This past spring quarter, I have seen a lot of change and growth in myself. I think that this is the quarter that I have changed the most; which is interesting since some people will say the same for fall quarter being away from home. With the self reflections that we have been doing in Honors 397, this has allowed me to really look at the person I am. What did I want to change about myself, what were things I liked about myself, and what were things I didn’t like about myself.
I have always thought of myself as a leader. All throughout high school, I served as an ASB officer. Because of this, I thought I knew everything about what it takes to be a leader. Little did I know there were actually a lot of aspects of being a leader entailed. Serving a leadership position varies from the environment you are in. In Honors 100, the role that I will be serving as is a peer educator for the students. This position is kind of tricky in how you can undergo how to serve. I think this position is very vital for first year students. Not only will I be serving a educator role to them, I will also be a peer. Someone for them to go to if they have a question about honors or UW or really anything about being a college student.
At the beginning of the class, I was actually pretty shy which is weird because that's not usually how I am. Overtime, I opened up more and felt more comfortable around my fellow peer educators. The reason that I picked the picture from the retreat is because I grew a lot closer to my classmate in those two days than I had before in the five class periods we had spent together. Typically before class started, i was usually on my phone because I didn’t know anyone else. I used it as a way to hide that fact. However, after the retreat, I grew a lot closer to everyone and started talking to people before class.
My teaching skills have definitely improved over the course of the quarter. For our first teaching activity, for the group teach where we taught about anything, I was pretty nervous. I rushed through my five minute teach and finished my teach in three minutes. I learned a lot from this teach; first that I needed to slow down my speaking, and that it was pretty chill. Teaching, in this environment, shouldn’t be something to stress about. For our second teach, the group curriculum teach, I did a lot better but there was still room for improvement. At the end of the quarter, with the individual teach behind me, I know I need to work on my pacing and how fast I speak. This are both things I can control; I will just need to practice.
My first year at UW has come to an end but I have experienced a lot of change as a person. This is exactly what I wanted, I wanted to go away to college and come back a better person. I have grown a lot. It’s funny being in honors since they really push for reflection. If I hadn’t done all this reflection and thought about myself, I would have never realized the growth I’ve done. I am grateful for the past year; although it has been one of the hard years I have ever gone through, I am very fortunate about all the experiences I have undergone. I am excited for what is to come in the next three years at UW.