Nearing the end of my first semester of freshman year of college, I feel mixed emotions about my experience. First I will talk about my expectations of going into my first year of college. As a senior in high school going into college, I had bitter-sweet emotions about college. My first thought was how all of my friends and I were going to different colleges, so I would be going into this new environment alone. I was a little worried about starting over the process of making friends, especially after being friends with the same people for over four to five years. Additionally, many of my teachers in high school would exclaim how the workload in college would significantly increase compared to the workload in high school, so that worried me as well. Now for the sweet expectations, I was excited for this new sense of individuality and "experiencing new experiences" on my own. I was, and still am, a very motivated student and am super excited to be able to take classes on a topic that I've been interested in for years (marine and environmental courses). My high school offered some classes on these topics, but never really went into depth with the other sub topics that are correlated with these topics. Also, I was excited to be able to meet new people and friends. Now after my first semester of college, I can compare these expectations with reality. First, it was very fun making new friends. Because everyone is new to this new experience, everyone was looking to make new friends. All of my classmates were super friendly and I was able to make friends easily. So this expectation was proven wrong. It was fun to meet new people and talk about their experiences throughout the semester coinciding with mine. Additionally, with these friends I was able to meet people from other states and also international students. Now for the workload. The workload definitely did increase a bit, but with a little bit of time management, it was actually easier then what my high school teachers had made it seem. Because of the schedule I had made, I was able to have so much time to study and work through assignments without running out of time. However, with some of my classes, the professors weren't the best at presenting their lectures, only due to the large number of students (300+) compared to the smaller classrooms in high school. This made it a bit difficult to have one-on-one talks with the professors, but the section classes definitely made the experience better. Additionally, many of my classes had exams that were definitely weighted heavier compared to tests taken in high school, so finding ways to study for those exams were also a bit challenging at first. With CPSG100, I thought that this class was the perfect class for a freshman, due to its ability to introduce students to other students in a manner where they would get closer and maybe even become friends. Like the Metro Scavenger Hunt, that experience I would say was significant in my first semester due to that being the first time I traveled on the metro and went to DC without my parents. This experience allowed me to get familiar not only with the metro and its different stations, but also the DC area. This field trip was super engaging and I also greatly enjoyed the overall experience of it. The overall course taught in CPSG100 was also very enjoyable as well. It was cool to be in a class that talked about several different topics throughout the world and how they correlate to global change of the Earth in different ways. I personally have been super interested in climate change and am very excited for the next semester's CPSG101 course. I thought that CPSG100 successfully combined various different topics including history and science. Also, building the online portfolio was something I did not expect to learn, but I thought that this knowledge was super helpful to know, especially for basic skills for the future. Now for the overall life of a University student. I am currently residing in a single dorm in Centreville hall and for the most part it has been very enjoyable. Of course it is different from living at home because I would be sharing the bathroom not just with one girl (my sister), but with several other girls. Additionally, I wouldn't be able to put together a late night snack because there was no kitchen or anywhere to cook, other than a microwave, in addition to the dining hall being a bit of a walk from here. Other than these factors, I definitely enjoyed my experience, except for the occasional home sickness. This first semester definitely taught me how to be comfortable with doing things by myself and to do things that may not be comfortable for me at the moment. My piece of advice to any future college student would be to enjoy this experience and to step out of your comfort zone at times. This is the perfect time to try new things and meet new people that you might not have known before. Have fun being in college, but also create a manageable work and fun schedule with yourself. Everything is about doing things in balance and in accordance. Also, don't be afraid to mess up and if you do just try out new ways to solve the issue. If you have questions about anything, don't be afraid to ask other students around you as well! Overall, I would say that this has been a very successful semester and hope that the second semester goes just as well.