This week, Dr. Thomas Calhoun spoke to us about the importance of STEM Education, but more importantly he gave us tips on how to become great students. Since everything is new to us as freshmen, he told us what we need to keep in mind to, "Keep calm and carry on," as the UK would say. He said five major points that stuck with me.
I. Never take your God-given gift for granted. Don't be cocky with that gift. We will face challenges, and they will force humility on us, so we should always always be grateful for what we were given and use it for great purposes.
II. Allow yourself to experience ignorance. Be oblivious to certain things, and pick your battles wisely.
III. Try to recognize strengths, weaknesses and interests and set them in motion for your future self and career.
IV. Be able to recognize challenges and take them as they come; also, learn from them.
V. Be able to accept changes in your plan and recognize them as advancement, not taking a step back.
I think the last part is the most helpful to me, currently. We discussed the fact that we are freshmen and it is our prerogative to change our minds...and our majors.
When I was a junior and early in senior year, everyone was shocked and dismayed to hear that I had no idea what my major was going to be. How could I possibly have known my major when I had had no personal experiences yet to show me what I love and what I'm good at? The thing that changed that happened in my senior year. It was a competition that NASA held. NASA partnered with UAH and hosted an engineering competition, in which I was my team's Project Manager. This required me to manage my group and present our project. I discovered that this was my passion and greatest talent.
Without the competition, I still would have no idea what I am meant to do with my future.
On the other hand, there are so many other things I see or take part in that make me think, "What if I should do this instead?" I frequently worry about the amount of hours I am taking and am paranoid over the possibility that I may change my major. What if the classes I take now amount to nothing in my future later? What if I completely change career paths and find that I have wasted God knows how much money on classes that I might discard anyway?
No matter what my decision is, I have to accept that I am always advancing for my future. After all, if I resisted change, I would be taking a step back in my development, not improving anything.
The one thing Dr. Calhoun did not mention that I find very important is to not look back, but accept UNA as our new home. So many people are too easily made homesick and want to go home every weekend, but if they do that, they aren't experiencing anything real. Already, UNA has become my home; I have found my best friends and family (my gosh, my roommate is my mom away from home!). I sleep better in my dorm bed than my house bed. Thank God, the classes are also very interesting and I look forward to going to them.
No matter what happens, I will try to experience everything to its fullest so that I can build my future on what I learn here. And I will keep these key points in mind as I go through life.
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