Hi friends, hope we’re all keeping well.
Second year has just started this week, and things have been pretty hectic to say the least. What I’m trying to be super careful of not doing though is losing sight of my long-term goals for college, i.e. what I’m trying to get out of it. I wrote a post just before the beginning of my 1st year, detailing what resolutions I had for my college life, and what I wished to achieve and do. This post will simply be a check-up on those resolutions and goals. Have I been doing well so far? Have any resolutions completely slipped my mind? Have I been failing at anything?
In this post we’re just going to sit down and reflect on whether or not I’ve been making good progress with my college resolutions. We’re going to go over the bad, the ugly and the absolute cringe. Maybe hopefully find some good as well though😃
At the end of the reflection I’ll also reminisce on some achievements that happened this year which I think are pretty neat, to further motivate myself for this new academic year.
Resolution 1: 🙋🏻♂️Have Courage🙋🏻♂️
Sure, I think I’ve been relatively brave this year. Most of the time I’ve had a question in class I straight up asked, or I just consulted Google or a friend afterwards.
I even ran for a couple committee positions and had to prepare and give speeches, which of course was terrifying but I still somehow managed. In other situations, I expressed my feelings freely and didn’t worry too much about others’ opinions.
So sure, this resolution is going pretty well so far. Year 1 Score: 8/10
Resolution 2: 🤝Make Connections🤝
Oh yeah of course. The amount of cool new people I met this year was insane. Part of this I suppose comes from having the courage to go out and meet new people, but also I want to say a lot of the connections I now are genuinely interesting people.
From joining different societies, college course meet-ups, and just generally going out for events, I honestly want to say I made new friends from a lot of different places.
Going into second year, I want to try keep up this momentum of meeting some cool new people.
Year 1 Score: 9/10
😵💫Resolution 3: Do Not Work Too Hard😵💫
Ahaha, what a stupid resolution. Not gonna lie, I kinda had to work towards the end of the year for the summer exams, but other than that I generally had a very relaxed and chilled first year in college. The most amount of work I had to do was surviving programming assignments and exams. They ate away a huge chunk of my time.
But yeah other than that, I definitely remembered to not take things too seriously, and went out with friends on most chances I could. Perhaps I’ll have to amp it up a few notches this year though😅
Year 1 Score: 8/10
🌟Resolution 4:Avail of Everything College has to Offer🌟
Hmmm, probably could’ve done much better with this one.
I think for the entire year, I only managed to attend two or three sports events. I definitely didn’t explore campus as much as I could, even though I know there’s a lot of cool places around me. There’s also probably a huge ton of college resources I haven’t even tapped into yet.
While I’ve certainly taken advantage of the society aspects, I think going into 2nd year, I really should try to explore more of what Trinity has to offer.
Year 1 Score: 3/10
🧠Resolution 5: Learn and Be Mindful🧠
Lastly: did I actually learn anything?
Sure, I mean I think so anyway. I even made a whole post going over and rating the stuff I learned this year in college. But generally, I admit I wasn’t very mindful this year. There were several instances where better observation and foresight could’ve helped me avoid some trouble. I also haven’t been making a good attempt at meaningfully remembering things about people. This aspect I definitely can improve on, I feel.
Going into second year, I want to supercharge my mindfulness and observation, as well as delve deeper into my course’s, MSISS’s, material
Year 1 Score: 3/10
Finally, I want to reflect on small things I did/achieved this year, that make me proud. These aren’t necessarily big, life-changing decisions or awards, but just a few small which I think are proof I’m putting effort into making the most out of my years in college.
- Attended the Student Union meetings as class rep for my course. While they started to drag on towards the end of the year when assignments and exams were piling up, I’m still happy I gave this position a try.
- Elected Committee Member for Japanese society. Thinking back upon the day of the AGM, I cringe so god damn hard at my speech and behaviour. But the fact I got this role over others is still a small victory in my opinion. Definitely a good lesson for the future anyway🤦🏻♂️
- Chosen as 1st Year ambassador for the Business and Economics Society. This was hella surprising for me. What I originally applied for solely out of misery because I failed to become an ambassador for another society, ended up being the reason for one of the best experiences of my college life so far. Pathway to meeting some great people, (mostly) free access to fun events, and some other cool stuff here and there. By far the highlight of my 1st year social life.
- Elected Public Relations Officer for the Business and Economics Society. This is kind of laughable, since it turns out I was the only person running for this position. But looking back, if I didn’t have the courage to run for this position, I wouldn’t be able to continue working with the society that left the biggest impression on me in 1st year. So, I suppose the main win here was that I was brave (or stupid) enough to nominate myself for this role at the AGM
- Played in my first ever chess tournament. While my total end score was horrible, it was honestly an amazing experience and some of the most fun I’ve had with chess in a while. It was also a great insight into how chess tournaments worked.
- Helped visiting students settle into Trinity as an S2S mentor (basically a volunteer role to help new incoming Trinity students settle into college). What I initially thought was a pretty stupid and slightly scary idea ended up becoming a fairly fun day as I helped show the new visiting students around campus, and answered their questions about Trinity.
And cool, that’ll probably wrap it up for my 1st Year College Review. Maybe expect another round for 2nd, 3rd and 4th year too🫠
I just think writing down my thoughts and reflections as I’m going through this time of my life would be worthwhile, and definitely something to cherish in the future.
Thanks again if you read this far (for whatever reason), stay safe and hope to see you again👋🏼
Rebellious 
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