This year so far has been chaotic and stressful. In the beginning of the school semester I was struggling to keep organized, preforming consistently subpar in most of my classes. Traveling to Germany and Turkey in order to keep my standing on the junior national team didn't help with my studies.
Overall, I ended up preforming badly in school, and in fencing. I lost my first direct elimination bout in Turkey, and only made 6th place for both German national tournaments. For NJIT, I travelled to different meets almost every weekend from October to Thanksgiving. By the second month of uni, I had one D and one F, in two of my most important subjects.
At some point I realized what I had been doing was not working. Something I think is criminally under-used is office hours, and I started going in the second half of the semester. I also fixed my organization system, buying two multi-subject notebooks, one for notes and one for practice problems.
An excerpt from my notes
By the end of the year, I brought my F to a C, and my D to an A. I have learned my lesson, and know to take college more seriously. At the same time, learning how to juggle fencing and school is a struggle I need to overcome and learn the solution for.
For now, being back home means new projects, much needed family time, and deep relaxation.
