Tara Cookson

Dr. Wood

Core 101

13 December 2018

A Semester Full of Learning Experiences

Life: “an ongoing, messy, optimistic and uncertain quest”. These four identifiers not only

describe my whole life, but characterize my first semester of college perfectly. At points, I

questioned the reason I came to Drury. I doubted all of my decisions and wondered if my actions

were going to lead me straight to failure. During these discouraging moments, I felt like I was in

a hole trying to drag myself out and desperately searching for the light in life. At other points, I

felt like I was the light in life and nothing could bring me down. I looked at life as a journey that

I was going to take on fearlessly. During these moments, I praised the universe for getting me to

the place that I am and making me the person that I am. Over everything else, my first semester

of college taught me that life comes at you in waves. Some days will be messy and depleting and

you will not want to keep swimming, but some days will be so great and inspiring that you

cannot wait for what the future brings you. Life is uncertain and I have learned that you can

either see that as an exciting mystery or a scary unknown.

Looking back at the semester, I do not see the walls that I have had to overcome as

tremendous, towering barriers, but rather as growing experiences that I needed. The challenges

that I have gone through in college have been the same challenges that I have gone through for

most of my life. For the first time in my life, I am on my own in a new place. This gave me the

urge and freedom to starting climbing over the hurdles that I have always struggled with. The

most substantial, and hardest, challenges that I have always dealt with are my confidence in
myself and my anxiety about life. I have never fully been confident in the person that I am or my

abilities. I have always had an overwhelming feeling of uneasiness in most situations because of

this lack of certainty in myself. When coming to college, I had to decide who the person I wanted

to be was and how I wanted to be perceived by others. Throughout the past 4 months, my

confidence has grown immensely due to the situations that I have forced myself into. I made

myself take risks, like joining a sorority, being around unfamiliar people, and going for

leadership positions, which all provided unexpected benefits. By taking risks, my demeanor and

attitude about life have changed. I constantly have feelings of content and positivity, which is

something I could hardly say before college. College is a place of freedom, but it is what you do

with that freedom that defines not only the person you are, but the person you will be in the

future. I finally feel as if I can take control of my own life and start forming into the person I

want to be, which is a stronger, more positive, and uplifting person. I feel like as I am finally

making strides to overcome the walls that have always been in my way of true happiness and

optimism.

Coming into this semester, I did not know what to expect from our Core 101 class. As the

semester progressed, I found myself wanting to share my opinions on the subjects that we were

discussing. At first, Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” did not really reach me and I did not

make connections because the writing and my own life, but as I read it again at the end of the

semester, I found myself relating to the prisoners. I realize now that I use to view my life as

being very small and my opportunities to be limited, just as the prisoners who were blind to the

unknowns in life. I let others control my emotional state and my happiness, as the puppeteers

controlled what the prisoners saw. Due to this view on life, I had a very negative mindset. Just as

when the prisoner left the cave, when I left my high school and my hometown, I was
enlightened. College opened my eyes to all of the possibilities that I have in my life. I find

myself looking at my friends that are still in high school and I cannot wait for them to be taken

out of the cave and see what life truly is.

While the early readings that we did in class caused me to evaluate my past, the later

readings that we did forced me to think about my future. Reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta

Lacks provoked thoughts of what kind of physician I want to be. The three fundamental qualities

that I want to practice as a doctor are honesty, commitment, and empathy. When discussing the

healthcare of Henrietta Lacks, the idea of honesty came up between the physician and the

patient. I think that a patient is in control of their own body and their future. A physician’s job is

to best inform the patient on their options and act on the patient’s wishes. This may be a hard

value to live by, especially while working with children, like I want to, but I think it is one of the

most important characteristics of a physician. Reading this book also sparked the interest that I

have in medical ethics. I enjoyed discussing whether the greater good is more important than the

rights of an individual and it made me evaluate what my own morals are. The Immortal Life of

Henrietta Lacks was the perfect book to read for this class because it forced us to think about

hard situations that we will have to make decisions on in our future careers.

Moving forward in college, I need to ensure that I use the characteristics and knowledge

that I learned this year to further succeed. I want to continue sharing my opinions, eagerly and

bravely, like I could in Core 101. This class gave me a place where I felt as if I could share my

ideas safely and comfortably. My first semester of college showed me that life is not always

going to be easy, but these moments are learning experiences. If I do not put every bit of time

and energy into achieving my goals, then my goals will never be fully obtained. It will take hard

work to get to where I want to be in life, but that is why my future is going to be worth it.
 Works Cited

Plato. “The Allegory of the Cave” from The Republic. Translated by Benjamin

Jowett.
 Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Broadway Books, 2010,

New York.