course, and much of the content I learned in that class aligned with the learning on science and human history. This connection between classes was quite interesting and allowed for a broader understanding of these subjects from two perspectives, which was an awesome experience to have. I expected CPSG100 to focus most of the semester on climate change and how humans have caused an increase, which was talked about toward the end of the semester, but wasn't the main focus and this what somewhat surprising to me. I now know that the next two semesters will focus more on climate change and possible solutions, but it was kind of disappointing to have to wait to learn about those topics.
My high school vision of college life was a lot different than how this semester played out. I imagined a campus full of students, rushing to classes and going crazy at football games, but none of that happened this semester. I lived in Centreville and met some great friends on my floor, who I plan to get an apartment with for our sophomore year. I did not see myself making friends so quickly and finding such a solid group, but that's what happened and I'm sure glad it did. Another aspect of college life that I did not expect was not walking to classes every day which was something I was excited for because I love being outside and exploring campus. Hopefully next year all classes will be in person again and we can finally relate to our classmates and share ideas on assignments. One aspect of college life that I did expect was getting into a routine in my daily life while balancing classes, homework, exercise, and my social life. This was combatted by procrastination which I was good at in high school, but I feel like I have gotten better at staying focused on my work. Overall, my college experience so far has been vastly different than what I expected it to be, especially because of covid and how it has impacted nearly every aspect of my life.
A few pieces of advice that I would give to future SGC and college students would be to expect and be prepared for a huge workload, to put yourself out there and try to meet people, and to find a way to escape the daily stresses of college life. First, by expecting a huge workload, you might find yourself to have less work that you prepared for, giving you freedom to do other things. This was something that I wished I had done, since transitioning from a very easy finish to my senior year to a workload of 5 college courses was not easy. On the other hand, your workload may be too much to handle, in which I would recommend you go to Guided Study Sessions (GSS) or study groups, or possibly consider dropping the class and switching to an easier gen-ed. Second, finding people that you can connect with and do things with is necessary to maintain a healthy lifestyle in college. Having a group of people is something that may be hard at first, but going to floor events and program events will allow you to meet people, so you will start seeing familiar faces around campus and the dorms. Lastly, and in my opinion the most important, is to find something that can distract you from your schoolwork and daily stressors. For me, it was going to the gym and lifting weights. When I was at the gym, I would completely forget about my schoolwork and my stress would be relieved. Walking out of the gym after a nice workout would put me in a great mindset and allow me to see exactly what I needed to do that day and that week. Whether it be exercise, video games, or some other form of activity, a stress reliever is absolutely necessary to get through college life.