Zoe's "Expectations vs. Reality" Reflection Essay

Coming into this class, I was a little intimidated by the fact that I would be surrounded by “scholars.” I definitely expected to be surrounded by people who were very intellectual, thus deserving being placed in the program. I knew that my teachers, Merck and Holtz, both had backgrounds in paleontology, so I figured we would go over some of its material throughout the course of the semester. I knew the course would be given to us all online this semester, so attending class zoom calls was pretty expected and familiar to me. I really enjoy talking to my fellow students in the program, so it would have been great to work with them in a classroom, but we are facing challenging times. I did not expect to have the unit that focused on false statements and each type of scenario. In some ways, the college life met my expectations, but in other ways it didn’t, obviously because of the pandemic. When I first toured the UMD campus, I remembered seeing lines of students walking through McKeldin as they were headed to their in-person classes. Then as I made my way to La Plata, I saw students playing volleyball. It felt like home immediately. Now coming on campus this fall felt much different. The campus was pretty lively the first few weeks as everybody was excited to meet new people and branch out. I did not have a roommate because of the pandemic, and it was already hard enough to focus and fit all of my belongings in my room. I don’t know how I would have coped normally. I actually ended up going home early this semester very last-minute because campus got pretty depressing after Thanksgiving break. My biggest advice for future SGC students would definitely be to make sure to surround yourself with friends that will help you stay focused on your schoolwork. It was really helpful to have friends that keep each other on track. It is easy to slack off when you are in your room all the time, so definitely reach out and plan activities with other people in your program. We explored a lot of the climate change aspect to this course at the very end of the semester. I expected this to be most of the material of this course, so I was definitely surprised with how little was covered. However, we were told in our last class that we would go into much more detail second semester, which makes me very enthusiastic because I am a very big climate change advocate. I definitely want to delve into my struggles with taking all online courses this semester. When this pandemic first blew up, I had struggled immensely with keeping up with my study habits since it was much easier to slack off and avoid doing work. The pandemic did a decent amount of damage to my mental health, so I found it hard to sit myself down at my desk to do work. Luckily, I had my parents who would check in on me every day to keep me focused. When I came to CP, I found it hard to balance everything. I was learning to live on my own for the first time, do my own laundry without my mother’s help, etc. I am very dependent in the aspect of when put in new situations I need support to help me along the way. I eventually learned to balance social events, working out, and schoolwork after the first month of being there. However, I was still struggling with a couple of my courses. Not having taken AP Chemistry and being put in a chemistry class with other engineers, I felt very overwhelmed by the fact that I did not seem to have close comparison of background information as them. Then having the course be delivered completely online, being one of the hardest courses I will ever take, made it a large struggle. The course itself is practically the average of the grades of 4 exams, which is already setting me back since I have barely any room to improve my grade if I don’t do well on the tests. Whether it was meant to steer me away from engineering or not, that class has taught me quite a few lessons. It is not healthy to study for a day straight the day before an exam even if you cover all of the material because most of the time, I had missed GSS and other helpful study tips that may have helped if I began studying earlier. I knew college would definitely be a challenge in the aspect of learning how to balance everything. However, being all online made it feel even more impossible than before. Not being able to talk to your professors after class or talk to classmates while coming into class and checking in on what assignments are due made this semester one for the books. I hope that once things return to normal, I will take advantage of in-person resources.

Last modified: 13 December 2020