Hello, everyone! For those of you visiting not visiting this page for the first time, you're probably a bit confused. Initially, I had decided to document my year in review by creating another video and discussing the ups, downs, and lessons from my third year in college. The video I created was very personal to me, and though it served its purpose at the time, I began to feel that it wasn't fitting to have it displayed on my portfolio anymore.
That sounds probably way more serious than I intend it to. What I really mean is that I've seen an uptick in the number of viewers on my learning portfolio. That increase was met with a similar increase in viewers of my 2014-2015 year-in-review video. After a while, the thought of complete strangers knowing so much about the personal challenges I faced throughout the year didn't sit right with me. I try to be fairly open-book about my experiences, but I think it's a different story when you're sharing sometimes serious moments with people who don't know much else about you. Now, if I had a full-on YouTube channel or something like that it would be a different story. Then I'd be able to show the many, many different sides of myself and give everyone a more complete picture, but unfortunately, I don't have the camera equipment for that quite yet...
Many of you, especially the first timers, are probably wondering at this point, "So what was your third year of college like, Sophie?", and to answer that, I'll go ahead and recap the five lessons/goals I took away from my third year of college, told as if it were still last spring!
I can't do everything, and I shouldn't feel like I have to! I have a tendency to pick up people's slack more often than I should, which stresses me out, and also smothers the opportunity for them to grow on their own. I have to take a step back, let go of control a little bit, and trust in others more.
Sometimes I'll have to disappoint people to do what's best for me/the people involved in the decision that I'm making. This happened to me when I had to cancel an event in February (2015) due to weather concerns, and I think it'll happen more next year considering how much more involved I've become. There are a lot more people that'll be looking up to me for things and counting on me, and I have to accept that sometimes I won't be able to come through for them.
I need to work on my indecisiveness and not overthink decisions about my future. Though I'm approaching senior year and the inevitable job hunt, I don't have to have a set career path laid out in front of me. This year I was able to realize that I don't want to pursue a graduate degree right away and would rather explore my career options beforehand. So instead of continuing to overthink my plans, I should stick to my gut decision instead of letting others influence my decision-making.
I need to work on maintaining my relationships better! I've met some amazing people this year, and I know with the amount of responsibilities I'll have next year, it'll be easy to let those connections fizzle out. I need to learn how to check in with them more often and extend myself to them as a friend and a resource more directly.
I want to develop a healthy balance between dreams/things that aren't immediately realistic and my reality. I think it can be really dangerous for people to shut out all of their passions that don't relate to what they're doing everyday. I have a ton of different passions and interests, and I don't want to necessarily let most of them go once I graduate and move onto a job in environmental science. I want to be sure to keep my options open and always make room for opportunities that can lead to personal growth!
So those were my five lessons from 2014-2015. If I can magically get my hard drive working properly again (as I woke up to a crashed computer today), I might just go back in and edit my video to only include this portion of my reflection. That, of course, is to be decided, but for now, I hope you all have a better idea of what this year meant to me and what kinds of musings it inspired. Updates to come!