Throughout my time at UW, I often found myself not having the time to be able relax, reflect, and plan ahead. Instead, I found myself often living in the moment — flying from test to test, assignment to assignment. While necessary for doing well in college, it also changed the way I viewed my time and my achievements at UW. For me, success changed from taking fulfilling classes, finding new friends, and making memorable experiences to staying up past 2 am to do better on an exam.
I have only recently changed the way I approach life. Incidentally, it was an attempt to return to my former definition of success — making memorable experiences. As I shifted the way I approach college I began to realize the limitations of the way I had previously approached college. Since my time hiking in a Costa Rican rain forest, I have tried to find time to think and reflect in an intentional manner. While reflecting, I have often tried to frame my time at UW as a post hoc story. While constructing this story, I had the chance to reflect on both the interests I have explored, and my rebranding of personal success as a student. When I first arrived at the UW, I was primarily interested in economics and health sciences. However, this new environment quickly changed who I was and what I was interested in. For starters, I quickly realized that economics was not my cup of tea. Instead, I found my interests gravitate towards the nervous system. Yet, other parts of me remained the same: health sciences, soccer, and running. While I did not fully realize it at the time, I was actually taking interesting classes beyond my prerequisites, participating in research that was personally important and fulfilling to me, and finding life-long friends. From my time reflecting, I now think that my time at UW is best represented as a set of narrative arcs. Some of these arcs, such as my interest in medicine, began before I matriculated into university. Other arcs, such as my interest in environmental issues, begun as an interest after I had studied abroad. Some of these arcs are interconnected, others are entirely separate. But the messiness of these interests and experiences have made my time at UW uniquely my own. In that sense, I have, somewhat unintentionally, fulfilled what I wanted from UW — to grow as a person and explore my interests. |