College classes have been similar and also very different compared to how I imagined they would be before my first semester. In high school, I always heard that college was less busy because there was less work. In some ways, that is true. In my first semester, there were less mandatory homework assignments than in high school. However, what college classes lacked in quantity they made up for in difficulty. I certainly felt that I spent a lot more time working on homework every day this past semester than I ever had in high school. Part of that comes from the fact that the two classes I considered the most time consuming were group projects where I felt like I had to contribute a lot more than a normal class for one reason or another. Another factor of business came from exams. After the first wave of midterms, I felt like there was always another midterm or big project due the week after. In high school, I liked the week after an important exam because I felt that I could relax for a little bit before having to worry about the next one. As for the structure of classes themselves, I enjoy the freedom of the schedule much more compared to high school. Although I feel that I spent a large amount of my time doing work and studying, I enjoy having more control over my day as to when I decide to work or relax.
To be honest, when I first heard about service day, I thought it would be a hassle and one of those annoying commitments that takes away time from something else I would rather do. However, I actually ended up really liking service day. The activity itself wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and it ended up being an invaluable way to form relationships and foster newer ones that I had formed within the first days of the semester. The New York trip was pretty cool too but looking back, I surprisingly feel that I enjoyed service day more. I took an earth space systems class in high school that I enjoyed a lot which covered topics such as ocean acidification, groundwater, karst topography, minerals, and plate tectonics to name a few. I expected this class to be very similar with a slightly more emphasized focus on climate change. I was surprised when we ended up covering a lot of information outside the strictly stereotypically science based topics. For example, I thought the unit on logical fallacies was interesting and I really liked the lecture about honor board. I am glad that this class covered a lot more than just what the name implies because it ended up being more engaging than I initially expected.
College life is certainly different from what I imagined it would be like in high school. I had images of eating instant cup noodles for months on end. As an engineering major, I had also heard stories of how hard engineering in college could be. I saw one post that read something along the lines of ‘the reason why engineers are so happy is because they already went through the worst years of their life in college’. This gave me the impression that I would essentially spend all my time in college being busy and miserable until I graduated. In reality, while I do feel busy with classes, I find myself enjoying college life much more than I thought I would. The first few weeks of the semester were some of the most fun that I have had in a while. The free will and independence I was given in addition to the light workload as classes first started made it almost like a holiday. Of course the light workload didn’t last forever, but I don’t feel suffocated with undoable amounts of homework and empty instant ramen cups like I imagined I would be. I’m also pretty grateful for the food here since it’s a lot better than I thought college food would be.
My advice to a future student in SGC would be to approach everything with an open mind. This includes classes, mandatory activities, strange new opportunities, and people. Although the 16 personalities test classifies me as an extrovert, I certainly do not feel extroverted all the time. However, being open to starting conversations and carrying out conversations with people who started them with me led to creating relationships that have made my experience much better. Additionally, I would recommend trying to do as much in this new life as possible. Even the seemingly small things like navigating the metro system alone for the first time end up making a big difference. While there is a lot to be said about not overextending and taking on too much as once, there is so much to explore and it would be a shame not to use as many of these opportunities as possible.