I cannot believe that we are already two months into the semester. Looking at everything that has happened these past two months, I would love to talk about the amazing experiences I have had so far. Then, I thought about it again. Though I have made a lot of “amazing experiences” around the grove there is something else that I have also made a lot of- Mistakes. Mistakes make us human and are great learning experiences so I am going to own up to some of mine. Plus, imagine a life without any mistakes- BORING. I am going to go into my biology mode real quick to tell you that Penicillin was actually invented through a mistake. Who knows, this queen of mistakes may end up being an inventor one day (just kidding I really want to be a doctor). Here are my top three worst mistakes made at the grove!

1. Do not, and I repeat again, do not skip class.

What makes USG so special is that the professors actually teach. At other schools, I have seen so many students skip all their lectures and still manage to get an A in the class (Not that they learned anything by doing that). Do not do that here. I even have a class, Virology, which does not have a textbook. The exams are completely lecture based. Here’s a tip: bring a recorder, a notebook, and your game face. I skipped one of my lectures once and it completely threw me off- plus our professor had a graded discussion that day (oops).

2. Do not get to the shuttle bus stop late

Being a pre-med student, I take the UMCP-USG shuttle a lot so that I can go to main campus for extra advising. I had decided to go to campus on a Friday one time and planned to come back to USG on the 4:40 bus from College Park. I got to the bus stop around 4:35 and what do I see- a huge line. I literally thought that the line was for something else. I saw a ton of people with laundry bags in their hands and realized that a lot of people at UMCP actually use the bus to get back to their home in Montgomery County. Anyways, did I get on the 4:40 bus? Nope. Did I get on the 4:50 bus? Nope. Did I get on the 5:05 bus? Last person on- score! Others may not be as lucky as I was, though. So if anyone plans to take any of those buses back to USG from UMCP, get in line early!

No lines for the USG-UMCP shuttle bus in the morning fortunately

3. Do not stay on campus just to attend classes.

There are so many resources on campus and the student life organizations are extremely inviting. This is a mistake I had made before attending USG and do not plan on making again. Something that would have been a mistake to miss this past Wednesday was Octoberfest hosted by SEB. There were games, food, a photo booth, and it even ended with a dance off between juniors and seniors. There will be more SEB events throughout the year though so make sure to attend the next one!

Musical chairs game that started off the Octoberfest event!

There you have it. That was a glimpse into some of the mistakes I have made. I am looking forward to making more of them and gaining the lessons that come with them as the year progresses!