HECTIC, CHAOTIC, AND REWARDING: JUNIOR YEAR
Junior year has definitely been my most hectic year of college. It seems that this year, I have had more to do than freshman year and sophomore year combined! Not only was I taking a full course load, I was in the classroom for three hours every morning, was re-elected to my sorority's executive board, joined a few more campus organizations, all while trying to maintain a semblance of a social life. Not only was my third year at UC hectic, it was also challenging. Junior year for me was all about making the best out of a bad situation, and talking others through bad situations. However, at the end of the school year, I felt as though I had rediscovered the importance of two of my strongest beliefs: optimism and determination. Both of these renewed discoveries were brought on through the help of my students throughout the year.
There were a lot of things that went wrong these past two semesters. For one, my living situation was full of ups and downs. I moved into my sorority house, with thirteen other girls. I was so excited to live with some of my closest friends, and to always have someone there to talk to. After a while, I began to see some cracks (literally), in my fantasy scenario. As an introvert, it became difficult for me to live with so many other people. I was having trouble finding some alone time and space to myself. Additionally, we began to have some maintenance problems. Our ceiling began to leak during the winter, and we found out that our roof needed to be repaired. This resulted in a big hole being made in our ceiling. Our basement was flooding sporadically, our dishwasher broke twice, and at times it felt like the house was literally going to crumble at my feet. In the middle of February, living in the house felt claustrophobic and stressful. I was trying to be upbeat, but the combination of the hole in the ceiling, crowded house, and gloomy weather was not helping. Until one day, when I went to my kindergarten classroom in the morning for student teaching. We were supposed to try and go outside for recess, but the weather ended up being too bad for playground play. One of my students looked at me and said "Oh, well. Playing inside is just as fun!" That simple sentence put things into perspective for me. The positive attitudes I see from my students on a daily basis remind me that things are never as bad as they seem. After that, I decided to make sure I was being optimistic; and it worked. I will be living in my sorority house again this coming year, and our house is fixed and ready for another year of sisterhood ahead! This year, if I begin to feel stressed or fixating on a bad situation, I will remember my kindergartener's unfailing optimism and try to emulate it.
My schedule this past year was this: in the classroom for three hours, drive back to campus, lunch, class for three hours, meetings, dinner, homework, bed; rinse and repeat. I was confident in my ability to juggle both student teaching and classes, but midway through fall semester I realized that I may have bitten off more than I could chew. A born procrastinator, I was slowly realizing that I couldn't continue putting off things until the last minute and expecting the same quality of work. This meant having to prioritize my time in a more effective manner. This meant drinking more coffee than I ever have before, spending more time in the library, and making determination my middle name. Whenever I felt like I couldn't do it, I always reminded myself of how hard my students were working in the classroom. I needed to work just as hard as they were if we were both to be successful. My determination paid off, I finished the year with a 4.0 GPA for both semesters! My determination also paid off in other aspects, as I was re-elected to my sorority's executive board to serve a personnel chair (a position I was truly excited for), and landed my dream placement school for student teaching in the fall (Fairview German School). The renewed vigor and determination I found helped push me through my junior year, I know it will push me through my senior year as well.
I will be the first to say that I am glad to have survived my junior year. Having experienced the many obstacles that life and college have thrown at me, I do believe I am ready to tackle my final year at UC with the same optimism and determination. And if I ever need some inspiration, I won't have to look further than the classroom--where my students will no doubt, be showing me exactly how to keep going and reach my dreams.
Pictures (from left to right):
1. With most of my sorority sisters who lived with me in the house, during fall recruitment 2014
2. All of the Honors Retreat leaders from summer 2014!
3. With President Ono and my sorority sisters during Homecoming 2014
Junior year has definitely been my most hectic year of college. It seems that this year, I have had more to do than freshman year and sophomore year combined! Not only was I taking a full course load, I was in the classroom for three hours every morning, was re-elected to my sorority's executive board, joined a few more campus organizations, all while trying to maintain a semblance of a social life. Not only was my third year at UC hectic, it was also challenging. Junior year for me was all about making the best out of a bad situation, and talking others through bad situations. However, at the end of the school year, I felt as though I had rediscovered the importance of two of my strongest beliefs: optimism and determination. Both of these renewed discoveries were brought on through the help of my students throughout the year.
There were a lot of things that went wrong these past two semesters. For one, my living situation was full of ups and downs. I moved into my sorority house, with thirteen other girls. I was so excited to live with some of my closest friends, and to always have someone there to talk to. After a while, I began to see some cracks (literally), in my fantasy scenario. As an introvert, it became difficult for me to live with so many other people. I was having trouble finding some alone time and space to myself. Additionally, we began to have some maintenance problems. Our ceiling began to leak during the winter, and we found out that our roof needed to be repaired. This resulted in a big hole being made in our ceiling. Our basement was flooding sporadically, our dishwasher broke twice, and at times it felt like the house was literally going to crumble at my feet. In the middle of February, living in the house felt claustrophobic and stressful. I was trying to be upbeat, but the combination of the hole in the ceiling, crowded house, and gloomy weather was not helping. Until one day, when I went to my kindergarten classroom in the morning for student teaching. We were supposed to try and go outside for recess, but the weather ended up being too bad for playground play. One of my students looked at me and said "Oh, well. Playing inside is just as fun!" That simple sentence put things into perspective for me. The positive attitudes I see from my students on a daily basis remind me that things are never as bad as they seem. After that, I decided to make sure I was being optimistic; and it worked. I will be living in my sorority house again this coming year, and our house is fixed and ready for another year of sisterhood ahead! This year, if I begin to feel stressed or fixating on a bad situation, I will remember my kindergartener's unfailing optimism and try to emulate it.
My schedule this past year was this: in the classroom for three hours, drive back to campus, lunch, class for three hours, meetings, dinner, homework, bed; rinse and repeat. I was confident in my ability to juggle both student teaching and classes, but midway through fall semester I realized that I may have bitten off more than I could chew. A born procrastinator, I was slowly realizing that I couldn't continue putting off things until the last minute and expecting the same quality of work. This meant having to prioritize my time in a more effective manner. This meant drinking more coffee than I ever have before, spending more time in the library, and making determination my middle name. Whenever I felt like I couldn't do it, I always reminded myself of how hard my students were working in the classroom. I needed to work just as hard as they were if we were both to be successful. My determination paid off, I finished the year with a 4.0 GPA for both semesters! My determination also paid off in other aspects, as I was re-elected to my sorority's executive board to serve a personnel chair (a position I was truly excited for), and landed my dream placement school for student teaching in the fall (Fairview German School). The renewed vigor and determination I found helped push me through my junior year, I know it will push me through my senior year as well.
I will be the first to say that I am glad to have survived my junior year. Having experienced the many obstacles that life and college have thrown at me, I do believe I am ready to tackle my final year at UC with the same optimism and determination. And if I ever need some inspiration, I won't have to look further than the classroom--where my students will no doubt, be showing me exactly how to keep going and reach my dreams.
Pictures (from left to right):
1. With most of my sorority sisters who lived with me in the house, during fall recruitment 2014
2. All of the Honors Retreat leaders from summer 2014!
3. With President Ono and my sorority sisters during Homecoming 2014