My First Year in Review:
Everybody had always told me that my time in college would be the best years of my life. I always believed that, but I could never have imagined how great my Freshmen Year would be! Coming from California, I had a huge amount of anxiety about being a student at The University of Cincinnati; I was moving so far away from home without knowing anybody. I knew in the back of my head that if I had to go home for anything, it would be possible, but I also realized that it would not be something that would be possible on a regular basis. I had never had any issues making friends but it does take effort for me to get close to people and establish those meaningful relationships. Another one of my qualms in coming to college dealt with redefining myself and exploring past passions and developing new ones: I have always been happy with who I am and what I believe was important so I knew I would not lose myself, but I knew change would be inevitable as I turned the page to a new chapter in life. I was afraid that I might lose some of the passions I had had during my time in High School. One integral part of my high school career involved music; most of my best memories in high school involve either marching band or concert band. Because of the impact that musical performance had on my during this time of my life, I decided that I would try out Marching Band at UC; let me just say, that was the best decision that I made in college. As I said, coming from California I knew nobody here, but coming and being thrown straight into Band Camp and being a part of one of the largest and most influential student groups on campus allowed me to get to know 200 people on campus. Many of the members of the band are now my best friends at UC. Because of this, I was able to easily acclimate to college life and I had a lots of friends when it came time for my first week of classes. Having a group of people I knew was probably the best feeling coming into college and was not something that I had anticipated. These relationships were further developed when I went on the Rutgers trip with Rallycats for an away football game. The experience of going to an Bearcat's Football away game and participating as a student at a football game one of the most fun experiences I’ve had during my time as a first year and I developed one of my most important friendships in College. I went with four other people: Ben, Sam, Liz, and Joseph. I had been good friends with Ben, Sam, and Liz, but I did not really know Joseph too well other than interactions in passing. However, it was over this weekend when I actually started to get to know him and realize how great of a guy he was. In the coming months and through spring semester, I got much closer to Joseph as he became a mentor of sorts for me and became one of my best friends. It’s interesting because he is from the West (Arizona), like myself, and is going into the medical field, like myself. My friendship and mentee relationship with Joe is one relationship that I value probably more than my relationship with any other peer because of the positive influence he has on me. Another experience independent of my relationships in band was my trip to Brazil with the Honors Program. Throughout the spring semester I participated in an Honors Seminar titles On the River… Experiencing the Brazilian Amazon. The class focused on the ecosystem of the Amazon Rainforest, including its plants, animals, and culture. The trip there was fantastic in that it incorporated everything that we learned while in class in a real world setting; however, what was more impactful to my self-development was our interactions with the native peoples. During our time there we went on land and spent time with natives living in villages. It was striking how little they had in terms of technology. Most of them did have cell phones, but nothing like what we have with our iPhones and Androids; only very basic functions. No televisions, no internet, not much of anything that we have that we would consider to be integral to our lifestyle. However, even though they had much less than we did, they were just as happy if not happier. It really got me thinking about how a simpler lifestyle makes being happier an easier task. It made me also think about the non-material costs of material things. It was one of those moments in college where I really evaluated who I was and was one of those moments that I would characterize as a milestone in the process of self-discovery, a process that I will continue into the rest of my life. I think the first half of my first year focused more on my outward development and relationships with others. My exposure during Band Camp and the relationships that stemmed from that, as well as the Rutgers’s Trip both had the most impact on me in regards to my relationships. Because of those relationships that developed, my first year in college was successful, exciting, and productive. Without these, I could not imagine what my first year would actually be like and where I would actually be. My second semester was then focused more on discovering who I am and what I truly believed. I think the broadest way I could define what I learned in my first year would relate to how I found my place at UC and how I am trying to find my place in the world. I immediately started to find out where I belonged at UC by being an active member in band and other organizations on campus. That level of involvement has helped me gain many tremendously deep relationships with individuals all over our campus and has allowed me to form relationships with faculty and students alike. Coming to college it has become even more apparent to me the importance of putting yourself out there to find your place in the community. With this you have the tools to impact your community in a very important and lasting way. Although I think I have found my place at UC, I still have a while to go until I can find my place in this giant world. There are so many things out there for me to do an so many people that I have the ability to impact, it’s just a matter of working to find out how and where I can make a meaningful impact. With this, I want to charge myself with striving to discover where I exist in the world and what my role is. I think this can only be done by continuously examining my outward and inward life and realizing if what I am doing is true to what I believe and me. This sort of realization is not something that I expect to figure out in a year, or even during my whole college career, but is something that I need to keep in mind as I progress in life. |