Lilly Tran "Freshman Time Capsule" Reflection Essay

Writing this time capsule and looking back, I can hardly believe that the end of the year is almost upon me. In the blink of an eye, I’m already a quarter of the way through college. It felt like just last month, when I stood on top of the steps of Centreville waving goodbye to my parents, a week since I walked into a lecture hall for the first time, and just yesterday, when I stared down my first finals test. Throughout this time, I’ve found that my experiences here at the University of Maryland have allowed me to grow and change. The many aspects of living on campus and being at college have given me unique experiences that I never would have expected.

I think the first thing that comes to mind for me is the ENES 100 class that I took this semester. The class, designed to be an introduction to engineering design, involved students working in randomly assigned groups for the duration of the semester on an over-terrain vehicle or OTV, together to complete a given mission and then navigate through an obstacle course under a time limit. My group's mission was called “seed-planting,” and we were assigned the task of planting a seed in a plot of land while identifying which plot was plotable and collecting a sample. Together with my group, we developed an OTV design through 3-d modeling, did calculations for what batteries, motors, and wheels we needed, came up with ideas to solve our missions, and, through the course of the semester, built and watched our vision come to life. Using the engineering labs, our group utilized tools such as laser cutters and 3d printers to build our OTV. One of the greatest surprises I had about this course was all the skills that we learned and the resources we had available in this class. Through the course of the class, we learned skills such as CAD, which is essential for most engineering students, a bit of ardrunio, a coding language, and students could get certified and trained in skills such as 3d printing, laser cutting, woodworking, or even soldering, all important and useful skills for engineering students to have. I, for example, learned the basics of CAD and was able to help design some of the base of OTV, and learned and used the 3d printer frequently to print out parts for the project. Besides the technical skills that I learned in this course, I think the part that surprised me the most was all the collaboration and teamwork involved in this project. My group, randomly assigned for a full semester, came together and had to learn about each other and our different strengths and skill sets. While some group members had lots of experience with coding and electronics, others were more comfortable and eager to learn about CAD and the mechanical aspects of the project. Together we worked and collaborated together to make this project work as best as we could and by communicating well and everyone contributing to the project equally, the experience was enjoyable overall. Your experience in ENES 100 is heavily dependent on the people in your group so by being a good team mate you’ll gain a lot of positive experiences and pleasant surprises in this course. In the end, despite all the countless hours, weeks, and months we put into the project, our OTV did not perform as well as we would have liked. It’s an important lesson in how things rarely go as planned and that the best we can do is move on, persist, and keep on solving problems.

All the work that I did for ENES 100 wouldn't have been possible without my amazing TA, Maggie, who helped so much with the project. From helping us troubleshoot wiring and code or helping teach us how to use certain tools, Maggie made this class a much more enjoyable experience. In fact, without many of the TA’s and professors in my classes and forming and developing relationships with them, my time here would not be the same. I mainly formed and developed relationships with my TA throughout my various classes, such as my mechanics class or my biocomputations class. I mainly formed these relationships with my TA’s through coming to their office hours to ask for help. This semester, I struggled a lot in my biocomputations class, so every week I would come into my TA Kevin’s office hours to get help on my code. He was always helpful, and I learned a lot through his help. TAs are here to help you, and it can sometimes be intimidating to approach a professor, but I found that sometimes approaching TAs who are mostly students who might be a few years older than us can be a lot less scary and easier to talk to. To form relations with faculty, I would recommend going to professors' or TAs’ office hours to ask questions. By asking questions to your professor or TA one-on-one, you can get to know the faculty better and receive more one-on-one help. By going to office hours, I was able to form stronger relationships with my professors and TAs and was able to receive a lot of valuable help. I would recommend that any incoming students take advantage of office hours. The scariest thing about going to office hours, of course, is talking to the professor. It can be scary going up to them and asking for help. I know that I struggled with this at the start of college, but I found that Professors and TAs are happy to help, and it's better to have your questions answered instead of being confused on your own. I think overall, students who wish to develop stronger relations with various faculty in UMD can do so by utilizing office hours.

Besides professors seeming intimidating at first, another one of my fears of moving into college was being surrounded by so many people that I didn’t know and trying to make friends. It can be hard to make friends with other people. Luckily, I met my roommate. With both of us being in SGC we were randomly assigned to be roommates. We both got along right away and found lots of mutual interests and passions. Throughout the year, our relationship has continued to grow, and we frequently spend time together, staying up late at night to talk about everything and nothing. Now, next year we plan to room together again alongside two of our friends. Having a roommate and friend that I can always rely on and talk to has made the transition into college much easier, knowing I wouldn’t be going through everything alone. I think that it’s important to have a good relationship with your roommate, after all, you are living and sharing a space with them. Besides my roommate, some of the most important relationships with other students that I made were the friends I made in my classes. During my first semester in my mechanics class, I met an amazing group of people in that class. Collectively bonding through the class, we began going out to lunch after class, where we would sit after class, chatting as we ate our meal. Soon, we began hanging out outside of class, planning events after a particularly grueling exam. Through my friends in my class, I found people with whom I could study and learn together while having fun. Now in my second semester, the hardest part is finding time to hang out with all of our different schedules. But we all still regularly text and try to plan meet-ups when we can. Friends can make the adjustment to college less scary, while it can seem intimidating to make friends. By being yourself, you’ll be sure to make lots of friends and valuable connections with your peers.

College is a big transition full of lots of changes from high school. No one can come in completely prepared for it. One of the things that I was least prepared for coming into college was the importance of time management. There are always so many assignments, projects, and midterms that need to be studied and worked on, all on top of taking care of yourself. At times, it can be overwhelming looking at all that needs to be done, and then it feels like it’ll be impossible to start, and there's not enough time for everything. By managing time well and starting homework and assignments early, it is possible to organize and finish things early so that you don’t feel overwhelmed by everything being due at once. To help better manage my time I downloaded a to-do list onto my phone that displays the lists of tasks that need to be done so that I can organize my assignments my priority and see what needs to be done. I would recommend incoming freshmen to have a plan on how to study and find a method that works for them to ensure that they manage their time efficiently. Whether it's writing the assignment onto a calendar or a to-do list, keeping track of assignments is a great way to organize and be efficient with your time.

All in all, I had a good first year in college. While it was stressful at times, through persistence, hard work, and a good support system, I was able to make it through. I’d advise incoming freshmen to work and study hard but also to enjoy their time in college. Your first year of college only happens once; make the most of it and have a great year!

Last modified: 8 May 2026