It is the end of an era. Ok maybe it's not; but, it is a momentous occasion. As this semester comes to an end and as the snow falls, it is easy to reflect on the past almost four months here and my University College experience. I still remember the first time I met all of my fellow explorers, standing awkwardly in a circle out on the quad playing the name game. I remember my first impressions of people as we went around the circle reciting peoples names: Jubilant Julie, Glorious Gunperi, American Alli, and Just Justin are only four of the names that I still remember from that day. I remember how it felt to be standing there, looking around wondering who I would end up becoming close with and how I would be sharing my first semester of college with them. I also still remember my Discover DC experience and how mesmerized I was to be submerged so early in the culture of DC. I was so excited that this dynamic city was the place I would be living.
Looking back on my times during Explorations, I have no regrets and am very glad I decided to choose to be in a University College program. While I learned a lot about community and the significance of identity and critical thinking during the class, I feel like I learned so much more by being in this type of learning community. I feel like I learned more about my own identity outside of the class, merely through interactions with my floor mates, than I did through the MBTI for example. The class was helpful, but I am very grateful that living with your classmates was a part of this experience.
Obviously I had never lived with my fellow classmates and I thought the transformation from classmates to friends was interesting. When I try to explain UCs and Explorations in particular to others, they assume that all we do is study together and work on homework since we're classmates. While sometimes that does happen, it has become so much more than that. I have met so many good people who I might never have if I wasn't in Explorations. All in all, I am glad I participated in this experience and would recommend it to others. Being able to know the names of twenty three people the day you step on campus in August was very comforting. The experiences I had in every aspect of Explorations I will take with me for a long time and glad that they will forever be a part of my college experience.
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What do you think the adjectives we said said about our identity? Were they real...? Were we "fronting"...? I guess we'll never know....
ReplyDeletep.s. My money is on fronting :)
Haha oh man. Yea, it's an interesting point to consider...I know for me personally my adjective reflected a certain part of my personality (silly Sofie). However, clearly at the time that part of me was not "on display." I think for some people these adjectives were definitely thought out within the five minute time period they had waiting in the circle. Either way, these adjectives still stick with me today and were some of my first impressions of the people in our UC. I would agree that many people were "fronting" because I would not wanted to have said "stupid Sofie" or something that did not reflect me well because we all were aware that this was a first impression.
ReplyDeleteI remember that I was "lovely Linda" because I couldn't think of anything L word (even though "loving" is only 3 letters off...)except for "luscious" which would have been even worse! I was actually really concerned about the impression that gave off...I was afraid people would think of me as someone who only cared about appearances and wanted to be seen as attractive more than as smart.
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