Being an Honors Student

Learning Experience Four:

            One of the big things that stood out to me this semester was that I realized that the hard work I had put in to get into honors was well worth it. Coming in to Texas Christian University, I was offered scholarship money; however, I was not accepted in to the honors program. This was a big disappointment for me, as a senior in high school. I had worked very hard throughout my high school career in order to be a part of the honors program at whatever school I would choose. Consequently, I worked hard my freshman year and got a 4.0 so that I could be in the honors college.

            Therefore, this semester was the first semester that I took an honors course. During the summer, I read all of the books before the class even started because literature has never been my strong suit. As the class went along, I began to realize it was not what I had been expecting it would be. I expected to have hours of reading every night. I expected to have copious amounts of papers that would keep me up all night. I expected for my honors class to be my most strenuous class, by far. Surprisingly, that was not the case.

            Even though there was not an inordinate amount of work/reading, I have learned more in my honors class than any other of my courses this semester. I liked the fact that the class actually involved both a teacher and the students. Professor Williams did not stand in front of the class and just talk at us the entire time. He encouraged class discussion and participation, which for me allows me to learn more effectively than taking rigorous notes every class period. I have learned that the honors college is not what I expected, but in a good way. It is still challenging in the way it made me think about abstract ideas, but not to challenging that it caused me to stress about it. This type of learning environment makes me want to learn about topics that do not necessarily pertain to my major unlike the typical core courses. Altogether, I have learned that working towards being in the honors college was well worth the work.

Priorities

Learning Experience Three:

            I think the most important thing that I have learned from this entire semester is I now know what things are my priority in life. I have gone through a lot this semester. For example, the biggest thing was that my father passed away. From that experience, and the hardships that our family endured, I learned that time is a very precious thing. The thing is that we do not know how much time we all have on this earth, so the thing I have learned is to cherish the moments with the people I love as if they were my last.

            There are two instances that really stand out to me that made me realize how much my priorities have changed due to the experience I had this semester. The first instance was a situation where there was drama between two of my friends earlier this semester. The two had a falling out which then resulted in some nasty things said to one another. Looking back on that situation now, how petty and ridiculous the situation was. Instead of letting go of the drama, they let it fester which, in turn, was the downfall for their friendship. It was sad to see such a good friendship disintegrate like that. Another situation was that one of my friends from back home had received a present from her father. She opened the gift and it was an Apple watch. She instantly started complaining about how that is not what she wanted as a gift. Consequently, it turned in to this huge confrontation between her and her father.

            With my new perspective on life, the only word I can use to describe the two instances, stated above, is petty. The people they are fighting and arguing with are people they love. So why spend the precious time they have with them arguing? I will admit that, before everything happened with my Dad, I used to complain about the petty things of day-to-day life. However, with this new perspective my priorities have changed. My priority is to focus on the time I have with the people I love, and making the best of it. I will not complain about little things, get stressed about little things, but truly enjoy the time I have with my friends and family.

Being a Business Major

Learning Experience Two:

            Another thing that I have found out this semester is that being a business major is very difficult. The part that I have struggled with this semester are the classes that do not directly relate to my major, but are required in order to graduate with any business major. For example, my business information systems course has been extremely difficult for me. It is not that the material is super difficult, but it simply just not interest me whatsoever. On the other hand, my business law course is surprisingly interesting; however, the amount of time I have to allot for reading and studying for tests is inordinate. Altogether, my classes in the business school have not come as easily as I had expected.

            On top of the daily work from my classes, the business school requires its students to complete so many other things. For example, the certifications of Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. Also, there are various speaker events, seminars, and symposiums we are required to attend. Even better, there are online tests, which have taken up to a couple of hours, which analyze our personalities in order to match it with a correlating career type. Of course, after that had been completed, we were required to go to a debrief session to talk about the results we had received.

            From these experiences, thus far, I have learned a lot in terms of what a business degree at Texas Christian University entails. Although, it is a lot of hard work and time I have learned that it is completely worth it. The skills I have learned from being in business, for only a year in a half, are already paying off. For example, I landed one of only eight internships at ConocoPhillips this summer that seemed only like a dream a couple of months ago. The business path at Texas Christian University is by no means easy, but, most importantly, is worth it. The benefit of being a business student at this school, without a doubt, outweighs the difficult tasks assigned to us.

