Undecided/Undeclared Anteaters Blog

My name is Maria Shockley (nickname’s Mia), and I’ll be one of your Zot Bloggers for the ’10-’11 school year here at UCI(University of California, Irvine). I am way too excited to be blogging about all the amazing things that make UCI special to me. But before I start talking about my school, you should probably know some things about me, right? To begin with, I am German and Filipino, German from my father’s side and Filipino from my mother’s. The thing about being multiracial is that when they give me those surveys asking what ethnicity I am, I get to check the “other” box. But seriously, I love who I am, I love that I’ve been exposed to two different cultures and its definitely shaped who I am today. I’ve visited both Germany and the Philippines, as well as a multitude of other places in Europe, Asia, and Australia. I love to travel, and will definitely be looking into studying abroad at some point here at UCI.

I grew up in Northern California, in a town called Union City, located in the East Bay Area. Union City, to me, is one of the greatest places to live because of its diversity. Like many places in California, Union City has so many different cultures represented which makes the place that much more interesting. I attended James Logan High School, the only high school in the city meaning that it had a population of 4000 students. My 4 years at my high school were almost entirely filled with my main extra curricular, band. Now I need you to leave all your stereotypes about band at the door because we were anything but the norm. When you looked at our group of 300 people, you saw each type of person represented, from the jocks to the braniacs and everywhere in between. In the fall there was marching band, and then the rest of the year consisted of concert band. I played the flute, piccolo, and, during the spring of my senior year, cymbals.I could go on for days about my program, the entire world of competitive bands, and the experiences I had, but all I’ll say is that it was a once in a lifetime experience. Although I’m not sure how being a musician will fit into my college experience as of now, I’ll be sure to blog about whatever may happen pertaining to that. Some of my other interests include playing soccer, cooking, eating, and listening to music (I’ve got a diversified taste).

Of course, my major is Undecided/Undeclared (UU), and I honestly have no idea what direction I’ll being going in as far as choosing a major. But being a UU gives me so much more freedom to explore than those who have chosen a major that they were unsure of, so I am happy being one as of right now. My plan for this upcoming year is to take classes in many different fields to find something that I really enjoy, and then stick with that.

Coming to college from high school is probably one of the most shocking, exhilarating, scary, and amazing experiences of your life. There’s just so much being thrown at you that you cannot possibly remember everything told to you in your first weeks, from what times you can eat, to where your classes are, to who to call when you’re locked out of your dorm at 3am. And there’s also a lot that goes unmentioned, things that may be crucial to your development in college. So, I’ve decided to get you, dear blog readers, the insider’s information on the campus resources here at UCI. I know what you’re thinking, that this is going to be the boring blog, the one you’ll skip over to see the food or athletics blogs. But I promise to make this as interesting as possible, and if any of you have tips on what you’d like to hear about or how to make this more interesting, write up a comment and I’ll be sure to take it into consideration. I’ll be covering resources from libraries to LARC (if you don’t know what that stands for, don’t worry. You’ll find out soon enough!), and I sincerely hope that the information will help you in some way. That’s all for now, have wonderful week everyone!