Learning (to be) Fluid by Gabrielle

Learning (to be) Fluid by Gabrielle - August 2014 Scholarship Essay

Just about one month ago I was sitting on my couch talking to my roommate and checking my email. At this point in time I was a few weeks into my summer vacation and as a result I had neglected to check my inbox for some time. Due to my summer induced carelessness there were quite a few emails that I had to sort through. As I half listened to my roommate and half sifted through my emails I came across one that quite literally made me scream. It was my fluids professor from that past semester, and he had graded our finals. Now, a little bit of background on my fluids class before we continue.

Fluids is a class that is required for my major. It was one of the hardest classes that I have taken thus far in my college career. We had to do things like derive equations that explain fluid velocity based on pipe characteristics. While it was challenging, by the end of the semester it was easily my favorite class. But in the beginning of the year I dreaded it. The concepts seemed so detached from the math and I just couldn't get a solid understanding of the content. So when the first exam rolled around it is no surprise that I did poorly. I got a 75% on what was going to be the simplest material of the semester. I was devastated. How was I going to pass this class if I got a C on the easiest exam? I obviously had to change the way I was approaching this class.

I started attending my Professor’s office hours. Simply listening to other students’ questions and taking notes. I found extra problems to do in the text book so I could familiarize myself with the different types of problems that may be asked on an exam. I began doing homework with a group so that we could bounce ideas off of each other and try to explain concepts that a peer didn't quite grasp. I was improving and the second exam was proof. I got an 88%! While that was still not where I wanted to be it was a step in the right direction.

The next exam was the final and I needed to do extremely well to get an A in the class and I was out of ideas. I went to my Professor for advice on what I should do to prepare for his final. He told me to do extra problems, work in groups, and come to office hours. Those things helped me succeed in the second exam, but I wanted to do better. I needed to pinpoint the areas that I was having difficulty with and remedy them. I went through my old homework and exams to see exactly where I went wrong. Then I found problems in the text that were similar to them and tried them again. I would go into office hours and ask my specific questions instead of just listening to others. I felt confident going into the final exam. I had prepared every way that I could think of. All I could do was wait.

Now recall that I was neglecting my emails during the summer, but the same cannot be said for my online grade report. I was logging into that whenever a computer was in sight, and three weeks into summer there was no word on my fluids final. So as I haphazardly filtered through my gargantuan mound of emails I came across one that may actually be important. My fluids Professor had emailed me before releasing the grades to tell me how pleased he was with my progress through the semester and that I had gotten the highest score in my class on the final exam. In that moment my shriek of pure joy was completely acceptable. I devoted so much time and energy into understanding that class, but it taught me so much more than fluid dynamics, it trained me to adapt. I learned to see what was holding me back, and more importantly how to fix it. For so long I had been rigid in my study habits, but my semester in fluids taught me to be, well, fluid.