Cross Country

The Most Difficult Physical Feat I Accomplished:

            The journey began my freshman year of high school. I had tried out for the school volleyball team which had been my goal to make since I started playing volleyball in fourth grade. Unfortunately, I went to a very competitive high school, and I did not make the team. Although, I did have club volleyball that started in late November and went throughout the spring semester, I wanted to be a part of a team for my first semester for sure. In junior high, I had been playing a sport all of the time because I played volleyball which straight into basketball season which went straight into track season. Volleyball was out of the question, and basketball was not my favorite sport. After the cross country coach convinced me to run on his team, the most difficult physical journey, thus far, had begun.

            However, the thing was I was not expecting for this journey to be as grueling as it was. From my experience in junior high, I thought our runs would be a mile each day and that was it. I could not have been more wrong. Not only did we have extremely long runs, but they were at 5:45 in the morning. I eventually got to the point where I ran forty-five miles per week. The physical aspect of running on that much is what I expected to be the hardest part. However, running that much was more mental than anything. If I was hitting the pace that I had as my goal, then the physical feat of it had already been accomplished. However, maintaining that pace was all mental. Motivation and perseverance were the two key things to completing a run on the pace I was supposed to hit.

            Another hurdle that I had to jump during cross country and track season (aka all year) was maintaining my weight. I have always been tiny because I automatically burn everything I ate. So, running that much on top of such a high metabolism was not the best situation. I struggled to keep enough meat on my bones, yet I still fell way below the healthy weight range for my age and height, at the time. As a result, as I continued to run throughout high school I eventually learned how to run that much, eat healthy, and maintain a healthy weight. Altogether, running in high school was not only a physical feat, but also mental. It was something that taught me discipline which I then applied to the rest of my life.

Lupe's Tortillas

A Moment of Happiness:

            Although this may seem simple, a moment of happiness that stands out to me was a time at my favorite restaurant called Lupe’s Tortillas (best food on earth). So, I had gone home, after not seeing them for an entire month (which is a long time for my family and me). That night, my mom, grandma, and I went to Lupe’s Tortillas. We had made our very large order to-go to bring back for the rest of our family. We were sitting outside, on these grated metal chairs around this fire pit kind of thing. The sun had just gone down and it started to get a little cool outside, but the fire made it just the right temperature. Then, out of nowhere, my mom goes, “Let’s get a round of margaritas.” She brought back two lime margaritas with salt on the rims, for her and my grandma, and a sweet strawberry margarita with a sugar rim for me. As we started to enjoy our very strong drinks, we, like always, all got extremely giggly and talkative.

            At that point, the stress of everything vanished for a moment. The way I would describe it would be the feeling you get after you finish working out when all the stress of life vanishes for a moment. That is how I felt. A moment where worries do not exist.  In that moment, the only thing I truly felt was pure joy. I was happy to the point where I could no longer contain myself from smiling. Which led me to laughing so hard that my stomach started to hurt. Those moments, although they may not seem super influential, are the moments worth living for. Those moments are the ones I randomly think about one day, and say to myself "man, life is good."

            At the end of the day, I want to remember the happy moments. Happiness is a place where the rest of the world disappears for just a few minutes and that is a place I want to be. I want to live a full life, and in order for me to do that I must take advantage of those moments and run with them. 

The Infamous Free Throw

Uncontrollable Laughter Occasion Two:

            This occasion took place one weekend I had gone home to visit my family freshman year of college. My sister, Haley, who was twelve at the time, had a recreational basketball game on that Saturday. I was so excited to see her play because being four hours away from home made me miss a lot. However, right before the game, my Mom informed me that her team was absolutely the worst team she had ever seen. She also pointed out that my brother’s team, whose eight years old, by the way, could destroy my sister’s team. Unfortunately, she had been randomly selected to play on a team of people who had never played before, but she had been playing for three years by that point. Don’t worry. It gets better.

