Transitioning to college was easier than I expected it to be. I came from the International Baccalaureate program at my high school which continually pushed my classmates and I to be the best. I learned that among my IB peers, I was not the best. I had a high GPA but I was not a straight A student across the board. This made my transition to college better because I already understood heavy workloads and time commitment needed in college courses.
I felt like the biology courses needed for my major were not difficult at first because they were all repeating information I learned in high school. I struggled the most in English and Organic Chemistry. Writing papers has never been my strong suit, and I found writing for English based topics difficult. Organic Chemistry was one of the first courses I took where most of the information was new and the course material was difficult to understand. My grade in that class did suffer a little but I was able to maintain higher grades in other courses.
The pandemic had a negative effect on me as it did for most people. I struggled academically the first semester because of the adjustment to online learning. Since then, I have worked twice as hard to make up for my failings last spring. Taking higher-level Biology courses has added new challenges, but I have learned how to handle them.