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| Screen shot of one of my Matlab trials setting up new water particle trajectories |
The most challenging thing I’ve done while away was my independent study. I have been looking at data collected on water particle movement over a specific reef pass terms of residence time, flushing time, and water particle age. This has been done with a program called Matlab. Learning how to use this tool as I went along was challenging and at times frustrating involving many hours watching tutorials and reading up on basic functions. Immense help from my advisor was also provided. Although, the feeling when one of my trials finally worked or when I fixed a bug on my own was exciting. The greatest obstacle I over came was dealing with the self motivated education here. You have to work to stay up with the classes that are intense for such a short time because its easy to let yourself get behind. Also, for independent work you set the schedule and create your own due dates. The final products of this are not due until the end of the semester so its up to the student to have a timeline were he or she is not scrambling at the end. One of the best things I've learned about myself is my ability to be away from home while still being complelty immersed in what I am doing. It’s cliché but I felt as if I focused to much on the future or the past instead of living in the now. At Allegheny it’s sometimes easy for me to always be thinking about what’s next but here I got to fully enjoy being in a beautiful environment learning about what I'm passionate about.
I don’t
think I will feel unfamiliar with being home. The culture and community I’ve
been surrounded by the last four months is not so different from western
Pennsylvania. I also haven’t had any barriers to communication with my family
and friends back home. I’ve been able to fill others in on my experinces and
I’ve had the ability to here about what’s going on with them, home, and
Allegheny. This has helped me keep connected. The only major adjustment I stress
about when returning is the demand on my time and getting
back into juggling multiple responsibilities and classes.
I
believe “making the world your home” through study away is completely possible.
When living in a place even for a short period of time you create connections. I
have developed some close relationships with my classmates and cherished
memories from doing many things from going camping, weekly trivia at a local bar restaurant, walking downtown for ice-cream to driving a boat for the first time. Through my time spent here I’ve developed a fondness with this town and the places I've visited. I’ll miss here when I have to leave but
when I visit again ill be able to show others my Beaufort, introduce them to
the people I met, and take them to do what I loved to when I was here. These
types of connections are what I think about when someone says making the world
your home.
Living in the now is definitely a hugely important lesson that gets forgotten at Allegheny. Sometimes I wonder if having a different class schedule, in which you take just one course at a time and focus solely on that, would be a better system rather than having to constantly juggle what feels like hundreds of different commitments and courses. Even though I am taking five courses here in Mexico, the pace is much more relaxed and much less stressful. At Allegheny, students tend to complain brag about how much work they have to do, or how few hours they have slept (I am guilty of this too) but that hardly ever happens at my university here, and it makes for a much more positive learning environment.
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