I have to admit, starting off the school year, I couldn’t help my nervousness as I stepped into my first class on the first day of school. It felt like all of my worries were rushing out with every step closer I took to the door. But, just as the anxiety had come quickly, it had left just as fast. While there were many things I had learned this year, I would say learning to be open, taking the first step, and facing everything with an optimistic attitude had to be the most important lessons. 

I learned that you have to open yourself up to change, even if you may be avoiding it at first. The more open you are the easier it becomes to adapt to any situation. Meeting new people, learning new things, and going to office hours become easier when you’re not constantly worrying about taking the first step. Honestly speaking, the first step to everything is the absolute hardest thing to do. At the start of the fall semester, it was difficult to start a conversation with someone you didn’t know and were just conveniently sitting next to, but you just had to make the first step to realize that it was easy to make new friends once you got the ball rolling. Nothing will happen if no one makes the first move and suddenly you’ll realize, it’s quite easy to be stuck in an atmosphere of awkward silence.

Opening up to possibilities with an optimistic attitude rather than thinking of what could go wrong helps whenever you have to face a challenging situation. If you face something just thinking about the negatives, you’ve already lost half the battle and you’ve stuck yourself into a scenario that may end up being self fulfilling. Whenever I have to do something, I always try to think about the benefits. This difficult class, no problem, it’ll be training for the future. Group of people I don’t know, strengthening communication skills. Presenting in front of many people in the class with cameras, preparation for when the presentation will count even more.

I must say, even though the rest of this semester wasn’t how I imagined it would end, staying positive and open definitely helped me get through the last few weeks. 

Lastly, even though it’s unrelated, as we near the end of our semester, I want to thank you, my classmates and professor for making this English class a more enjoyable experience than I could’ve ever expected. While I tried to avoid the idea of an 8:45am class at all costs when I was scheduling, I’m happy that against all of my instincts telling me no, I still decided to take this class and had the chance to interact with all of you. And to Professor Freeman, you made me look forward to going to such an early class. Thank you for making English 110 more enjoyable!

I also learned how to bake a few new things 🙂

Ciana Fe Gadut