Hi everyone, I am back home from school and slowly getting back into my home routine. I always forget how weird it is being home… with virtually no responsibilities, being able to sleep in, and not having to worry about school work and studying. It’s nice… but I also feel empty having nothing to do.

Throughout my first year at OU, I’ve done a number of reflections on my time here. I figured that I should now reflect on my whole year at OU, as I am home and 100% done with my first year. While I do want to reflect on my time, I don’t want to get all sappy, so I’m going to share a few highlights from each month was at school!

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I won’t lie, August started off pretty rough. I spent the first week of school (and more if I’m being honest) so the only highlight of the month for me was starting class and work and really starting a routine.

While September was still sort of shitty, my routine kept me busy and made me feel like I had a purpose. I joined CHAARG which was and is still one of my best decisions I’ve made this year and through CHAARG I’ve had so many great opportunities, met amazing people, and have really started working on myself.

With midterm season in full swing, October was just a lot of reading, studying and anticipating THanksgiviing Break. The ONLY good thing that happened in October was Halloween. Halloween is a BIG tradition at OU and it was really cool (albeit overwhelming) to be able to experience this tradition for myself with all the people I’d met.

During November is when (in my opinion) I started becoming really good friends with my roommate and started bonding with everyone I’d met at OU. This month, Olivia (my roommate) and I both applied to be on the 4 Paws for ABility executive board and I ended up becoming the Treasurer of the group. This didn’t start until Spring Semester but I accepted the position and started learning about what I had to do I November.

Studying and studying and studying some more. The entire month of December was just filled with studying and reading and making notecards and trying not to die. BUT it all paid off because (even though it wasn’t what I wanted) I ended up with a 3.75 GPA.

Returning to school at San Diego was weird. When I got back for Spring semester I didn’t have many reunions or really get excited to see my friends when I got back to school. However, my favorite part of January was reuniting with all of my friends from last semester. I had lunch and dinner and coffee dates with friends the whole first few weeks back and it was just great to see that I’d made connections and people actually enjoyed my presence.

This next one isn’t much of a highlight; it’s much more of a lowlight. The month of February (and before and after) had a lot of rejection in them. Internships executive positions, jobs, etc. just had a lot of rejection. I was very very disheartened by all of this but I learned one thing about myself it’s that I am great at persevering. I’ve enjoyed where I ended up this semester, rejections and all, and I think it’s taught me a lot about learning to accept more rejection that will inevitably come in my future.

In spite of all the rejection that this year had brought me (even within this organization) the best part of March was being elected to be the CHAARG Executive Board Treasurer. The love I have for this organization is unreal and to be given (to have earned) the opportunity to be on its executive team and to have the chance to improve it and see it grow is such a gift and I can’t wait to see where it takes me this upcoming year.

The one thing that sucks about OU, is that I’m 5-7 hours away from ALL of my friends. The entire month of April I spent appreciating my friends. Getting dinner every night, hanging out even if we were just visiting each other at work, getting coffee, etc. Whatever we could do to see each other would do because not being able to see my buds until August… I’m not a fan but I was grateful for the amount I saw them in April and how much I was able to appreciate them and their presence while I was there.

I came home May 1st, cried a lot, and then sat at my computer anxiously anticipating my grades to be posted. Finally, 8 days later, I finally got to see my grades for Spring Semester. I ended up with 5 As and ONE A-. I ended up with a 3.93 GPA for the semester all because I was .01% away from a solid A in the other class. I’m fine with that grade but come on! .01%.

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All in all, I’m forever grateful that I transferred to OU. This past year was beyond anything I could have expected and my year was infinitely better than my time in San Diego (not the weather or the location). I guess location of the school really doesn’t matter, it’s really all about who you surround yourself with and what you make of your time while you’re there.

❤ Alicia ❤