August 24, 2023 was the first day I stepped onto the University of Maryland campus. I had no idea what to expect and just the night before, I struggled to fall asleep as thoughts of stress, excitement, and fear flooded my mind. Despite all of this, I was ready to embark on this new chapter in my life. Little did I know how fast three and a half months would be. Now as I look back on my first semester, I can say that both the expected and unexpected happened, especially in regards to the nature of my classes, my experience with college park scholars, and student life.
Before classes started, I thought that the course work would be difficult. I thought that I would easily get to my morning classes on time, that lectures would be engaging, and that I would have more time outside of class to complete course work. To some degree, my initial expectations were met, particularly with the time I have throughout my day to do course work and other things. As the semester progressed, however, many of my expectations were defied; most of the course work is straightforward, I struggled to complete web assigns for Calculus One on time, and I am almost always late to my first morning class despite all of the supposed sleep I expected to get. With all of this in mind, the nature of my classes both shattered and met my initial thoughts on what they would be like. It is almost as if there is a randomness to whether or not your expectations are met. I can say with certainty, that this randomness also showed in my experiences with College Park Scholars Science and Global Change.
Before my first experience with scholars, I thought that the program would be a good way to enrich my educational experience and facilitate the development of friendships and professional networks. In many ways, the scholars program met those expectations; I was able to go to do volunteer work at a National Garden, I have made several friends and professional acquaintances, I learned about logical fallacies and pseudoscience and so much more. To be honest, though, I was not expecting to learn about past climate as much as we did this semester, but it was interesting none the less. I understand its importance and relevance to what we are studying in colloquium. I was also really surprised by how much I enjoyed reading assigned literature, as it is very rare for me to do so. Kida and Sagan, in particular, introduced me to a new, interesting way of thinking that I intend to use for the rest of my life. Looking back on my first semester in SGC, I can say that it played out as I anticipated it to, while also defying my expectations. My experience in scholars really emphasizes the randomness of expectations; I experienced things I knew I would, but also things that I did not expect. Now that I have reflected upon the academic part of my semester, I will discuss the randomness of my expectations of life as a college student.
In high school, I thought that college would be a very social, academic environment where I can let my curiosity run wild, learn new things, meet new people, and have fun all in one place. To an extent, my initial expectations were true, but it took some time to settle into campus life. It was unexpectedly difficult during the first month of the semester, as I was struggling to find friends, clubs, and other activities beyond course work. This all began to change once I joined the club rugby team. As I went to more practices, I became increasingly close with my teammates and got into exercise. Eventually, I started to get invited to parties and other events, which really made my life on campus more enjoyable. Interestingly, though, I never expressed any interest in rugby until one of my friends said I should join, but now that I am in, I intend to keep up with it. Overall, I think that this semester coincided with what I initially expected it to be, with the exception of how long it took me to settle in and find what I like. It is crazy to think of how little I knew in high school about how much my life would change after a single semester and how random those changes were.
As I sit at my desk and wrap up this reflection of my first semester at the University of Maryland, I cannot help but think about how random life can be. My thoughts at the beginning of the semester compared to what actually happened is a great example of this randomness, as I experienced things that both expected and did not expect to happen. This is not necessarily a bad thing either; I would have never gotten into rugby without this randomness. So if there is anything I can say to my past self and future SGC students, its that one should accept the randomness of life, it may throw bad stuff your way at times, but it can also reveal new interests, new people, and other good things to you. As such, you should take advantage of this randomness and see what good it can bring to you.