Roses and Thorns
Aaron Lee
Roses and Thorns was a game we would always play at the end of every Boy Scout camping trip, It let us reflect on the fun outing we had, and reminded ourselves of the lessons we learned when things, (as they typically do) didn’t go as planned. The game was simple, parents and scouts would gather in a circle and one by one each would share their Roses (things they enjoyed), their Thorns (things they disliked), and their Buds (things they would do differently). As I reflect on my journey to UCSD I can’t help but reminisce over the challenges I had to overcome, the life lessons I had learned, and the roses, thorns, and buds I’ve been able to take away from my experiences as a transfer student. Below I would like to share 2 stories from my journey that highlight the importance of resiliency.
Getting into cars as a hobby presented to me my first real test of resilience, I was 18 and I had just left high school. Saving up enough money, I was eventually able to buy my first car, negotiating a good deal on a project car thinking I could save some money and easily fix it myself. This would prove to be a daunting task, considering I lacked any prior experience working on cars or even the basic knowledge of automobiles. It would be a long journey of trial and error, but I had no other option, I lacked the funds to take it to a real mechanic, and abandoning the project would have meant wasted money, leaving a giant mess in my garage. Little by little I’d learn through YouTube videos and online books. My real test of resilience came when I decided to rebuild my engine without any experience. As a novice mechanic, it felt like climbing Mount Everest, as I would have to take apart nearly half of the car and somehow put it all back together, hoping I didn’t make any mistakes. For the next month, I slowly began removing the engine and disassembling it. Finally, after spending weeks working on it, my body physically exhausted from the work, I was able to reassemble the engine and put it back into the car. Hearing the engine fire up for the first time was one of the most rewarding and exhilarating experiences I’ve ever had. knowing I single-handedly accomplished a feat even a professional mechanic would struggle with. Unfortunately, this feeling didn’t last long, as moments later oil began to leak from the engine. I had made a critical mistake and trying to fix it meant I would have to take apart the entire engine again. It was at that moment that I felt like a complete failure, becoming deeply discouraged and frustrated knowing that weeks of my time, strained effort, and hundreds of dollars had been for nothing. I could have easily given up and cut my losses there but I decided even though I had experienced this pain and hardship, I could use this disappointment as a learning experience to understand what I had done wrong and test myself in overcoming failure. From there I spent another month redoing the same work, learning from previous mistakes. This time I was successful in rebuilding my engine, being able to drive the car for thousands of miles without any issues. What I learned from this experience was to not give up so easily in the face of failure. As long as I didn’t give up, and kept persevering one step forward I would eventually make progress in my goals. This lesson would translate into my academic life and give me the confidence to question my old personal beliefs.
Math was a subject I’ve always struggled with since I was a kid, by the time I had finished high school I had repeated Pre-Calculus three separate times, finally passing it with a C-. I entered my community college Calculus course with a preconceived notion that I was terrible at math and I would never be able to understand the subject. Starting a new job midway through the course and working full-time meant I would come to class physically and mentally exhausted. My grade in the class soon began to fall and I started to feel deeply discouraged in my academic abilities. Failing the class only helped to strengthen my personal belief, that I was terrible at math. I heavily debated if I should even retake the course, but next semester I decided to give it another shot. I told myself “Last semester you didn’t give yourself a fair chance to succeed”, I couldn’t give up until I knew I had given Calculus my complete effort. I reduced my workload to part-time and although my work schedule still interfered with class schedules I would teach myself through Khan Academy and YouTube to make up missed lectures. There were times when I’d feel out of my element and wanted to give up, especially when I didn’t understand a concept, and spent hours re-watching and dissecting what I had done wrong. Gaining confidence from my automotive hobbies I knew I had to persevere and just keep taking small steps forward. Through resiliency, I was able to pass the course and continue to Calculus 2 and 3.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from my experience as a Transfer Student is to take on challenges in small portions, because the only way you truly fail is when you give up on life's challenges prematurely.
