Autumn Quarter Reflection: A Cautious Return

Caution seems to have been the overarching theme for much of my first quarter at UW. A cautious return to in-person learning. Cautious COVID-19 guidelines. My parents cautioning me to stay safe at university. In many ways, I was also influenced by this cautious spirit as I returned to my first face-to-face social interaction in over one year.

One of the lessons that I learned from high school was to respect my limits. Before the pandemic, I was involved in a multitude of clubs and activities, the AP program, and the IB program, but I felt that I wasn’t getting better at any of them. For me, quarantine was a time a self-introspection that allowed (or forced) me to narrow down my interests. As a result, I felt much more fulfilled during quarantine focusing on a few activities, rather than trying to spread myself thin as I had before. Coming into college, I wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t let myself make those same mistakes again. After joining debate over the summer, I decided not to join other clubs for the first quarter. “I want to see how much time I’ll have,” I reasoned, “then I’ll join more activities.” While that was a fine goal for the very beginning of the quarter, I’ve now started feeling like I was too cautious—like I’m missing out on campus life. As a result, in these past few weeks, I’ve tried to push myself to get more involved. I joined the Honors Peer Mentoring program and great new friends and I recently contacted the Philosophy Society at UW. And though I now feel more connected to student life on campus, my goal for next quarter is to cultivate relationships with my professors, potentially participating in research projects.

Another strange phenomenon that I’ve had to deal with has been relearning how to be myself around others, especially when meeting new people. One of the consequences of quarantine was that I was relatively isolated for an entire year. Any social interactions I had were usually either with existing friends or in professional settings. Coming to the dorms and seeing entirely new faces, I realized how unnatural it had become for me to meet new people in informal settings. I uttered an inordinate amount of “Nice to meet you,” “sounds good,” and its more enthusiastic cousin “sounds interesting!” in my first weeks at UW. Gradually, however, I’ve been able to readjust and come out of my shell a little bit, and I can now say that I truly feel like part of a community. I have friends that I can play Minecraft with, hold classes for, and study for tests with (while complaining about those same tests after). At the same time, I’ve also rediscovered old friendships with people from my high school, who I frequently see as I walk to class. Although I did enjoy joining class in my pajamas over quarantine, I’ve come to realize how valuable the interpersonal connections from in-person learning are. As I continue to adjust to independent life in the dorms, next quarter I hope to explore the city outside of the UW campus more, instead of only limiting myself to the cafeteria food and UW-hosted events. (538 words)

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