Looking back on my letter to my senior self, written my freshman year, I am amazed to see how much I have grown and my life has changed since then. Coming in to Longwood as a freshman I was scared. I didn’t know where I would fit in, never saw myself as a leader, and wasn’t sure how I would be able to handle college level classes. Over the past four years I can confidently say that I have grown past all of my fears I had as a freshman and am capable of so much more.
When comparing my experiences to the honors pillars of community, service, and scholarship, I can clearly see the progress I have made in all three. While I feared not fitting in here at Longwood, I was fortunate enough to participate in a variety of extracurricular activities that allowed me to find a real sense of community. The first club that I joined was women’s club volleyball and I immediately knew that the club and team would become my home. I even pushed myself out of my comfort zone to become a leader and was elected Vice President my junior year and President my senior year. I became a member of many other clubs, many of which contributed to my major, such as operation smile and the national student speech language and hearing association. Along with these clubs, I was initiated into two honors societies, Kappa Delta Pi for being in my major and having a high enough GPA and Phi Kappa Phi for being in the top 10% of senior GPA’s. I decided to apply for two other leadership positions my senior year and was chosen for the President of the Sports Club Council and the Assistant Director of the Big Event. The three leadership positions I held pushed me to become the leader I have always wanted to be. The Big Event was a great opportunity for organizing and participating in a service day as well as allowing other students to participate in it as well.
Looking back at the pillar of service, I wish that I had pushed myself to complete more service than I did. I participated in the Cormier honors college service day my freshman year, the big event my junior year, and helped to run the big event my senior year. I am very proud of these days of service I was a part of, but if I could go back I would try to add in more service opportunities. I focused a lot on my academics with the time that I had and managed to excel in the pillar of scholarship.
During my freshman year I went through an adjustment period with academics, trying to adjust to college classes. I had stacked my schedule with the hardest classes at the same time and was not able to thrive academically as I had hoped. Entering my sophomore year, I decided that I was going to do everything in my power to get on the presidents list by making all A’s. I started by moving to the dean’s list for a semester before landing my name on the president’s list for five semesters in a row. I knew that I was capable of doing so and pushed myself to reach that goal. I was able to bring my GPA up to right under a 3.9 and my academic excellence and scholarship provided me many opportunities including admission into Longwood University’s Communication Sciences and Disorders Graduate program.
Overall, I know that I have pushed myself into being the best version of myself I can be at this point in my life throughout my four years here at Longwood. I am achieving things I never thought possible and am extremely proud of myself for all that I have accomplished. I can’t wait to continue pushing myself out of my comfort zone and learning so much more.