After enjoying my winter break, I thought back to a saying I heard very often during finals week from friends I spent hours in the library with: "When am I ever actually going to need this?" To me, this seemed like a perfectly valid thing to ask. I often found myself wondering when I am ever going to use eigenmethods for homogeneous constant coefficient linear systems or any of the other million things I was cramming in my head for finals. This thought was in my head until my PHYS260 class, "Physics: Electricity, Magnetism and Thermodynamics." A decent portion of the class was dedicated to the applications, particularly in engineering, of the material we were learning in class to the real-world. I understood exactly how the circuits in kitchen appliances worked. I finally understood how a mass spectrometer worked after years of hearing that word on TV. I was able to learn this simply by showing, paying attention, and reading into all of the material. For any incoming students, I would tell them that all of the classes they take are genuinely there for them to learn about the world around them, not to be annoying, even though it really feels like that sometimes. It's best to just make the most of the opportunities you are given by showing up and being attentive.
As for mentoring relationships with faculty, I was lucky enough to get involved with a research lab group at UMD this semester. As of May 2026, I am interning at the UMD Environmental Monitoring Lab with Dr. Ning Zeng. This has been an amazing experience because not only have I been able to gain hands-on experience in a laboratory setting, learning exactly what I would be doing as an environmental engineer, but I also get to learn from a leading expert in the field at UMD. I was able to get this opportunity because of an email from the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering notifying all engineering students about a Handshake application. I wrote a cover letter and sent in my resume. I always knew I wanted to get involved in research during my time in college, so I started applying and reaching out almost immediately. However, I had to send out many applications and emails before I received this position. My advice to anyone trying to get involved with research at UMD is not to be afraid to reach out and not get an email back. It happens all the time, and it's just a part of the process.
While adjusting to living away from home for the first time has been weird, I found my friendships here to be the best way to cope with this change. I'm considered a talkative and outgoing person by my friends and family, so I didn't have much of a problem making friends when I got to college. Also, the fact that everyone was experiencing the same drastic change and was looking to find their group of friends made it even easier to find people to talk to and hang out with. The best thing for incoming students to do is to just go out and not be afraid of approaching new people. There's no harm in talking to someone new, and I made most of my friends that way here. I'm sure some of them will be lifelong friends, so going up to someone new is very, very low risk for an incredibly high reward.
I think the part of university that I was least prepared for was living in a dorm. The actual living part wasn't the difficult part. It was the adjustment of how my day went. Everything is within walking distance of your dorm. I walk to the gym, dining halls, classes, my friends' places, and more. The thing I wasn't prepared for was how much time I would spend out of my dorm. It was very weird to adjust to all of the free time I had in my schedule. Being in a dorm means that you are in charge of all of your time for one of the first times in your life. Instead of spending it inside and on your phone, try to go outside and see as much of the campus as possible. It's easy to become irresponsible and lazy with your time, which is what I did a lot in the first part of my first semester. However, it's very important to remain responsible. My advice to incoming students to address this is to make a schedule and try your hardest to stick to it. Obviously, there are going to be things that require you to change your schedule, like having a lot of work or an exam, but you must learn how to adapt because that's what life is like in the real world. However, at the end of the day, it's college and what most people call the best years of their lives. So, don't stress too much about everything, but also don't stress too little. Find the balance.