Garrido 1 Holli Garrido Robert Arnold Honors Seminar 13 Dec. 2011 Reflective Essay Wander into class.

Sit up pin straight and try to look pleasant, but not over bearing. Smile, make friends. Get all your assignments done. Its just another school, you can do this. These are some of the many thoughts running through my head as I stumbled around campus during my first days as a freshman. It seems like that day was only a couple of weeks ago, but here we are amongst the bare trees and the chill of winter right around the corner, with only two weeks left in the first semester. I have high goals for myself and the assignments I complete, and looking back Id say I worked as well as I was capable of. Specifically in my honors seminar and my English class, I was able to write a series of papers and reflections that took my own mind and my own opinions and mixed them with the things I read or experienced. As I sit typing this final reflection of my honors class Id say that my writing style has only improved, since I have been given a whole new level of freedom in my writing. No longer am I restricted to writing factual, argumentative literature essays like the ones I wrote in high school. Now I can come into my own as a young adult and an individual and speak my own mind right alongside with the minds of the authors. My stability as a writer and as a person has improved, and my anxiety is on the decline as I settle into my new college life.

Garrido 2 A key moment that solidified this equality of opinion was the Interstices discussion night, when I literally sat with people of much higher credentials, and I will venture to say much higher levels of intelligence than myself, and yet what I was saying was just as valued and important as what they said. Not only could I communicate and discuss with my peers, a skill that has never been an issue for me, but now I could communicate with my superiors, and having their undivided attention and interest helped me feel that what I was saying was significant, and that in a sense, I was significant. Being a psychology major, I try and take a moment after every major or minor experience in my life and look at how it affected me mentally. This discussion night was a huge confidence booster, and in a world where everything is new and threatening, any bit of confidence can help. My anxious and wary mind was eased that night, knowing that I did in fact have the ability to communicate and discuss with anyone of any age and stature. Another moment of confidence was conducting the interview with a classmate, and if possible this was the most nerve wracking experience of them all. No matter how much you impress your superiors, it is your peers who you will see and communicate with on a day to day basis, and so to have to sit and make an impression as well as record information about a fellow student, and so early on in the semester, was something I did not entirely look forward to. I never know how much to talk, or if Im talking too little. Am I being annoying or eerily quiet? Worrying is my second nature, and makes itself apparent when Im asked to do things like this. Proudly I can say that despite my nerves, the interview went off without a hitch. My partner was friendly and just about as talkative as I was, allowing for a nice balance as we got the work done that we needed to. This was another key moment in completing my honors course, and an even bigger moment in reassurance of the fact that I could handle myself, and that I am going to be okay.

Garrido 3 Im not sure if I can trace my steps from the beginning going forward, because I literally took things one day at a time. As a child and teenager I was always in a rush, always planning the next thing. Live this way and your life will flash before your eyes. Thats why in my recent months Ive tried to slow things down and enjoy every moment, every day for whatever it has to offer. In this sense it is difficult to track any sort of progression because I gave it my all for everything that was thrown at me, never thinking about what was next until what was happening at that moment was complete. However I can look back pretty easily, and say that I was incredibly successful in my first semester. Ive kept my grades up, never turned in an assignment late or incomplete, and Ive joined several extracurricular groups outside of honors. More important than all this is that Ive made friends, close friends that I can keep and carry with me for the rest of my life. I have managed to stay mentally sound and stable, keeping my anxiety under control and making my first semester a perfect stepping stone into all that comes next.