Throughout high school, I thought about college much less frequently than most people I know. My expectations were mostly non-existent up until the summer between high school and college. I guess that I was just so focused on the dozens of AP classes that I always forced myself to take that I felt like any university I went to would offer a similar experience. I am going to do the same thing in college-- that is pushing my workload to the limit and burning out, then lightening it up, then repeating the process. At least SGC isn't one of the problems this semester.

To be honest, SGC was my second or third choice (I don't remember exactly which, but it wasn't first), but I am happy that I got placed here regardless. I skimmed the description and found it vaguely interesting. It also had "science" in the title, which was the main selling point. I was hoping that it would help me make friends, and although I don't know many of the people in my class, I have gotten very close with some of the people here. I didn't expect to be friends with everyone, so I am satisfied with who I've found.

During orientation, Holtz and Merck introduced the course material, which seemed to be very interesting. I vaguely knew about the climate and human impact, but was happy that my knowledge would be going a little deeper than surface level. However, this semester only covered a small portion of what was introduced during orientation. To be fair, I didn't know how intensive or relaxed the class would be, so I was expecting a regular three credit class. The outside workload is definitely more than a one credit course, but the time in lecture is definitely too short. Additionally, this semester was extremely surface-level, which I assume is normal for a first semester class, but didn't make the class feel any less useless. The last few lectures that covered the major extinctions and human history were definitely interesting, but the first few lectures like those about logical fallacies remind me of something that would be taught in 11th grade English classes.

There are a few key things that I would like to say to future SGC students. Firstly, I enjoyed service day because I went into it with an open mind. I expected it to be uncomfortable and dirty, so the work wasn't too bad. Most of the other students were extremely pessimistic, and they hated it. My advice is to expect to enjoy service day, because then you are more likely to. Secondly, I went on the AMNH trip for the excursion assignment. I believe that everyone should go on in-person excursions. The experience was very unique, and I'm looking forward to the next excursion.

Outside of SGC, college life is a little more similar to my expectations. I was expecting to go to many more events than I actually did. That's my "fault", by which I mean it is a consequence of my decision to not really go out. It's not necessarily a positive, nor a negative, just a type of experience. I had the obligatory trial friends who I believed were my actual friends for about a month. We would go out every weekend and stay up extremely late. Luckily, I found a much better friend group by chance just a few weeks later who were much more my speed. They are my study group, my emotional support, and my comedy night. It's great.

My classes varied in difficulty. Some of them have a decent but manageable amount of content such as COMM 107 and CMSC 216. Others, such as MATH 246 and CHEM 135 are extremely difficult and random in terms of the content. I have discovered that I hate Matlab, and I have also discovered that I will have to use it for about half a dozen of my other major-required courses. It's a give-and-take I guess. I also didn't make many friends in my classes. It might be because most of my classes this semester are a mix of antisocial freshmen and upperclassmen that already have established friend groups. Overall, my classes this semester are very middling in terms of quality, which is exactly what I expected. I expected to study a lot, which is exactly.

I live in a dorm in Centerville, which was made out to be a terrible building by every UMD student I talked to prior to going. However, there is nothing egregious about it, and the RAs foster community very well. Prior to college, I didn't even know that RAs were even a thing, nor did I know that they organized events for people to attend. On top of that, the lounges are only on every other floor. This may seem annoying at first, but it is also how I met my friends, since they were forced to go to my floor for a lounge. We are a combination of people from multiple floors in centerville who all met in the lounges thanks to the weird design.

Finally, a large part of my college experience was defined by the Jiu-jitsu club. I've been doing Jiu-jitsu for over two years now, so I was really excited to see who I would meet there. Frankly, I like the people at UMD more than I do at my hometown Jiu-jitsu club. Club elections were recently held, and I was elected as the events manager. I am really excited to get further involved with the club.

I am happy with my experience so far. It has not been the quintessential college experience told in podcasts or shown in movies, but it's been my experience. I am looking forward to the next seven semesters of undergrad.