As this semester reaches the end I find I am proud of myself for surviving what has been some of the most challenging few months of my life. No, I did not fight in a war or deal with severe emotional trauma but I did overcome a semester of pure craziness. Never before have a I felt so tested academically, emotionally and physically. The semester started off pretty rocky after a disappointing spring semester and an upsetting summer experience. An awful internship evaluation left my confidence shattered. Even though this semester pulled me in a million directions, in the end I feel confident that no matter the results I pulled through like a champ.
A highlight of my semester was that it was going to be my chance to step outside the communications school more and experience some classes outside my comfort zone of IMC land. One of those classes included a sociology class, Contemporary Global Issues. At first I didn’t really like the class for a few reasons:
- I was eager to share my thoughts but heart broken when others didn’t agree
- We talked only about the problems in the world and never spoke about the solutions. I often felt completely helpless every time I left class.
- My professor graded me really hard so I did TERRIBLE on my first 2 papers
By the end of the semester I LOVED this class. I was SO glad my professor was a hard-ass on me because it pushed me to produce not good work but GREAT work. She pushed me to think harder and provide stronger arguments for my thoughts. The class got me to think in a way I had ever thought before. Even though this class has no direct correlation to my career plans, I know that this was a life changing class I’m so glad I took. The concepts I learned in that will stick with me for a very long time. I’m almost a little sad that I waited this long to take a sociology class because I truly enjoyed it. I can guarantee I will definitely be taking a class with that professor again in the future, no matter what she is teaching.
This semester I started to realize that many of my professors never let me off the hook when I produce good work. I feel like they often see something inside of me that I can’t even see and push me to do better. In the end I am always grateful for the motivation but I don’t know how they know that I’m going to respond in a positive way when they give me intense negative feedback? How do they know I won’t just giving up? Am I that obvious? Do they really know that negative feedback will just ignite that drive to prove them wrong or is it all a guessing game?
This semester I’m also proud of my ability to balance every commitment I’ve taken on, from serving as president of both AAF & RHA, to Director of Communications for Spirit Week, while working 20 hours a week and more. It has been an absolute pleasure dedicating all of this time to every organization and office, regardless of how much sleep I missed out on. I would never give back the hours I spent contributing to everything this semester and I will absolutely miss all of it while in London. When I return things won’t be the same and that does make me sad.
This semester even offered a small moment with a boy. A boy I was totally into. But well. It happened and then it didn’t…
Anyway, this is the end of Fall of 2012. I’m looking forward to the spring semester IN LONDON! 21 DAYS!
Marissa Osowsky 