FRESHMAN YEAR
My freshman year at UC was a roller coaster of laughing, crying, exploring, and most of all learning. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I arrived at Cincinnati. I unpacked all of my stuff in my dorm, said my goodbyes, and watched my mom walk out of my room. I was surrounded by an atmosphere of complete strangers, but I was ready. I had been looking forward to my freshman year of college since I was a sophomore in high school. I just wanted to get out on my own and fulfill my dreams of becoming a nurse. Although college wasn’t quite what I expected it to be, I adapted, and found a new place to call home. I was faced with many challenges throughout the year, some definitely harder than others. All of my friends who are older than me had always told me college was a lot harder than high school, and to enjoy high school while it lasted. I can now say I didn’t prepare myself well enough for their advice. I worked very hard in all of my classes, but the style of teaching and the overall curriculum of the courses were much harder than what I was used to. Even with the work being harder, I believe the biggest challenge was trying to find the time to do it. I wasn’t used to forcing myself to set aside time to do my schoolwork, it just came naturally with my set schedule in high school. In college, I had to figure out how to better manage my time. My friends were always asking me to hang out or do something, and I had to learn how to say no so I could give myself some time to study. It was difficult when I would talk to my friends attending other universities in other majors, and they would always be going to the mall or going out to eat and I was stuck in my dorm room studying. At first, this made me upset and I just wanted to be doing the things they were doing. But I quickly realized I shouldn’t be upset at all. I was following my dreams of becoming a nurse, and if that meant staying in to study one night instead of hanging out with my friends I knew I could sacrifice that. Finding time to study eventually got much easier, I thought of it more as time to myself rather than time to hit the books. Challenge one accepted. After returning to school from Christmas break; reality set in. I spent many nights on the phone with my mom crying that I wanted to transfer to be closer to home. I missed my family and friends tremendously. I started looking into other schools closer to home and universities where many of my friends went. I missed the security I had at home, and since none of my close friends attended UC I just missed being with the people I had known my whole life. I made the intuitive to talk to my freshman advisor about how I was feeling and my plans to potentially transfer to another school. It wasn’t the fact that I didn’t like UC; I loved it. I just missed home and the sense of home. After talking with my advisor, she posed a challenge to me. My challenge was to stay in Cincinnati for a whole month straight and to not go home. I accepted her challenge and spent the next few weekends in Cincinnati, exploring the city with my friends and really digging in to what UC had to offer. We had a learning community meeting about a month later and she pulled me aside and said, “So…?” I looked at her with a huge smile and said, “I’m staying.” I knew the University of Cincinnati was right for me. I just had to give it a chance. Challenge two accepted. All and all, my biggest difficulty as a freshman was putting myself out there. I am a very outgoing individual and full of energy, but when surrounded by thousands of strangers I sometimes struggle to be myself. I constantly started to surround myself with the same group of friends that consisted of my roommates and some of our neighbors in our dorm, but I wanted to venture out and make other friends. I became very close friends with the people in my honors class and we started spending a lot of time together. I also started hanging out with different groups of people in my dorm and quickly learned how to be myself around them. I just had to keep telling myself that everyone else was in the exact same position as me, and I just had to be myself and things would fall into place from there. Challenge three accepted. I was faced with many more challenges my freshman year than I ever thought possible, but I truly believe it made me grow as a person. By spring semester, my time management skills were very good and I always found time to study AND time to be with my friends. In addition, I learned that you have to give every place and every opportunity a chance. I’m more than happy I made the decision to stay at the University of Cincinnati and continue to achieve my goals here. Although, I still miss my family and friends I always know that they’ll be a phone call away when I need them. But, I have also realized it is possible to face the adventures of life without them. Foremost, I learned that no matter what to I'm going to be me. I've learned that people are more willing to accept me for who I am rather than who I'm not. My motto is to put a big smile on my face, meet as many new people as I can, and never to turn down a challenge. I believe that everyone needs a support system, and the more support I have the better off I’ll be.
As I am no longer a freshman, and very excited to be a sophomore at UC I know that there are many more challenges to come, but I couldn’t be more prepared. I am currently set to live in a house with five other girls, and I am ecstatic, yet completely nervous at the same time. I want to keep reminding myself that although these girls may be my best friends, I don’t want to limit my friendships to just those people. I believe that being in UC Honors has given me a great opportunity and will continue to give me many opportunities to meet a variety of new people, and I definitely want to take full advantage of that this year. I also am going to focus a majority of my free time volunteering this year and I would love to find individuals who love volunteering and helping others just as much as I do. I am constantly giving myself advice about the upcoming year and most of these thoughts consist of: stay focused, stay dedicated, remember my goals, always smile, lend a helping hand, and be a friend. These are the thoughts that keep me going and make me strive to be a better person. I have many goals heading into my sophomore year, and I believe they are all very manageable. I would love to have a 4.0 GPA both semesters of my sophomore year. My education is very important to me and by earning good grades; it makes me realize that hard work does pay off. Some of my other goals include moving forward on my self-designed experience for UC Honors, obtaining a part-time job in a medical based atmosphere, and excelling in a clinical setting spring semester. I set goals for myself that I know with hard work and a good mindset I know I can achieve. The biggest aspect I want to take away from last year and incorporate into this coming year is that no matter how much I think something might not work out, I have to keep trying, keep going, and it will happen.
~NOTHING WORTH HAVING COMES EASY~