Lesson #1: No need to romanticize the “college experience”
The crux of the American “college experience,” from my understanding, is social connectivity. College is a community where there is a huge concentration of people to learn from and create experiences together. But the trap of romanticizing the college experience is that it implies such communities don’t exist after graduation when that is not true at all. When we visited Casa de Mañana, a retirement complex in La Jolla, one of my first impressions was “this place feels like a small liberal arts college campus” or at the least my very own residential hall during my first year of college—there are weekly activities and excursions, weekly guest lectures on various world topics, a recreation center, a “dining points” system (sounds an awful lot like UCSD’s dining dollars) that can be spent at various food options, a tight knit group of residents who all knew each other by name, and even a Residential Life director! Basically, my lesson from the housing tour is that people are always craving (and deserve!) social connectivity throughout one’s life course—it’s not just a college thing. So while I should appreciate and take advantage of all the social resources available to me at UCSD right now, I also shouldn’t stress over the misconception that this will be the peak of my social life because there are so many opportunities throughout my own life course to recreate, experiment with, and learn from the “college experience” many times over as I learn more about what part of social connectivity brings the most fulfillment to me.
Lesson #2: Appreciating can sometimes mean saying the nice things out loud
During class last week, I shared that my current life purpose is to appreciate. While at the time, I meant appreciation as a form of internal reflection, I now realize that appreciation can also materialize as an external force I exert. During my HAP discussion circle with Bri, Christine, and Lily, I had the pleasure of speaking with one of the volunteers at the West Center who opened my eyes to the importance of being vocal of my thoughts. While it's important to listen, I can also use my words to clarify and re-interpret for the better.