College

    I recently finished my first year of college at home and with online classes. It felt different that there were hours during the day where I didn’t have a class. It wasn’t the same as being in a school, specifically high school. Especially since I had to pick my own classes and my parents weren’t being sent notifications, it all went through me. It was time for me to do things on my own and while I didn’t get the same impact as students usually did, I still ended up learning things.

    I took five classes for each semester and some of them were asynchronous, which meant we didn’t communicate through video and simply had to submit our assignments. The classes also weren’t always on the same day so mostly after the afternoon I didn’t have anywhere I needed to be. During my second semester, for some classes I was allowed to retake an assignment as many times as I wanted until I got 100% before the due date. Therefore, I didn’t feel as much weight on myself as I should have had until finals. I got nervous, but I couldn’t keep depending on my family for help so I needed to focus on what I learned. Being at home did prevent me from feeling confined in a room like at high school. At home I have the option to pace when I want and while my teachers received my accommodations at college, it was tough not being able to communicate with them directly so I plan on making things different by living at college in the fall.

    I got accepted into the honors program and was glad I did it. I liked my small honors classes and participating in special honors events online. It was nice being accepted for my accomplishments by getting into the honors program and I made the Dean’s list in college for my grades. I didn’t get much of a chance to make friends, but it’s okay because staying at home allowed me to know about college before actually going. I still need my space so I got myself a single and a suite where three girls are staying in the other rooms. My college year was interesting because I did have plenty of good moments. In the fall I’m going to learn what it’s like actually being there.

You Are Important

Update: I spent my freshman year for college at Bridgewater State University. Life really can be distracting like how I haven't written these past couple months. Truthfully, it's not that simple coming up with ideas and I felt like I needed to focus on myself. I got As in my classes this semester and in my honor's class my teacher liked the essay I had to write about something I believed in. I feel like sharing it.

You Are Important

I have wondered if I have had the right to complain or be scared.

I stressed out when it came to studying at school and I thought about how it’s the least of other kids’ worries who got hurt in an accident or have complicated relationships with their families. I also worry about what my career will be in life, but there are kids who don’t even have that chance because they are poor in third world countries. Having less serious problems than others shouldn’t mean that your problems don’t matter.

 

I grew in a loving and supportive family and there was never any event that severely scarred anyone. Sometimes, the only thing stopping me can be my lack of confidence. I worried myself over how I couldn’t get through things, but then I felt alone because my lack of confidence existed in me and it felt like no one could understand how things are hard in my mind.

 

I also thought for some reason having nothing big happen to me meant there was nothing special about me. Ironic, considering how some people wish to be “normal”, but can’t. However, people are impressed when people able to overcome such a huge struggle and it leads to students getting accepted into college because they wrote an essay about their struggles.

 

I have autism and I’m encouraged to believe I can accomplish anything because the world is hiring more autistic people. The thing is though, it’s not as serious as you might be thinking, but it is still a problem for me. Maybe the people who have it worse think that way too about the people worse than them.

 

It can be hard to tell how much your worrying is justified. It shouldn’t have to be that way because it ends up creating more anxiety. I worried about my college essay, but I read another kid’s essay and saw he was able to make an interesting story simply by the fact that he built robots in his garage. I wrote about how I became someone who volunteered and cared for people after not being so active when I was kid and I got accepted into Bridgewater State University.

 

I realized I didn’t have to be have a tragic backstory to be interesting. I have skills to offer and still know what it means to persevere. I’m being given options for a career and am currently looking into job internships.

 

When I think of the kid who built robots in his garage I think of other kids who can turn what seems ordinary into something extraordinary. There could be tons of them and they don’t see the potential they have. Nobody should let an experience get in the way of what they do. Whether it’s a big or small one. I believe if that were to happen people would begin to realize their importance and do great things.