            We show up to the game, and there was one particular thing that stood out to me. Even though Haley’s team was awful, they thought they were all that in a bag of chips. As the game started, the opposing team scored almost every time they got the ball. Meanwhile, my sister’s team had a total of four points. Then, one of her teammates, the coach’s daughter (the cockiest of them all), had been fouled and went to the free throw line to shoot. She dribbled a couple times before she shot like all basketball players. The entire gym was dead silent because this game just hurt to watch because my sister’s team was so awful. My family was sitting behind one of the opposing team’s player’s family. One of their family members was quite old and hard of hearing. When our player threw (more like chunked) her shot it immediately bounced off the backboard and back directly to her. The ball never even touched the rim whatsoever. That is how hard she just chunked the ball up there.

            All of a sudden, the man hard of hearing, in front of us, yelled, “GEEEEEEZZZZ!” Just imagine this dead silent gym and then this man yelling that because of how bad the throw was. As a result, my family starts cracking up, but not out loud. We had to contain our laughter to not be rude. All of our faces began to turn red, our stomachs hurt from laughing so hard, and by the time we stopped laughing we could barely breathe. So, from that point on, our family will randomly shout that and without hesitation our family bursts out into hysterical laughter. It is just amazing to me how my family can find the little joys in things like that. It may make us weird, but we could care less.

The Chill Stage

Conversation Four:

            The fourth time we met was at McAlister’s for dinner. Originally, I wanted to go to Salsa Limon; however, both Cindy and Frances did not want to go there because they do not like Mexican food. My jaw dropped when they said that because Mexican food is the only type of food that I could eat for every lunch/dinner and not get tired of it. Then again, I am not a huge fan of Asian food, so I guess I could let them not liking Mexican food slide.

            The topic of conversation for that night was of how I get when I have consumed alcohol (only with my family, of course). We all kind of talked about how we get when we drink alcohol, but for some reason they focused on how I react to it. Elle liked to point out that when I have a drink that I begin to smile very big. Not like just a regular smile of simple happiness, but a smile that literally takes up my entire face because I am smiling so hard. Honestly, it is quite embarrassing. I proceeded to show them this legendary picture that depicts my Mom and me hugging and I was in a happy place, and my face clearly displayed that. That broke out into laughter, but then brought it back a little in fear of making me feel bad. However, I told them they could laugh; it is quite funny looking.

            From then on, every time that I smiled, Cindy, especially, liked to point out that my smile was on the verge, every so often, of being close to my intoxicated smile. All I thought was that I must smile a lot more than I realize sometimes. Laughter and happiness is the best feeling and the world, and if I can make other people happy or laugh I would consider that an accomplishment. Even though I may not always understand what either Cindy or Frances are saying, at least I know what their laughter means. After this dinner, I started to realize the meaning behind this project – laughter is everywhere.

Salt Water

Uncontrollable Laughter Occasion One:

            It was the Monday before Thanksgiving break when my roommate, Caroline, and I got an entire restaurant to laugh. Caroline, my friend, Bryan, and I were finally relaxing after all of the stress most of our professors were putting on us, like they always do, right before any holiday. We all decided to go to Fuzzy’s at twelve for no apparent reason other than I just really wanted chips and queso. All of us had gotten our food and were all so hungry we were not even talking because we were too busy eating as much as possible as fast as we could. Then, all of a sudden Caroline scoots over in the booth and whispers to me “I have been pouring salt in Bryan’s drink for the past couple of minutes and he has not noticed. Help me distract him.”

            I burst out laughing because how was it possibly for him to not taste all the salt she was putting in to his drink. I wanted to see it actually happen in person, so I said, “Bryan look at those shorts. Would you ever wear those?” Of course I did not listen to the answer; I was too focused on Caroline taking the salt shaker and shaking salt into his water. By the way, it was not like there was a lot of water in the cup to where the salt would not be as recognizable. He had maybe one-fourth of those cheap plastic cups filled. Then, he decided to call one of my other roommates. After he got off the phone, by that time the surrounding tables had caught on to what Caroline and I were doing, and were all staring. Bryan asked, “Was I talking on the phone too loudly? Everyone is looking at me.” How in the world could he notice that people were staring at him, but could not figure out, for the life of him, that his drink had a disproportionate amount of salt in it?

