end of the year | The Awkward Panda

Whenever I go to my dashboard, I love clicking the “Write” button to put up a new post. I don’t know why 🙂

This year has flown by. I’ve met so many great people and learned so much about journalism and myself, among other things. In high school, I was one of those students who didn’t really have to work very hard to make the honor roll. It was a nice thing at the time, but imagine my surprise when I came to college. My study habits were weak and there was an increased temptation not to go to class. In high school, I never skipped a class because I was stuck in the same building for the whole day, so it just made sense to go to all of them. Here, I had breaks and reveled in naps in-between (and sometimes straight through) classes. Needless to say, my fall quarter grades were less than perfect, and my parents weren’t very happy that their hard-earned money was being spent on me skipping class and partying every weekend.

Winter quarter, I shaped up. I went to class. I only skipped when I felt sick; I was recovering from a “rip-roaring case of mono” (my doctor’s words) I had caught over winter break. My GPA improved by .4, and my parents loved me again…kidding. They’ve always loved me. I slowly developed better study habits and time management skills, which I am still honing and will continue to do so for the rest of my time here. This quarter, despite the gorgeous weather (and, this week, the raging monsoons and countless tornado watches/warnings), I have gone to class and kept up with everything. I’m not quite to Dean’s List status yet, but I’m getting closer and closer. I am seven classes and four finals away from completing my freshman year at Ohio University. My feelings are similar to my peers’: I want to be finished with finals, but I am not ready to leave Athens and all of my friends for the summer. It’s been a great year.

I’ll leave you with some of my favorite pictures of the year.