Growth
Jevon talks about his growth at Carleton.
Jevon talks about his growth at Carleton.
It’s been six weeks since I’ve started and a lot has changed! I know usually I would talk about the little adventures I’ve been on since I came to Carleton, but I spent the majority of my week self-reflecting. The only thing I recorded was pictures on my Pea Regeneration Project. Other than self-reflecting, I realized I was tracking the growth of my peas over the next several days. That’s when I realized what I would share this week. Every week I learn something new about myself, and it reaffirmed my decision to attend Carleton.
I choose to spend the next four years at Carleton because I know for sure I would find myself growing. Initially, I thought I would grow to love the cold, but that hasn’t happened yet (lol). It snowed… in October! Luckily the temperature raised to the 50’s and all the snow melted. Anyways, I experienced growth in areas I never would’ve thought I needed to grow!
Getting Help
I learned it’s okay to ask for help. Maybe it was the true New Yorker in me, but I rather struggle and figure things out on my own rather than reaching out for help. This quickly changed at Carleton! I didn’t even have the chance to ask for help, instead, my professors never stop offering help. This ranges from extra office hours to offering help sessions after class. Special shout out to Alex, my calculus professor, for helping me with my homework.
Help also isn’t limited to your academics, Carleton makes sure that you are well supported in every aspect of your lives. Everyone I’ve met so far genuinely cares about how you are doing and how they could help. This makes it easier for me to open up and talk about how I truly feel. Every time I feel a bit under the weather or overwhelmed I’m encouraged to take a break and “take care of myself.”
Becoming an Extrovert
Another area where I saw grow is how extroverted I’ve become. Usually, I would only talk to someone I know or I had to talk to. This is surely not how I operate today. I often start a random conversation with people I’d never met. Maybe this is partially due to the fact that I had no friends or to the warm friendly environment among Carleton students.
Environment and Health
Did you know there are three categories for trash? It’s Landfill, Recycle and Compost. Yes, compost. For the majority of my life I was exposed to Trash and Recycle, but I never saw a compost bin standardized around campus. I find myself being more conscious about the environment, so much so that I chose this topic for my Feature Article in Science in the News (stay tuned).
Aside from the environment, I started to care about my health. My eating habits have changed since I came to Carleton. I eat regularly instead of when I feel like it and my food choices here are by far healthier than the Pizza and Chinese I would eat consistently if I were home.
The change I’m most proud of is becoming open to making mistakes. I always strived to be somewhere close to perfect, and I considered mistakes to be setbacks. However, my time here so far has taught me that mistakes are okay. In fact, mistakes help you to do better in the future and make it easier to answer the question ‘what could I have done better?’
This my favorite area of growth because it puts the fun back into learning and relieves a significant amount of stress. I know this may be cliché, but I’m really happy with the growth that I’ve experienced so far and am excited to see what the future holds.
Until next week!
Jevon is a first-year student from the Big Apple. Other than defending that he is an authentic New Yorker (he’s from Long Island), Jevon spends his time immersing himself into Carleton’s vibrant student social atmosphere. He is considering majoring in Biology or Chemistry; either way, Jevon has plenty of time to decide. Meet the Other Bloggers!