Caroline kept saying, “Bryan you are really dehydrated. You need to drink the rest of your water, then we can leave.” Bryan chugged the little bit of water he had left. He then exclaimed, “You guys have been putting stuff into my drink.” He said it loudly enough to where the tables around us found out that he knew. Consequently, Caroline, the restaurant, and I all burst out into laughter. My stomach started to hurt because of all the laughter I had been trying to hold in the entire time. The rupture of laughter in the restaurant was the weirdest, but coolest feeling knowing we were responsible for someone’s hysterical laugh that night.

The Content Stage

Conversation Three:

            The third meeting was a struggle, to say the least. We planned to meet twice before it actually happened. The first time, we planned to meet for dinner, like usual, on Thursday; however, I had an emergency and had to go home. That was strike one. Then, we all planned to get dinner the following Thursday at BLUU 2. Unfortunately, Elle and I went to BLUU 2 and Cindy and Frances went to market square. They thought we were referring to the second floor of the BLUU, which would be market square. That was strike two. I was just getting frustrated at that point, but then we finally agreed on getting coffee at Union Grounds one day before I had class.

            That afternoon, I had fallen asleep, on accident, after my other class that ended at 3:20. I had not set an alarm or anything because I was not planning on falling asleep. At four, I woke up in a complete panic because that is when I was supposed to already be at Union Grounds. I ran, literally, from my room to Union Grounds. I got there and they said not to worry about being a couple minutes late. Finally, when I got settled sitting down we started talking about the tree lighting happening that night. I came to find out that this would be the first time they would go. I told them that it is so extravagant, but so amazing at the same time. They mentioned that Christmas was not as big of a deal in China. They said that they celebrated it, but that it was just for fun (there were no breaks from school/work). On a completely different subject, later Elle was telling a story about her Asian friend named Tu. During her story she said, “Tu did that too.” Elle and I started to laugh because of the pun. With our class in mind, I wondered for a split second if Cindy and Frances would laugh as well; since, understanding a language is key to catching on to the pun. Surprisingly, they laughed as well, and I do not think it was just because Elle and I were laughing. As a result, I felt more comfortable talking with them the rest of the time, compared to usual. If they understood that joke, then I would not have to be super careful of not saying words that I may have thought they would not understand.

            This meeting really helped develop a sense of friendship with them. We laughed a lot. This time it was not Elle and me laughing at things, and Frances and Cindy laughing at other things, like before. I think that is why I enjoyed this meeting so much. Laughter always makes the atmosphere more enjoyable.

Learning to Have Confidence

Learning Experience One:

I have learned this semester that I need to be proud of what I have accomplished. In the past year, I applied for Neeley Fellows (business honors of sorts) and for Delta Sigma Pi (professional business fraternity). Neither of those organizations accepted me into their program. I was not being able to understand what I had done wrong. Was it that my interview did not go well in their eyes? Was it that my cover letter was not to par? Was my résumé not on the level they wanted? As a result of self-doubt, I became quite discouraged wondering why I was working so hard just for it to end in continued rejection.

Then, I was granted the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to hand in my résumé and cover letter to ConocoPhillips. It was the first place I was applying for an internship and it was in Houston, my hometown. This opportunity was a perfect fit for this coming summer. Unfortunately, there are only eight spots for finance and accounting interns in Houston, so the competition for those spots is steep. Despite the immense competition, I was emailed, within an hour of handing in my résumé and cover letter, from the internship coordinator in regards to setting up an interview. I was ecstatic and could not believe that they had gotten back to me so quickly. That next Monday, I had my phone interview and I thought it went really well. I immediately called my parents to tell them how it went, when, in the middle of our conversation, I had another incoming call. I recognized the number as the lady who I had just interviewed with. I assumed that she just needed a few more pieces of information from me. Surprisingly, that was not the case.

I answered the phone and she said, “We would like to offer you an internship in Houston this summer.” My immediate response was, “Are you serious?” That was not probably the most professional response, but I was in shock that she was calling me about getting it literally ten minutes after the interview had finished. I had never heard of someone getting the job that quickly before. Later, I came to find out that when I had applied there was only one spot left in the program and they had already narrowed down the candidates to one other girl. However, they still gave me a chance and according to the internship coordinator I blew the other girl out of the water with my résumé.

