Eric Won

Autumn Quarter Reflection

Honors100

As of right now, it is week 9 of my first quarter at the University of Washington. With the
addition of being a part of the Honors Interdisciplinary program here, I believe I have built a
good collection on my thoughts of this quarter. This is obvious, but college is different from
high school. When I say different, that is a huge understatement. High school compared to
college is complete breeze. I now see why my friends laughed at me when I complained about
high school. The first few weeks I had to accommodate a new study plan. My old “procrastinate
and cram right before the test” method was definitely a huge loss in my grade. This is by no
means an excuse for my grades, but my motivation to do well, though it IS there, isn’t as great
as I was hyping myself about due to remote-learning. I thought it was just me, but through my
English 182 class, which is a non-honors prefix course, I did a huge research project on remote-
learning, and one thing I do have to say about it is that I am not the only one who thinks
remote-learning is limiting my potential. Though remote-learning has sucked, I do have to say
that the honors program has been the only “humane” thing I have in this remote environment.
All my classes have been just “lecture and leave,” but the thing I like about this program is that
though we are physically distant, it really pulls on all the possible ways to make it feel like we
are actually together. Although this quarter has been tough, my goal remains the same. I want
to pursue a career in primary sports medicine physician. I’ll have to admit that a 4.0 is not
looking too promising, but with the classes I picked, I know that I should think high but accept
realistically. This was extremely concerning for me. Around week seven or eight, I just felt
overwhelmed. It felt like I was just a step behind everyone. In high school, I was one of those
“4.0 students.” Not having an A in a class hit me a bit differently. However, as a side note, I
don’t mean to sound arrogant. The transition to college was a bit difficult because of that. So,
after about a quarter into remote-learning at the University of Washington, I think that I can
definitely improve my habits. By habits, I mean my study habits, eating habits, and sleeping
habits. I don’t want to look down on this quarter. Instead, I want to look at this quarter as sort
of like a trial and error quarter. I now know that quarter system colleges are fast paced, and I
know that I need to look at this autumn quarter as a lesson learned quarter. In addition to that,
I think the most important and perhaps only thing you need in college is your mentality. The
most important and most crucial aspect I’ve learned in my first quarter of college is that it is all
about your mental game. What I can take from my first quarter of college is that the one with
the strongest mentality will leave college successfully.

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