Finals week is finally over, and with that marks the end of my third semester at UT Dallas. It's crazy to think how time flies - it honestly doesn't feel like I've been in school for four and a half months, and that half my sophomore year is already over. I remember being really excited about this year - I expected that this year as a whole was going to be challenging, yet rewarding, and this semester in particular, I was the slightest bit nervous about how well I was going to do, with all the stuff that was going to be on my plate - not just classes, but extracurricular commitments as well. This semester, I took 19 hours (4 of those hours were research), and on top of that, I had an on-campus job, was in the PLTL mentor program, was involved in two research programs (one in a lab on campus, and one at Parkland), was secretary of PCFA (Pro-Choice Feminist Alliance), and was a part of several other organizations. I remember thinking back in August, "How am I going to balance all of this stuff?" But now that the semester is over, looking back, I think I did pretty well. I made good grades in all of my classes (even organic chemistry, the class that threatened to kill me this semester), and I was able to devote time to all of those other commitments as well. I love my job, and I'm definitely continuing that next semester, as well as continuing in research. Next semester will be equally as tough, if not more - I have 21 hours on my schedule, and in addition, I'll be a PLTL leader for general chemistry II and moving up to vice-president of PCFA. Things are ramping up, but I know I'll be able to handle it.
This semester was probably one of my favorite semesters at UTD so far - last year, I enjoyed my fall semester, but since I only took 16 hours, it was kind of a light semester for me and I wished I had done more at the end of it. Spring semester last year wasn't as great, but it taught me some really valuable and necessary lessons about time management and making sure that I wasn't ruining my own health and well-being in the process. This semester, I felt ready to take on the challenges that my schedule presented, and overall, I think I handled it pretty well. Not just that, but the classes I took this semester were some of the best and most enjoyable classes I've taken here so far - literature of science fiction, patient narratives, socio-behavioral sciences for medicine, and bio I were my personal favorites. I'm going to miss these classes and the professors who taught them immensely, but I felt that they were definitely rewarding experiences that I'm thankful to have. I can only hope that next semester proves to be a similar story - the classes I'm particularly looking forward to are biochemistry and health economics (although the latter doesn't sound immediately interesting to most people, I know it's going to be a heavily writing and discussion-based class, and that's the kind of stuff I enjoy, so I hope it does go well).
This semester was probably one of my favorite semesters at UTD so far - last year, I enjoyed my fall semester, but since I only took 16 hours, it was kind of a light semester for me and I wished I had done more at the end of it. Spring semester last year wasn't as great, but it taught me some really valuable and necessary lessons about time management and making sure that I wasn't ruining my own health and well-being in the process. This semester, I felt ready to take on the challenges that my schedule presented, and overall, I think I handled it pretty well. Not just that, but the classes I took this semester were some of the best and most enjoyable classes I've taken here so far - literature of science fiction, patient narratives, socio-behavioral sciences for medicine, and bio I were my personal favorites. I'm going to miss these classes and the professors who taught them immensely, but I felt that they were definitely rewarding experiences that I'm thankful to have. I can only hope that next semester proves to be a similar story - the classes I'm particularly looking forward to are biochemistry and health economics (although the latter doesn't sound immediately interesting to most people, I know it's going to be a heavily writing and discussion-based class, and that's the kind of stuff I enjoy, so I hope it does go well).
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