eVERYTHING IS STILL NEW
Going into sophomore year I had the mentality that things would be more familiar, classes would go more smoothly and routines would fall into a pattern. I was half right about all of that.
Being on the recruiting side of Formal Fall Recruitment was just as much work if not more and I was even more nervous about which girls would end up living at our chapter. But this was the year that I started to build a family of my own within Sigma Kappa. My friendships strengthened and I got to know even more sisters that I didnt get a chance to talk to the previous year. I was also starting to recognize familiar faces in my classes, and trust me when you go to a school with 30,000 undergraduates, its something to be extremely happy about. I started getting to know these individuals and study with them since we ended up being all pre-health, in the Honors program and taking the same science courses.
Still, even though I was in the same sorority and taking more introductory science classes the experiences were still new. Having overcome what I thought was a huge academic hurdle freshman year I sort of assumed that I could handle academic challenges with more ease, and while that was true it didnt mean I was going to be able to avoid struggling all-together. O-chem was a another learning experience which made me realize that although I had adjusted my study techniques the previous year i would have to continue doing so for each individual class, one strategy that might work for one class could be completely wrong for another. And thus the work continued, mentally and physically, as I felt I was running around in circles trying to keep up with myself and always finding different ways to achieve success in my classes.
This year, though, solidified three aspects of my career: that I loved biology, I wanted to pursue dance in my academics and that I still wanted to continue on the pre-health path. And by solidify I mean, I formed three distinct thoughts in my head. But I knew I had to get serious, being uncertain is always okay, letting uncertainty hinder the path to your dream is not. So I signed up for the Dental Admissions Test, an assessment that usually people take their junior year summer, to give myself time if I needed to retake it. The thing about the DAT is...you get your results right away.... And after five hours of testing in addition to the longest minute of my life there was the number that could validate my intelligence, prove that my classes weren't always an accurate portrayal of my ability and the sign I needed that dentistry was feasible... and it was :)
Scoring well on the DAT was a hurdle but what seemed like more of a headache was committing to a major, did I mention I was indecisive?
Being on the recruiting side of Formal Fall Recruitment was just as much work if not more and I was even more nervous about which girls would end up living at our chapter. But this was the year that I started to build a family of my own within Sigma Kappa. My friendships strengthened and I got to know even more sisters that I didnt get a chance to talk to the previous year. I was also starting to recognize familiar faces in my classes, and trust me when you go to a school with 30,000 undergraduates, its something to be extremely happy about. I started getting to know these individuals and study with them since we ended up being all pre-health, in the Honors program and taking the same science courses.
Still, even though I was in the same sorority and taking more introductory science classes the experiences were still new. Having overcome what I thought was a huge academic hurdle freshman year I sort of assumed that I could handle academic challenges with more ease, and while that was true it didnt mean I was going to be able to avoid struggling all-together. O-chem was a another learning experience which made me realize that although I had adjusted my study techniques the previous year i would have to continue doing so for each individual class, one strategy that might work for one class could be completely wrong for another. And thus the work continued, mentally and physically, as I felt I was running around in circles trying to keep up with myself and always finding different ways to achieve success in my classes.
This year, though, solidified three aspects of my career: that I loved biology, I wanted to pursue dance in my academics and that I still wanted to continue on the pre-health path. And by solidify I mean, I formed three distinct thoughts in my head. But I knew I had to get serious, being uncertain is always okay, letting uncertainty hinder the path to your dream is not. So I signed up for the Dental Admissions Test, an assessment that usually people take their junior year summer, to give myself time if I needed to retake it. The thing about the DAT is...you get your results right away.... And after five hours of testing in addition to the longest minute of my life there was the number that could validate my intelligence, prove that my classes weren't always an accurate portrayal of my ability and the sign I needed that dentistry was feasible... and it was :)
Scoring well on the DAT was a hurdle but what seemed like more of a headache was committing to a major, did I mention I was indecisive?