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Getting Settled In and The First Weeks

Hello everyone, Jack here again to share some of my experience at UC Irvine! Since my last post I have finally been able to move in on campus and begin to enjoy life on campus. I have started all of my fall courses and similar to some other students have begun to have my first midterms this week. While I only have midterms for two classes, I am in full school-mode in all of my classes. As the school year is in full swing, there are a lot of events around campus. While I have attended many athletic events and I intend to attend more and share my experience, I would like to share my experience with an ASUCI event, which I recently attended.

On October 17th, an event was hosted at the garden in Arroyo Vista, where students were able to take a tour around the garden, participate in activities related to the garden and learn about sustainability organizations on campus. I attended the event because I wanted to learn more about the student-run garden on campus. The event was engaging as there were many activities to participate in such as planting a plant in the garden, painting a pot and then planting a winter plant in it and creating a bath salt using herbs from the garden.

This event was fun as I was able to explore the garden, get a plant for my room (I did not have any before) and learn how to create a bath salt. I did not only learn technical skills, but I also learned about the three sisters gardening technique used by Native Americans during a scavenger hunt around the garden. There were also some cool offerings from some groups around campus, who gave out stickers and reusable straws. I was even able to test my knowledge of vegetables which are green at the event.

The scavenger hunt
A pot which I painted and am growing winter greens in
Bath salt creation
A lavender plant which I added to the school garden

As the quarter continues and more students get busier and busier, I hope that everyone does well with their courses. I know that a lot of people are studying and I see that firsthand as in my hall people stay up late at night to write on whiteboards all of the key concepts which are necessary to know for their courses.

As I begin to sign off until next time, I want to wish all students good luck with all of their exams, the fall student athletes, good luck with the end of their seasons and members of organizations a good rest of October.

That is it for me for now and I will be back in around two weeks writing about the midterm experience at UC Irvine!

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Zot Blog 2023-2024: Enter Clay

Hey there! I’m Clay (he/him) and I’m a freshman this year in U/U. A little about me is that I’m from Orange County, California, I really love D&D, and I really like visual and performing arts.

Becoming an Anteater has been really exciting for me. I really enjoyed SPOP, it really gave me a chance to get out of my shell. I performed in the SPOP 6 talent show (SPOP 6 gang let’s goooo!) and I got to have a lot of really cool conversations with UCI students both incoming, currently attending, and graduated.

I’m actually writing this segment at the end of Welcome Week. At this point, I’ve moved into my dorm and seen what UCI really has to offer. And let me tell you- It’s a lot. I’ve met so many amazing people and experienced so many new things just in the span of a week. One of my greatest fears is what people think of me, and here I honestly really feel free of the paranoia of what people think of me. I’ve met so many people that have the same interests as me, ranging from my taste in music to my guilty pleasures like watching silly cartoons and cheesy action movies.

That’s not even getting started on the variety of clubs on campus. There’s so many clubs that range from major specific groups focused on student success to general clubs for common interests to identity based clubs that uplift members of the community. At the Anteater Involvement Fair, I walked around for hours in the hot sun just to get a taste of all the organizations created by my fellow Anteaters that existed. I can safely say that the sunburn was annoying but checking everything out was so worth it. Even then, I hardly even scratched the surface of all of the clubs that were not my cup of tea. I was mostly interested in clubs focusing on the arts, humanities, and the creative community at UCI. There were so many other groups that were outside of my interests but would attract many other students, such as pre-law societies, med student clubs, greek life, and more. Even though I don’t have a major, I stopped by some of those booths and was excited to learn about the internships and research that these clubs conducted.

Moving on from clubs, the social aspect of being at college has been overwhelmingly positive for me. Truth be told, I’m a very insecure person and I often overthink interactions with my peers. But with our late night walks in Aldrich Park to just hanging out in our dorm rooms, It’s been such an honor to meet so many funny, intelligent, and genuine people. Even people that don’t share my interests are willing to let me talk about my silly shows and crafting endeavors. In return, I get to hear about what they like, and it makes me so happy to hear about what makes other people happy.

