For this week’s Rose Café, Dr. Cynthia Hill had an interesting approach to her main point, transitioning from feedback from professors to what you want out of college. At the heart of her discussion, it seems that she wants us to wonder about how we want to take advantage of college. While the conversation about the essay feedback from professors was quite useful in deciphering what professors want out of us, my impression was it was a metaphor for continually thinking about what you are doing right now and whether or not that is what you want to do. Feedback will help you revise your essay and similarly, understanding what and why you are doing something at this moment will give you greater insight and context. Obviously my main goal is to do well in classes and learn material that hopefully shapes my skills in the future, even if the content is long forgotten due to rare usage. I often go to my TA or professor to get feedback on my papers because I genuinely want to know what I did wrong because often it is fundamental errors that can be fixed in the future. I don’t have the luxury (might be a good thing though) of writing papers every semester so there is always a bit of “rust” at first but every piece of advice and assimilating critique is useful. Engaging the professor before and after a writing assignment I find to be extremely useful because you can often tailor it to something that you like and enjoy. Aside from that, I want to make sure that I am taking advantage of the large campus, diverse student population and broadening my views. College offers an incredible amount of freedom in opportunity, interest and engaging with people in a “closed environment.” It is sort of a sandbox between adolescence and adulthood. I am constantly trying to go out of my comfort zone and join and do new things because if I seem to fail here, there is no harm. Plus it becomes a sort of a lifestyle because I would be over the initial hump of uncertainty and hesitance, allowing me to do things I probably wouldn’t have considered otherwise once I graduate.

One thing I plan to do is visit the Fuertes Observatory, something I didn’t even realize we had on campus that was close by. Astronomy and stars has always fascinated me so I definitely want to check that out. People often say you should do the “161 things” that a Cornellian should do but I see those as guidelines and modify them for my interests. The point is to not be stuck in a library all day and try to make time to explore Cornell. It is a big place after all. Practicing this balance now is far more beneficial because you can mess up and potentially not be subjected to too much trouble. With this experience, it becomes valuable later on and bolster your decision-making when trying to balance work and life. What do you plan on doing at Cornell that you didn’t consider before?