Reflection
2023
Many weeks in, my journey at IUPUI so far has been interesting. Back when I applied I had zero idea what to expect from college, and I barely even had an idea of if I'd like IUPUI and if it was truly the right place for me to go. Once I got into bridge week, I realized that college as a whole wasn't nearly as daunting as I had made it out to be, and I found the switch to be overall much easier than I expected. As time progressed to now this only continued further, to where I'm now fairly comfortable at IUPUI. The first significant learning experience I had was actually showing up to IUPUI and spending my first day overnight in Indianapolis. It was ultimately significant because it was the start of me realizing things weren't as bad as I made them out to be, and that they'd be pretty easy. Another significant learning experience was the actual class registration and seeing my classes for the first time, as it's vastly different to how all other forms of schooling had worked, and far more personal and up to you rather than anyone else. This was fairly significant because it really highlighted how college now marked a time where things are heavily reliant on you rather than others.
While going through this journey, I have noticed a few strengths and weaknesses. I'd say overall my biggest strength is my adaptability as I didn't find the change too bad and I was able to get used to the differences in how things worked fairly quickly. Another strength of mine is getting my work done and putting time into it, specifically even if cut a due date close for a project, I'll still finish it and turn it in on time and do what's required and whatever extra I'm able to do. One weakness of mine, despite always turning in work on time, is to gather the motivation to do work early. It's fairly common for me to put off the work for an assignment if I know I have the time to finish it later, even if it may be better to do it early.
One big lesson I learned this first semester is to not let school take over too much, and to still have joy and passion in things. Although it's important to put a lot of focus on school, it's also important to ensure that you're doing well mentally and that you're enjoying what you're doing, because that'll lead to overall a higher quality of work and a higher quality of life for you, which is very important. This will apply to the rest of my life as the general message of finding time to enjoy life and what you're doing can apply to most situations. One piece of advice I'd give myself for next semester is to manage time better and find what helps me gather that motivation and ability to do things early.