Lily Rosencrantz

Grace Burgin
Honors 100
30 November 2015
Assignment 5
UW is exactly what I expected it to be in some ways, and completely the opposite in
others. While I was prepared for the large school and seemingly constant stream of new faces, I
was not prepared to find that my smallest class of only 15 students would be the one in which I
struggle most to express my thoughts. The learning process at UW is completely different than
the high school learning process, and adjusting to it has been and continues to be incredibly
difficult. Fall quarter has been a time of questioning myself about the person I am, as well as the
person I want to be, and so far I have yet to come up with answers to these questions. Having
been directly admitted into the Civil Environmental Engineering major has been both a blessing
and a curse. I feel relieved knowing that I have a major already in place, and do not have to
worry about applying to one if I choose not to; that said, I do not know if I want to do
engineering at all, as I have been more drawn to art and humanities courses while looking
through course descriptions. Engineering is interesting to me, but I no longer think it will be
what I ultimately major and find a career in. Previously, I had considered math to be my
strongest subject, but after two Math 125 midterms, and nearly a quarter of struggling through
the material, this no longer seems to be the case.
My goals for myself have not changed since the beginning of the quarter in that I still
want to explore art and creative studies, and further develop my skills in and knowledge of threedimensional art. What has changed is my perception of my future: I have begun to think more
realistically about what I want to do and major in, and think I might like to study a science or
three-Dimensional art. I now know that no matter what I major in, I want to study art at least as a
minor. A new goal I have for myself is to better balance schoolwork and extracurriculars, as I
have often allowed myself to get too wrapped up in studying, when going outside or doing
something active would have been beneficial to my ability to concentrate, as well as my overall
level of happiness.
There have been many surprises during my first quarter in honors. Mainly, I have been
intrigued to find that a lot of other people seem to be as unsure about their majors as I am about
mine. Going into orientation, everyone seemed to know what they wanted to study. Talking with
many unsure freshmen has reassured me that I am not alone in feeling like I am floundering a
little bit within the sea of opportunities at UW, and has made me hopeful that we will all succeed
somehow. I have also been surprised by the way Honors truly has created such a tightly-knit
community both in the dorm, and in the Honors 100 classroom. Assignment 4 for Honors 100
opened my eyes to how easy it is to get to know someone if you are willing to spend time asking
them meaningful questions, and helped me make a friend that I might otherwise not have. I want
to continue to get to know Tim, my partner for the assignment, and become better friends with
him. Along with Tim, I have become friends with CLUE, and spend a sizable chunk of my time
at the Math 125 table in Mary Gates hall. Next quarter, I want to explore all of the resources

CLUE has to offer, as it has been tremendously helpful to me as I have struggled through this
quarter in Math 125.
Something I have learned about in Honors 100 that I want to investigate further is the
Honors study abroad option. I love learning about the history of the places I travel to, and had an
incredible time practicing experiential learning during my study abroad trip to Israel in high
school. The Honors Program study abroad trips seem to fulfill my desire for adventure combined
with academia, and I would love to go abroad with Honors this summer.
By the end of my first year in Honors I hope to know what I want to major in, and have a
plan of how I can include many experiential learning activities in my Honors experience in order
to make my time at UW as valuable as possible. Honors so far has provided me with a vast body
of support, including my classmates in Honors 100, my peer educator Grace, and advisers Laura
and Brook. I want to take advantage of this community, and reach out when I am struggling. This
quarter it has been important in my moments of crisis to reach out to others for help, and I
believe that if I continue to do so my college experience will be more complete. By the end of
my time at UW I want to have a college experience well rounded by the experiential learning
aspects of the Honors program, as well as a network of Honors classmates and alumni to help me
navigate the professional world. Along with graduating having pursued a major I am passionate
about, I want to leave UW having been a boon to the University, having actively participated in
the improvement of the world and environment in which I live, prepared to use my knowledge
gained to create positive change wherever I go.