Just another lovely day. Wait what do you mean its been an entire semester since my last reflection? Has it really been that long ago?
As of writing this I have experienced an entire academic year's worth of college now which equates to about 8 months of learning in a higher-educational institution. To be honest I don't really feel like much has changed comparing college to high school but maybe that's just because of how bare bones my fall and spring semester schedules were. Very soon I will try to take 21 credits worth of classes in the next semester but that's just hoping all goes well during class registration. Will it be very stressful? Most definitely, and yet I feel as though this is a sort of challenge that I placed upon myself. A challenge that I think will keep my academic drive up and running consistently throughout the next semester and hopefully subsequent semesters as well.
Now that I have gone through 2 semesters worth of calculus classes I can say for certain that calculus here at UMD is just as the rumors say they are. Calculus in UMD is some of the most difficult math subject that I have ever taken. Taking AP calculus in high school did relieve some pressure from learning so much material but the main problem is learning so much material. Luckily I managed to make it through and pass calculus 1 and hopefully calculus 2 with my upcoming calc 2 final exam coming up as of writing this. One good thing to note is that office hours are some of the most useful things to ever exist for a class like calculus. The TA and professor teaching these subjects have 1 job here and that is to make sure that you understand the material that you are working on. Don't be afraid of asking professors or the TA for any sort of question that you have for math, provided it isn't as simple as asking what the square root of 144 is.
On the subject of asking the professor and TA's questions, it is also a good time to bond with the TA's and professors. Just about anyone can make it out of a school or university with a certificate saying that you managed to complete so and so. But there's only a handful of people that walk out with that certificate and have people that you can connect with out in the workforce. Throughout my academic years there has been 1 thing I realized that has more academic value than any class ever has and that is the connections that you make with people. Just going out of your way and making friends with someone in your class is already more than enough to start establishing a connection. With those connections you can very easily ask someone for some help in the future or better yet you can ask them to help you in any long term projects that require a set of skills that they specialize in. Just going out there and talking with people, whether it be fellow classmates in the lecture room or a TA/professor in office hours, you'll be able to build and gain a network of people that you can just talk to and in most cases, if you ask for a helping hand, then they'll be more than likely to extend one to you.
Not everyone is so easy to talk to however. This is especially the case when you don't really know anyone in your classes. It may be tough and difficult to make friends people but just being able to have somebody that you can talk to can really lift some burdens off your shoulders. All it takes is a tiny bit of small talk from the person sitting next to you during lecture to make a really good friend. I would know considering that I've managed to make some good friends with some people this way.
In all honesty however the one thing that I never expected to be a major problem for me in college was having to travel from home to campus all the way back to home again. Since I am a commuter student it takes quite a bit of time for me to get home from school especially during the fall semester when I didn't have a car. This became less of a problem once I managed to get my provisional license and got a car over the winter break but that's not the point. It definitely makes things easier to know about the many kinds of transportation available on campus. Like the shuttle buses that drive all the way out to the various metro stations out there or nite ride which provides transportation to you once it starts getting dark out. I know for a fact that being able to ride the shuttle bus from home to campus and back has saved me and my family quite a bit of trouble, even if it takes an hour or two to reach campus.
All of this can not distract me from the one fact that it has already been a year. Whether it was a short or long year is up to debate to be honest considering that some parts felt super slow and yet at the same time it just felt like yesterday in which I took my last mid term exam. Regardless I can only hope to look to the future and conquer any challenges that may come my way. Much like the 21 credit hurdle that I might have to work through sooner or later.