For my first article of the semester, I wrote about coming to Boston University and how I hoped to maintain my identity throughout the semester. Now, it’s almost the end of the fall semester, and I just wanted to recap my experiences.
Obviously, everyone has had a unique experience returning to actual school since the pandemic, especially if that transition coincided with the transition from high school to college. With regards to my personal experience, I’m pretty proud to tell past Maddie that we did okay. Our first semester went so much better than we could have planned, and we are ready to continue forward into the spring. But also, myself and everyone around me are so extremely ready for the break! Finals are no joke, and neither is a college-level workload, but thankfully it will all be over soon, and then we can get a well-deserved break before heading into Round 2.
Although I am pretty happy with how the fall semester went, I know that not everyone had an ideal experience. And for that, I am very sorry because I know that all transitions are difficult. But they are even more difficult when they don’t go as planned. So if anyone reading this did not get the ideal fall semester experience, just know that it was one semester out of many. There is a spring semester right around the corner, and it is another chance for happiness and success. I believe in everyone reading this just like I believed in myself coming into college, and I know that we will all get through this together to become confident, smart, and successful people in the end.
To that point, my advice for success in the coming semester (for myself and anyone else) is as follows: get out and experience your surroundings. College only gets worse if you limit yourself and your opportunities, so don’t do that. Instead, take advantage of the friends, opportunities, and academics around you to craft a better experience for yourself. Whether you had a good fall semester like me and are simply continuing forward, or you want to make a bad experience better, my best advice is to hold yourself accountable and put yourself out there. No one can grow if they sit stagnantly, so if you want to keep on the path of happiness and success, or find your way to it, I would start there.
I just want to close by saying congrats to everyone reading this for finishing their fall semester of college. If you’re a freshman like me, congratulations on surviving a new experience. And congratulations to everyone else for doing just the same.
We all did amazing this semester, and now we get to breathe before the spring.
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