I’ve gone on long enough. Being at UCI has been a great experience so far and I can’t wait to see what else is in store for me. I hope that I can be a resource for anyone who reads the blog, and that I can inspire people to get out of their comfort zone and have the college experience. Inspire may be a strong word to use, but I’m excited to show people what being an Anteater can be!

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Zot Blog 2023-2024: Enter Lindsay

HELLO READERS!! My name is Lindsay Mikuni, and I am from Sacramento, California. As much as I love Sacramento, it was time to depart from my hometown of 17 years to Irvine for the next four years of my life! I am a Japanese Chinese American, which is, in a way, ironic. I love trying out new things; adventuring off into new places; and really anything spontaneous. A trip to the beach at sunrise or sunset? YES! Mcdonald’s at 2am? YES! My go-to order is the oreo mcflurry or the vanilla soft serve. I’m not sure if this is a popular opinion, but pair that with some fries, and I’m set. Although, with me being lactose intolerant, I’m not sure if my stomach agrees. I love love love the beach so much, and that is a perk of living in Irvine, which I’m grateful for. I may not have a car, but I will gladly spend money on an uber, or even, if I’m desperate, beg people with cars to drive me.

The summer of ’23 will always hold special memories for me. I’ve always imagined the perfect summer: one filled with exploration, love, pure joy, and, let’s be honest, freedom. This summer has finally lived up to my dreams. Being able to spend time with my close friends that I consider to be family, and making precious memories before we all departed for college was such a bittersweet experience. From all the long road trips to all the parties where cake somehow always ended up flying in the air and into people’s faces, is something I will forever cherish not only in my camera roll, but my memories.

Ever since I was younger, I dreamed of moving out and off into the world by myself, and at the time, it wasn’t as daunting as it is now. When I was given the opportunity to attend UCI, I was very hesitant. I’m not kidding when I say this, but I accepted my admission offer on the last day at around 11:55 pm to be exact. I have a video of me sobbing happy tears, but also sad tears surrounded by my family, the ones I’d have to leave behind. It was a tough decision, but I knew this was a great opportunity I couldn’t pass up. From meeting people from all around the world to managing my life and creating core memories, I locked in my decision from that moment. I am super excited for this fall quarter coming up, and I can’t wait to meet everyone!

Moving forward with my Zot blog and hopefully future blogs, I hope to share my own experience going along college, and display to readers all my challenges, but most importantly successes. Attending UCI will prove to be a challenge both mentally and physically, but I hope to make the most out of my experience and grow from it all. BEST OF LUCK TO EVERYONE!!! College is challenging, but please remember to always put yourself first and take some time for yourself!

ZOTZOTZOT !!!

Lindsay

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Zot Blog 2023-2024: Enter Jack

Hello fellow anteaters and all others who are reading this post! My name is Jack Fedor and I am a freshman at UCI who is living on campus in Mesa Court. I currently am undeclared as for my major, but through the course of this school year and shared through these posts, I hope to share my journey towards declaring a major. Entering the school year I am interested in majors in science such as biology, chemistry, physics and earth system science. However I am going to take classes and participate in other activities which hopefully will allow me to experience other fields before I decide on a major. Some other information about me is that I am from Sacramento and I was able to participate in a lot of activities when I was in high school there. I wrote a bunch of articles for my school and a community newspaper, I competed on my high school’s mock trial team and I was a sound and lighting director for my school’s drama productions. I also volunteered a lot with community organizations and was a part of my high school’s student government. The point of sharing all of this information is that I hope to participate in a lot of activities (both similar and different) during my time at UCI.

