Sarah Pham

November 22, 2020

HON 100 Autumn Reflection

FALLin into College

I’ll admit. Everything that happened this quarter went above and beyond my (very low
expectations). All the good things came as pleasant surprises, and all the bad ones were merely
diminishing marginal returns, which is to say that nothing could make the sitch worse than it
already was. You see, my friends, I was on a rollercoaster of Zoom calls that would only go
down. I was stuck in Canada with my elderly grandparents, had no social life, didn’t know when
quarantine would end, or when everything might return with some semblance of normalcy.
My first few weeks of college started with about a trillion class schedule changes
because I wanted my course load to be ~ perfect ~ but my indecisiveness ironically made it
more ~ hectic ~. My original schedule was a LSJ 200 FIG with a composition class and a law
seminar, but I switched to a class on public health, considered a sociology and math course,
made a few more changes, and finally landed on POL S 270, GWSS 290, and a comedy seminar,
dropping poetry, law, and FIG community. I’m happy to report that I absolutely LOVED my
political economy class and my gender studies class. My two classes were well balanced
because in my gender studies class, I was steeped in introspective dialogues, my relationship to
the history of pandemics, and the eloquence of sociological language, while in my political
economy class, I was taught to think concisely and analytically in terms of rational theories. I am
also proud to say that I went to Office Hours every single week, had a really interesting quiz
section comprised of all senior Political Science majors, pulled two consecutive all-nighters in
order to complete a free-form essay from scratch in less than four days, and read SO many
research papers and books. Fun fact, I felt like death after my second all-nighter and could not
think or function. I would not recommend re-living that experience ever again. It was also
horrible and funny, though, because after I had just shortened my lifespan by about twenty
years, I asked some of my classmates how their essays went and they just told me,
nonchalantly, that they had started the night before the due date, and it was fine. I can’t
remember if I laughed or cried or stared blankly at a wall or slept after hearing that.
Mock Trial also came as a fantastic surprise. I auditioned, was accepted, joined, and
went to practice three days a week for a total of seven hours, not including about many more
hours of outside work. This was a huge commitment for me and at first, I was exhausted and
overwhelmed, but after completing my first scrimmage and getting to know the team and
coaches, I’m now super hyped for the rest of the season and am ready to put in my A-game. I
love how fun, sweet, and intelligent everyone on the team is. There is clearly both an academic
and a social aspect to the team that is unified by competitive goals, which I think is wonderful
because it gives me a small, tight-knit community within UW to feel at home in. One of my
favorite memories so far is directing the defendant, Harper Martini, played by my friend Katie,
and falling into absolute hysterics every single time I ask her a super emotional or serious
question about the alleged murder, and she ends up laughing too. Mock Trial feels like a place I
truly belong in, can grow and be pushed beyond my comfort zone in, and I love it for that.
 My goals have been continually reshaped throughout this autumn quarter. I went from
being incredibly anxious about the fact that I was far from campus and would make no friends,
to becoming more focused on investigating self-love, my physical and mental well-being, and
academics. I gained a greater appreciate for family and alone time, leaning on music to get me
through tough times, and pouring every ounce of myself into readings and writings assigned by
my classes, as if could somehow, I could start educating myself out of this pandemic. I drove a
lot, visited the ocean, swam, went to the gym, facetimed friends from high school, got back in
touch with long-lost family, and redecorated my room over and over again. By next year, I hope
to continue on this positive trajectory and possibly even start a creative project such as running
a podcast, publishing articles for the Daily, making short films, writing spoken word poetry, and
learning how to dance just for fun. The sky is falling up, and I have so much to look forwards to
this coming winter quarter.

Word Count: 786