It feels like I almost disappeared off the face of the earth! You guys haven’t heard from me in a while, and for good reason. Exams, projects, and the impending doom of finals has occupied my mind for a couple weeks now. But through all of the hardships and stress that I worked through, I never once stopped for a moment to look back and see just how far I’ve come from the beginning of freshman year to the end. I treated most of my assignments, events, and personal goals as things that just needed to be “checked off” my to-do list. While checking tasks off my to-do list gave me relief, I didn’t always take time to reflect on what I had accomplished. From this, I learned two important lessons during my first year in college. 🤍
You get to learn more about who you are as a person.
Throughout freshman year, I kind of just rolled with the flow. But as time went on, I realized that I wasn’t only learning in the classrooms, but I was learning outside of the PowerPoints too. And not just about wind shear, derivatives, or Sigmund Freud’s view on psychology (when you learn what I’m talking about, come talk to me!), but I was learning about myself. My study routine, breakfast routine, what environment I get the most amount of work done, my self-discovery was endless. As a result of this, I was able to utilize every hour of my day into something productive. There were times when I felt that I was wasting my time doing something, so I learned to take a break, take a walk, come back to the assignment, and regroup. I discovered that one of my strengths is planning my day effectively, but a weakness is not allowing enough time for myself.
Over time, I grew more confident in myself, my appearance, and my ideas, which was incredibly rewarding. This confidence allowed me to step out of my comfort zone and take on new opportunities I might have avoided before. College is an amazing place to learn how to grow, and I’m grateful that I got to grow in the environment I did at Embry-Riddle.
Getting to learn how to fail and recover from failure.
More times than not have I had to step back from a moment and learn how to move forward with failure. At the beginning of my freshman year, I viewed failure as a setback, but I now understand it as a way to grow. It started in my intro to chemistry class. I didn’t take chemistry in high school, and it was like learning a different language. I had never learned the symbols on the periodic table, and I still probably couldn’t tell you what they mean if you asked me today. I don’t know how I passed that class, but I did. That class not only taught me what some of my weaknesses are (chemistry), but that I just have to do my absolute best, and that’s all I can ask from myself.
When a topic is hard to understand, I put in the extra effort by studying, watching videos, and asking others for help. Despite this, there are still times when I don’t fully grasp the material or perform as well as I would like on a test. I used to get very frustrated with myself, but I learned that these times don’t define me as a person and I needed to change my mind set about how I viewed failing. Now, I think of failing as redirection. Something that will guide me towards where I need to be in life.
This was more of a serious blog, but one that I thought would be helpful to read. I hope everyone has a great summer and takes the time to relax and enjoy time with family, their pets, or a good book.
Do it because it makes YOU happy!
Catch you on the flip side,
Noelle 🌪️
