New Beginnings

Welcome Back Bobcats!

Once again we are all back into the business of the semester: navigating through classes, reuniting with friends, checking emails incessantly, and everything else that comes with college life.

For some, the spring semester can be a little more overwhelming then the fall. Maybe this is because there isn’t that long gap of summer that we have with the fall semester. It’s easy to revert into the same pattern of the last semester: same study habits, same weekend routine, etc. For some this may be a good thing, but for others that concluded the last semester with not the most desirable outcomes, this semester can be daunting. 

We might be tempted to look at this semester as a continuation of the past one, but I feel the danger of this, is it keeps us from understanding our mistakes and making the changes needed to be more successful.  I have found that the best way to have a successful semester is to reflect and start fresh, make new goals, and focus on the opportunity of new accomplishments that only the new semester can bring.   

But this advice isn’t something I can claim as my own; I feel very lucky to have had a friend, a couple years ago, fill me in on just how important this message is.  It was the spring semester of my freshman year, and I hadn’t done so well in my classes during the fall. When I got back from break, I felt discouraged and certain that the new semester would probably be no different.  Even though the new semester had barely begun, I already felt like giving up.

I sought the help of my friend, Katie, a junior who was really involved on campus, with great grades, and a very positive outlook on school. I felt like she knew something I didn’t and asked her how she was able to do so well. I explained to her how I had received a couple bad grades, and I was really stressed that I would repeat last semester’s mistakes again.

She told me a really simple, but profound lesson that I carry out even now as I am finishing up my own junior year. She said she didn’t always get the grades she wanted, but that it was so important to go into the new semester and start over. Begin every semester as if it were the very first, with renewed confidence and motivation. The past semester doesn’t dictate how the next semester will go, unless you let it. I realized I wasn’t doomed to repeat the past; this was a new semester and I would do things differently. And I did! I got organized, managed my time better, went to tutoring; and at the conclusion of the spring semester, I did really well. After that, I made a decision that each semester, good or bad; I would take it as a fresh start.

This doesn’t just apply to school, there are many other areas of life, including in our future career endeavors that this lesson resonates with. If an interview doesn’t go so well, or if you get reprimanded at work, that doesn’t mean you are bad at interviewing or a bad employee, it means learn from it, then move on. Do not let the past dictate how we feel in the present, and what we accomplish in the future.

That being said, I hope you take the time out to reflect on this past semester, and get excited about the “new beginnings” that Spring 2013 offers.