Sumona's "Expectations v.s. Reality" Reflection Essay

The nature of my classes in all honesty was very surprising to say the least. I expected my classes to be challenging, but I was taken back by the level of difficulty they posed immediately. I knew that the first week or two would be syllabus week, but it’s as if the minute the third week started all my teachers jumped into the first units and I barely had any time to adjust. I thought they would help us ease into college life more and I expected that they would start off the assignment load lightly and gradually get harder. However, it went from 0-100. I got about 10-12 assignments a week and it proved to be very stressful. Their graded assignments, especially lab reports for CHEM132 were very time consuming as the lab reports for chemistry took a minimum of six hours to complete. I was constantly in my room working, struggling to find a balance between when to complete assignments and when to take a break. Something that we covered in the class that I didn’t expect was delving into history. I didn’t expect to have history lessons that covered events hundreds of years ago. In all honesty, when we first started that lecture, I was wondering why we were learning about that in an SGC colloquium. One thing that I expected to learn in the colloquium was more of how the Industrial Era made an impact on the world. Like I mentioned before, I wasn’t expecting to go so far back in history and learn about events at that time, so I was expecting us to learn more about modern, human actions that have made impacts on climate change and human livelihood. I am currently residing in the Centreville dorm within the Cambridge Community. My life here is a lot more different than it was back home when I was in high school. When I was in high school, I lived close to my school but I always returned to my home. But obviously here, I go to my classes and then return to my dorm, which are in the same place. It does make it harder for me to get rid of my stress because when I was in high school, my school and home were two separate places but that’s not the case here. Another thing that I have noticed since being here, is that I am completely on my own here. If I want to get something done here, I need to make it happen myself. I can’t rely on other people to do anything for me. It was a little nerve wracking at first for me because these decisions were very important to me. In addition, college was the first time I was really taking the time to truly understand myself. But the more I did it, the more I got better at it. I kept making an effort to learn from my mistakes and the bad decisions that I made. Now not only am I more confident when I make certain decisions, but I feel a bigger sense of independence when I do it and that makes me feel proud. My first piece of advice that I would give SGC students is first, not to be afraid to talk to Dr. Holtz and Dr. Merck. In SGC, we are currently making a website and I was faced with multiple challenges regarding the uploading process. When I talked to Dr. Holtz and Dr. Merck, they were very understanding of my situation and did everything they could to help me. It was a long process, but I was able to overcome the obstacle and now I am able to work on my website. In addition, byt talking to Dr. Holtz and Dr. Merck, I was able to feel less stressed about the assignment. They always checked up on me making sure I was okay which is why I highly emphasize communicating with them. They are very understanding and extremely helpful. Another piece of advice I would give is to not procrastinate any of your assignments in any of the SGC classes that you take. The assignments are not long nor hard but if you let it build too much, then it will start to become a challenge to complete them. In terms of my non-academic life, I have had my ups and downs. Some of the downs have included that I have lost a couple of friends that I knew since high school and the fact that I don’t see my brother that often when I’m here. Another con that I have experienced since being in college is that my eating and sleeping schedules have been completely messed up. When I was at home, I had a solid routine but being at college means that my entire schedule revolves around my academic schedule (when I need to study, when I need to complete certain assignments, etc.). However, some of the pros that I have experienced since going to college are that I am more exposed to my major field of study and get a more hands-on experience with what I want to do. Another pro is that I have gotten to go out and have spent time in the nights with my friends. We’ve gone to the movies, TerpZone, and restaurants and it was just a really fun time.

Last modified: 12 December 2022