Reflecting back on last quarter as a whole I feel like personally, it was relatively successful. With all the excitement and anticipation of having to start my college career off right, I had a lot of motivation to find a good balance between my personal, social, and academic life. I was fortunate enough to begin my first weeks last quarter with a routine schedule that worked for me and so I settled into a comfortable groove early on. Of course, life hit in unpredictable ways and so I still had to prioritize things over my own sleep schedule.
The end of the quarter (a.k.a. finals season) was a blur of all-nighters and consequential illnesses and was overall an experience I prefer to not go through again, but unfortunately will have to in the coming quarters (but hey, that’s college for ya). Nevertheless, I am grateful to have had a relaxing break after finals to recover from all the stress and also reconnect with my family and friends back home.
Now that the break is over and a new quarter has been in session for three weeks, I firstly have to admit that I have yet to resolve the sleep deprivation issue of last quarter. I am also taking more challenging classes but they are all very interesting to me and so I feel like I am adequately engaged. My goal this quarter is to be able to begin to experiment with different schedules so as to prioritize my sleep and overall health among this bigger workload.
Despite this initial bump in the road to my new year (and new quarter) resolutions, I see that the biggest difference coming back to school this term is that after meeting so many new people last year, I feel like this quarter will have many opportunities to solidify many friendships. So along with exploring my interests academically I am excited to further relationships with my peers. The excitement of a new school may not be as present but as I become more comfortable with my life at UCI I can begin to find my role in my school community through my upcoming pursuits so stay tuned!