One of the most interesting events that happened to me was on Saturday, two days before Veterans Day when my high school friend (let’s call him Michael) and I decided to go for a hike and catch up. We haven’t seen each other for a while and we both were excited about this hike. We left around 4:00 pm, anticipating be back home around 8 or 9 pm most because the hike wasn’t too long.
A couple of hours went by we talked about a lot of things: college, classes, workload, balancing, health, career, and life in general. It was a fun and relaxed trip until my friend said: “Let’s go back to the parking lot and grab dinner.” I agreed and started to head back from the trail we walked on, only to realize something was off.
“Shouldn’t there be a sign somewhere saying what trail it is and how long it was?” I asked. There was no sign anywhere and it was getting dark.
“What about the map?” Michael asked. We pulled out the map and tried to make sense of our location, but it was no help.
“Let me just use the GPS and we are out of here,” I said. I pulled out my cell phone, but to our dismay, I had no service.
“Hey I don’t have any service, could you check yours?” I asked anxiously. Michael had no service either.
“We are lost aren’t we.” pointed out Michael. I nodded slowly while trying to figure out a way to get back to the car. We decided to walk back on the unknown trail we were on and hope to see another human being or a sign or intersection. About an hour later, we had no luck but we kept walking. It was around 9:30 pm my phone buzzed with concern messages and phone calls from my parents and I realized we finally got the network. GPS led us out back to the car and I was never more glad to see a car or a parking lot until that day. We drove back home, and I explained to my concern parents what really happened.
Looking back, I realized we would have an easier time getting out if it wasn’t for how dark it got, because of the daylight savings time. But even more, I realized both my friend and I kept our cool and didn’t panic. Sure we got scared of snakes possibly slithering around, but we kept marching. Now, everytime we talk about this event, we laugh about the interesting event that happened.
Midterm Madness
Hey there! It’s currently week 5 in UCI and it’s a pretty stressful week because it’s midterm week. You might think the midterm week is nothing, but imagine only having two hw assignments for your grade book and midterms being 30% of your grade. And you can only take the midterm once. To top it all off, if you messed up your midterm, well I will just leave it there. That was the mindset I came when I started college. I knew grades and GPA has the most priority, (even more than my life), and I can’t use my “don’t study pass class” high school technique. So I sat down in a study room, opened my laptop, and opened the lecture slides. Not much sign of productivity, because I ended up chatting with my friends. My test was on Monday and I only had a weekend to study, so I hit up one of my buddies to study together. We agreed and met in a food court, and for 5 hours straight, I was able to study. I took notes on each powerpoints and revised my hw assignments. Sunday came and I was more determined to pass this midterm, and I once again studied for 3 hours. At this point, I was getting tired, studying for 8 hours for 12 power points. The midterm had a formula and it had only 25 multiple choice questions and I studied for 8 hours. One might think I was putting in too much effort, and I thought that too. So I took a break with gaming and memes. Life was great. I was getting confident about my knowledge and started to take more frequent breaks. Life was going great, and I envisioned myself getting an A for this midterm.
How wrong I was. Dead wrong.
Monday morning rolled in and I mentally prepared myself to finish this midterm and get out of the class. I went to class holding my review paper, glancing at notes to see if I didn’t miss any information. A friend came and asked the classic exam question: “Are you ready?” With confidence, I replied, “Oh yeah, can’t wait to take it and leave class.” Soon the class filed in and I started taking out my supplies, cram-reviewing my notes. The exam came and I opened the first page.
I came out of the exam thinking how dead wrong I was about this midterm. The questions were filled with dark magic and questions more twisted than a rope. I thought where I went wrong about my midterm, and I realized it was my style of studying. I studied my lecture, not understand the content. Disappointed with myself, I became more determined about my upcoming midterm this Friday and do my very best to pass the midterm.
Moral of the story?
Never be overconfident. If you feel overconfident, it probably means you are not ready for the test. There is a difference between studying and understanding. Don’t just study and memorize, like actually understand the content and try to apply to real life. Because everything you learn in college has a form of application in real life.
If you are a high school student reading this (or anyone else): don’t be scared about exams. You might be thinking about putting in 10 times more hours than you normally do in high school, but honestly, it’s worth it. If you pass, good job. On the other hand, if you failed your midterm, don’t cry, don’t give up, but learn from it. Where did you go wrong? And remember college is fun, it’s the last student life you will have before heading joining the labor force. Everything has its own challenges, and after all, you grow from overcoming the challenges if you have the right mindset.
Introduction + Week 1-2
My name is Viraj Gandhi, and I am currently undeclared (obviously since I was able to join U/U Zot Blog), but I am planning to change my major to Business Information Management, or BIM for short. I was born in India but I moved to America ten years ago. Some of my hobbies included EDMs, TV shows, (The Office is a great one), and movies. With that, I was excited to start college.
I stood in my dorm room, imagining what people call “college life”. I had hopes and dreams about what I want to achieve, what skills I need to build. However, I also kept an open mind, looking for opportunities to grow myself in any way I can. This was me in week zero, lots of time, nothing much to do. Week one and two flew really fast.
Academically everything was going fine, or so I thought. The first couple of lectures of my classes left me confused. I asked questions, but it left me even more confused. Not a great start to classes, but I decided to give myself some time. The transition from high school to college academically is difficult but I wasn’t discouraged. Instead, I gave myself time to adjust because I know everything will work out. Aside from class, homework is interesting too. Normally I get homework every day, but there are classes where there is no homework, or it’s once a week. Because of this change, I found myself with more time to do more.
Throughout my two weeks, I was able to find a good group of friends,, but I have to say my roommate is a great person. One of the great quality is his friendly personality. For example, during weekends, both my roomie and I stay up around 3 am watching our own movies. Or if we need to go out at 3 am to enjoy fresh air at Crescent bay park, or get a snack at In-n-Out at 12 am, he is ready. Of course, we don’t go out late at night every weekend, but the rare moments that make you appreciate your friendship. Of there were lows with my social life. For example, I applied to a business fraternity and attended every rush event, asked a lot of questions, talked to the brothers, but I woke up finding a letter of rejection. What got me upset was not the rejection, because I got a lot of it during high school, but it was knowing I worked really hard. I put my heart into it, skipped going to other interest clubs’ (not lectures) events but I wasn’t successful. But because of the rejection, I was able to see my flaws. Looking back at this event, I realized that college, and even life, will not give you everything you want, but it will give you things worth remembering, whether good or bad.
I realized I wrote a lot of deep things for my introduction, but I am a reflective person. Every little thing that happens to me, I reflect on it, because I am constantly seeking to improve myself and create a college experience I don’t want to forget.