This summer I was able to go to UCI for the first time for SPOP. That trip was my first trip to Southern California in nine years, so while it was a school I had never been to, it was also a region in California I had not been to in a long time. From the moment I arrived in Orange County, I felt like I was in a place that I would enjoy spending the next few years. This belief felt even more true as I arrived at UCI. From finding the dorm that I would stay at, organizing activities at the dorm, answering questions and guiding me to the evening activities at the student center, all of the older students helped me learn so much about the campus and feel like I was a part of the school. I was able to meet so many new people during orientation and make so many new friends, it was a super enjoyable experience. The one memorable thing about orientation for the students who attended it was that it was the first SPOP to be ended early. The tropical storm which hit Southern California on the second day of my SPOP may have ended the event earlier, but I think it made us all try to enjoy the first day more since we knew there was not going to be a second one. The people in my dorm and probably other students at the SPOP will remember it as the hurricane one and will have a story to tell future anteaters.

I hope that I can share many more exciting events during the school years, that are just as interesting as orientation, but hopefully none of them end the same way. Have a great start to the school year everyone and I hope to meet many more anteaters on campus in the upcoming month!

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Roll Credits

Hello, ZotBlog readers.  It’s a bit bittersweet, but here I am – for the final time – to reflect on the last first-year quarter of my life (as far as I know)  (the future is full of possibility).  I’ve enjoyed writing and reflecting and I hope my experience is of some value to someone, even if it’s just 

I think, all in all, it’s been a bit of a cocoon year for me; as a commuter, entering college wasn’t the huge, fresh restart that it is for people who move across state borders into a new school with different weather and different people and a whole different culture surrounding it.  For me, it was more of a subtle change, brought about in more purposeful class meetings and assignments (you had to be there every day in high school; in college, a lot of my classes have only met twice a week, with the teacher covering several topics in one lecture) and a heightened sense of independence.

The reason why I said this was a “cocoon year” is because due to the way that college is structured, I’ve had the opportunity to step back more, to think (and to sometimes avoid thinking) in ways that the flurry of high school did not allow.  I’ve spent a lot more time thinking about what I want to do, not only in the realm of major/career plans, but also with regards to hobbies and interests, thinking about who I want to be (and how I want to express that) in addition to what matters to me.  So, it’s been a year of self-development!  The goals I set at the beginning of the school year have morphed and changed as I’ve gotten used to the flow of college life, but that’s okay because I have a little more certainty about who I am and how I’m going.

I think that that is the one piece of advice I’d impart on you all: move forward, try new things, have new experiences (this is college, after all!  The first taste of independence…) but also take the time to think about those new experiences – especially those that might leave you feeling weird (in both a good or bad way) – and learn more about yourself from them.  The quarter system can move even faster than you might think it can, and it’s easy for things to creep up on you or come back to haunt you during its less frantic periods, so try to set aside time to be with yourself and think despite it all.

With regards to being Undeclared, I think my advice would be to have as much fun as you can when it comes to choosing courses; personally, I came into college with a lot of credits due to AP exams, so I had already satisfied quite a few of my GE requirements.  So, rather than worrying about taking the easiest GE’s with the nicest professors, I had a bit more leniency to take random classes that I thought would be fun and ended up learning about things that I wouldn’t have thought twice about otherwise.  I think based on who I am, if I had come into college with a major, I probably would have focused on progressing towards graduation as quickly as I could, but that was sometimes not possible due to restrictions and limits on course enrollment, so I ended up taking courses that I wasn’t anticipating and learned more about myself and the world around me in the process.

Closing off this post, I ask that you all keep me in your thoughts because as of right now, I’m still Undeclared.  I’ll be taking the final for the last change of major requirement – the class that will decide whether or not I’ll be able to declare Computer Science sorta by the end of my first year at UCI – on Tuesday.  I’ve been studying hard and coding diligently, but I need all the well wishes and good energy I can get.  

It’s been super great writing for you all this year; I’ve enjoyed my experience very much.  Writing for ZotBlog has been like a savepoint in a video game for me, as being a ZotBlogger forced me to set aside time to sit down and take inventory of where I am and where I intend to go (this is something I may have avoided doing otherwise, so I’m grateful).  It’s a shame that our time is coming to an end, but I’m glad we’ve spent it well and I hope you all will look forward to the adventures of the next set of ZotBloggers!