My Honors 100 assignments are the perfect snapshots of where I was during fall quarter freshman year. And, surprisingly, where I was heading too. As I look at these two assignments, I see plenty of not-so-subtle foreshadowing that I would not be ending college as an engineer. Below are a couple of excerpts that really illustrate 18 year old Taylor's frame of mind and almost uncanny ability to predict the future:
"Don’t get me wrong, I love math and science, but that’s just the tip of the Taylor-iceberg. There is a whole lot more to me than that. For one thing, I love Norse mythology and I want to get closer to my Scandinavian roots. I am extremely curious about religions around the world. I have a passion for true crime and horror movies. I am afraid of the ocean and I hate the snow". "It’s such a diverse place that even if I suddenly decided that I wanted to be a doctor, or a lawyer or a teacher, I would still be in an amazing place to do it" "I would continue to say something like “I can't wait to see how much I grow in the next four years,” but that is not true. I most definitely can wait. I am not even close to ready to think about that yet. I am just going to take it one step at a time and see where it takes me" |
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I chose to be a Peer Educator for a couple of reasons. First, I had always had a subtle interest in teaching as a possible career move and becoming a PE seemed like an amazing opportunity for a test drive.
Second, and more importantly, my Honors 100 Peer Educator played a huge role in my Freshman Year life and I wanted to be able to pay that forward. She introduced me to the Queer community on campus and a group of folks who would become my closest friends (for a time) and even become a good friend of mine herself. Though we are no longer friends, I will always be grateful for the help and guidance she gave me as I became more comfortable with myself and in my identity. I am grateful for my time as a Peer Educator because, though I discovered that teaching is not the move for me, I made a couple of lifelong friends and was able to touch the lives of a really special group of freshman who I am positive are going to do, and I'm sure have been doing, so many amazing things. |
Summer 2017, I got a job as a student circulation assistant at the Gallagher Law Library. I still work there today. Over the years, Gallagher has done so much more for me than pay my bills and fund my iced coffee addiction. It's the place where I got my first promotion, where I began to question my future in STEM and explore careers in Law or Librarianship, where the inspiration for my play "Check this Shhh... Out" originated, and it was even where I met my girlfriend.
When all other things in my life were changing (my major, my address, my friend groups, my relationships), the library and the people that work there were my constants. It was (and still is) the backbone of my UW experience and I will never stop being grateful for that. |