Year 2: Changing course
Pandemic
Being home sucked, but as you can see in the picture to the right, there was a silver lining. Whenever I had an exam, I would move myself and my dog to the kitchen in order to take that exam. I ended up moving back into an apartment in Seattle with a few of my friends for winter quarter, but we still had all our classes online and most things were shut down.
Chem Major?
By the end of autumn quarter of my second year, I was sure I hated biology and pretty sure I no longer wanted to be a doctor. At this point, I was still really enjoying my chemistry classes, so I looked into possibly majoring in chem and then continuing on to get my PhD. I didn't end up doing that, but I almost finished the O Chem series and honestly thought it was pretty interesting and kind of fun. This artifact is the last page of my 237 final, which required us to identify the structure for a molecule based on certain clues.
Norwegian 101
Over the summer, I Googled "easiest language for English speakers to learn" and decided to take Norwegian in order to get some easy VLPA credits. Norwegian ended up being one of the most incredible classes I took at UW. I connected really well with the smaller community, especially as I went on to take second year Norwegian and actually met people in person. Taking Norwegian opened up a lot of really cool experiences and opportunities for me, and it's amazing how an arbitrary decision can have such a significant impact.
Bio Intro Series
Biology sucked. My artifact is a random picture of an assignment that I probably didn't enjoy at all. Bio 180 was by far the worst (I actually enjoyed 200). I ended up finishing the entire series, but I really did not enjoy it and realized I probably needed to change my major again. I was initially thinking chemistry, but I changed my mind winter quarter and decided to give poli sci a try. A couple years later, I can confidently say that was the right choice.
Year 2
Reflection
I don't really have a ton to say about my sophomore year, at least not until the very end. Overall, it was a pretty bland year. I took a lot of credits, mostly in STEM classes like O Chem and Bio that are useless to me now. I took physics, which sucked, and I went skiing a bit over Christmas. This was also the year that I started taking Norwegian, a path that led me to some great opportunities and a solid community later but was only online for this entire year. In the spring, I took my first poli sci class, 203 "Intro to International Relations" with Jon Mercer, which was actually super interesting and a ton of fun. Other than that though, this was mostly just a year of putting my head down and trying to make it during a global pandemic. I found some more things I didn't like, and hoped that I had finally found something I do. I moved back to Seattle and started living with my friends, which has been great, but I remember just being stuck in the apartment all the time anyways. The pandemic was a really weird time. This was the summer I forced myself to become a morning person, which has lasted all the way through my senior year as well.