That experience made me realize that all my hard work does pay off and that I just need to be patient. Even though I did not get into Neeley Fellows or Delta Sigma Pi, I got accepted when it really counted in the real world. 

The Worrisome Stage

Conversation Two:

For this second meeting I was very excited until the moment I got an email from Frances saying, I lie not, “How are you going?” I later found out that she was ultimately if our plans were still on for that evening. When we first met, she did not talk all that much out of the four of us, and I thought that was just because she was reserved. The email I received proved otherwise. It was actually because her English was not the strongest which worried me because I did not know how dinner would go. The first time we met, we mostly talked about the basic question about school, family, friends, etc. However, this second time I had no idea what we would talk about. On top of that, I extremely awkward when it comes to making new friends. I am not sure Frances even considered me as a friend at that point.

As dinner approached, it was pouring rain outside. I thought to myself, this is a great start, considering my worries already coming into this. Elle and I got there on time and ordered our food and decided to eat because they did not show up until twenty-five minutes past what we had agreed on. Something that I noticed was strange was that they both decided to not eat their food even though we sat there and conversed for a bit. I do not know if they did that because Elle and I had already eaten and that, in their culture, they did not eat in front of people if not everyone was eating at the same time. Not to worry, the awkward night continued.

At the last dinner we went to, Frances had mentioned that she had a boyfriend and we talked about him for a little bit. Naturally, the second time we met I asked how they were doing. Cindy and Frances both, simultaneously, burst out in laughter. Elle and I looked at each other completely confused as to why they were laughing; we had found it a normal question to ask, especially as girls. Finally, after they could manage to speak in between laughs, Frances asked, “Why would you ask that?” Now, I felt like a complete idiot wondering if I had said something disrespectful. Needless to say, I did not contribute much to the conversation after that. It was strange to observe that they found that instance so hilarious and Elle and I were sitting there in a state of awkward confusion.

The Nervous Stage

Conversation One:

            I will be completely honest. Before this first conversation I felt that I would be completely out of my element. The only thing helping me was the fact that I was going with Elle. If it were to be just Frances and me, I could tell you exactly how it would have gone—awkwardly. Meeting new people and making conversation (aka small talk) is not my forte; not to mention, it makes me a nervous wreck. To add on top of that, it is someone that may or may not be able to communicate efficiently with me. If I wouldn’t have been able to understand what she was saying, then my automatic go-to is to nervously laugh. However, I could not do that in this case because God forbid she said something that was not meant to be laughed at. All these thoughts were running through my head consistently the day before and the day of the dinner I was going to. To say the least, I was apprehensive.

            As dinner time approached, there was another thing weighing on my mind as I was waiting. I had no idea whether or not Frances was a girl or a guy. My first instinct was to look up their Chinese name on Google and see if it was a girl or guy’s name. That did not help either. Like Frances, the Chinese name was also one that could go both ways. The next thing I did was email her asking what they were wearing so that I could identify them. Frances emailed back saying “a black t-shirt and a red cap.” At that point, I was almost certain it was a guy. Later on, Elle and I were walking to Dutch’s (which I was excited about because I had not had it all semester) and I saw a person with a red cap and a black shirt on. It was a girl. I had it so wrong.

            We sat down for dinner and Elle’s partner, Cindy, and Frances, who are coincidentally friends, both asked me what they should get. I said they should get the burgers, but I warned them that they were pretty big and that I usually do not finish them. Much to my surprise, Frances, who is quite petite, ate the entire burger. I was in shock. The conversation flowed greatly; there were points of awkwardness, but that was to be expected. We talked about each other’s families and boyfriends. Also, we talked about their home and whether they liked it better here. They both said, almost instantaneously, that the food back home was much better than here. They also mentioned going back to China one day. Overall, it was a great dinner and made me excited for the next time that we would meet.

What is Literature? Civilization?

Interview #1

Interview #2

 Interview #3

Interview #4