Year in review - Freshman year in DAAP
Before coming to the States, I started as being a pretty shy Vietnamese girl who was hardly confident in herself. Coming to college, I also brought with me that feeling of inferiority. I wanted to join clubs, but I was afraid of having no time and dedication. I wanted to talk to other people, but I was afraid of not understanding what they were saying due to my disadvantages in foreign language. I was afraid of everything. However, everything changed after my first year in college. I have grown up a lot from a little girl to be stronger, more confident, and more passionate in what I love.
I used to always talk to my dad about how other people were so good at drawing and design, and how I was really not confident. I always kept that inferiority in my mind. My first day in class, I looked around and I saw a lot of dedication as well as talents in them. I had never seen mine until the architectural sketching project. I still remember how I was ashamed of myself for not being picked as ones of the best drawings for in-class sketches, as my previous drawings were always been picked. I almost cried, and that sense of inferiority again rose up in my mind. I did not give up. Instead, I spent hours outside in the cold to practice my sketches until I got what I was pretty satisfied with them. The result turned out to surprise me a lot. Not only chosen by my teacher, it was also chosen by my classmates as one of the most successful final sketches. I got my first A in my drawing class, and that made me cry not only because of being happy, but also feeling proud of my hard work. This event is considered as one of my most important accomplishments because it gained me my confidence. It is the kind of confidence in my talents and also in success led by hard work.
Having the power of confidence in myself, I tried harder to give something back to the community. I volunteered for the SCPA in Downtown Cincinnati to work with the elementary kids. I spent two hours every Friday to come, have fun and to share stories with them. It is actually not until I started my honors experience that I realized how important it was to volunteer for the SCPA. My honors self-project was all about children: coming to an orphanage and teaching them English as well as vocational training. They all have their own stories. Having worked with the young children before, I had the experience about how to treat and how to get their attention. The two experiences overall helped me to become stronger. It is not obvious that anyone can see it immediately, but it is a subtle growth. I am stronger, because I learn from the kids, from how they overcame their sad stories to live on, or even how they were optimistic about life. I do not say that what I help them is beautiful, it is what they help me to become a present me is sublime.
Another experience that taught me quite a lot was when I became the Vice President of the UC Photography Club. My friends and I all shared the photography interests. We talked about having a club many times, and finally it came true. The moment when we got it approved was when I realized that, as long as we follow our passion and have plans for it, it will come true. The Carnival Rises was our first event together. Although there were only a few members, I got to know a lot more people who wanted to join our club. It taught me how I should be responsible for the club, and for what I promised other people that I would do. The responsibility is not only about myself, but it is also about my whole club and my friends.
Living away from home is one of the most difficult obstacles that I had to face with and overcome. Besides all the achievements accomplished as mentioning above, all the connections that I had in college also meant a lot to me. I got to know people in Honors Program, in the DAAP family, in my dorm building, and in the whole campus. Each group taught me different things. For example, Honors people always taught me to develop in fields such as leadership, DAAP taught me to go crazy and to be who I am, and people I knew around campus taught me different things. However, the kind of connection that taught me the most was my roommates and other people in my building. They are my good friends, indeed my family. They taught me new culture and new vocabulary everyday. With the love that they gave me, they taught me family was not about blood ties, it actually was about how people treated each other. Overall, this kind of relationship helped me to be stronger whenever I was weak, just because of their kindness and love.
A year comparing to a whole life is not much, but I am pretty sure my first year in college has taught me more than what I expected. From all the lessons that I learned in my first year, I will absolutely bring them along me in my second year and so on. The lessons about confident, responsibility, and optimism will help me a lot in my co-op searching progress. As I enter my second year in Graphic Design, it will be the harshest time because it is my first co-op semester. There will be a lot of obstacles, but I believe that I will overcome all of them. I will also do a good job in being a vice president of the UC Photography club. It is one of my first steps to accomplish and make the most of my UC experience. Planning, taking charge, and associating with other people will definitely be the first things I do for the club. I cannot wait for the second year to come. There is no guarantee about the future, I just believe that I will grow up to be a better version of myself.
I used to always talk to my dad about how other people were so good at drawing and design, and how I was really not confident. I always kept that inferiority in my mind. My first day in class, I looked around and I saw a lot of dedication as well as talents in them. I had never seen mine until the architectural sketching project. I still remember how I was ashamed of myself for not being picked as ones of the best drawings for in-class sketches, as my previous drawings were always been picked. I almost cried, and that sense of inferiority again rose up in my mind. I did not give up. Instead, I spent hours outside in the cold to practice my sketches until I got what I was pretty satisfied with them. The result turned out to surprise me a lot. Not only chosen by my teacher, it was also chosen by my classmates as one of the most successful final sketches. I got my first A in my drawing class, and that made me cry not only because of being happy, but also feeling proud of my hard work. This event is considered as one of my most important accomplishments because it gained me my confidence. It is the kind of confidence in my talents and also in success led by hard work.
Having the power of confidence in myself, I tried harder to give something back to the community. I volunteered for the SCPA in Downtown Cincinnati to work with the elementary kids. I spent two hours every Friday to come, have fun and to share stories with them. It is actually not until I started my honors experience that I realized how important it was to volunteer for the SCPA. My honors self-project was all about children: coming to an orphanage and teaching them English as well as vocational training. They all have their own stories. Having worked with the young children before, I had the experience about how to treat and how to get their attention. The two experiences overall helped me to become stronger. It is not obvious that anyone can see it immediately, but it is a subtle growth. I am stronger, because I learn from the kids, from how they overcame their sad stories to live on, or even how they were optimistic about life. I do not say that what I help them is beautiful, it is what they help me to become a present me is sublime.
Another experience that taught me quite a lot was when I became the Vice President of the UC Photography Club. My friends and I all shared the photography interests. We talked about having a club many times, and finally it came true. The moment when we got it approved was when I realized that, as long as we follow our passion and have plans for it, it will come true. The Carnival Rises was our first event together. Although there were only a few members, I got to know a lot more people who wanted to join our club. It taught me how I should be responsible for the club, and for what I promised other people that I would do. The responsibility is not only about myself, but it is also about my whole club and my friends.
Living away from home is one of the most difficult obstacles that I had to face with and overcome. Besides all the achievements accomplished as mentioning above, all the connections that I had in college also meant a lot to me. I got to know people in Honors Program, in the DAAP family, in my dorm building, and in the whole campus. Each group taught me different things. For example, Honors people always taught me to develop in fields such as leadership, DAAP taught me to go crazy and to be who I am, and people I knew around campus taught me different things. However, the kind of connection that taught me the most was my roommates and other people in my building. They are my good friends, indeed my family. They taught me new culture and new vocabulary everyday. With the love that they gave me, they taught me family was not about blood ties, it actually was about how people treated each other. Overall, this kind of relationship helped me to be stronger whenever I was weak, just because of their kindness and love.
A year comparing to a whole life is not much, but I am pretty sure my first year in college has taught me more than what I expected. From all the lessons that I learned in my first year, I will absolutely bring them along me in my second year and so on. The lessons about confident, responsibility, and optimism will help me a lot in my co-op searching progress. As I enter my second year in Graphic Design, it will be the harshest time because it is my first co-op semester. There will be a lot of obstacles, but I believe that I will overcome all of them. I will also do a good job in being a vice president of the UC Photography club. It is one of my first steps to accomplish and make the most of my UC experience. Planning, taking charge, and associating with other people will definitely be the first things I do for the club. I cannot wait for the second year to come. There is no guarantee about the future, I just believe that I will grow up to be a better version of myself.