Margaret Babayan

October 10
th
, 2011
Honors 100
Assignment #1
I broke down and cried (I kid you not!) when I realized that I would be attending UW.
My decision was entirely pragmatic: either enroll into school I loved and fall into debt for the
rest of my life, or, go to one that I had worked my entire life not to go to, but remain sans debt. I
chose the latter.
I didnt think that UW was a terrible school per se. The campus is gorgeous, the
professors bright and the students eager to learn. My lack of interest in UW stemmed from the
fact that everyone went to UW. It didnt feel prestigious or even special. UW was too close to
home. I had spent the past four years growing into a better person, and in going to UW, I felt as
if I would regress back into my old shy self, unwilling to try new things because there would be
no change in environment. UWs magnitude scared me even more. I wanted to go to a warm and
fuzzy school, one that was about the same size of my high school, if not smaller, that would
enable me to make meaningful connections. But none of that mattered because life boils down to
finances.
I felt better after I received the honors acceptance letter. Honors would provide a smaller
community, and I valued that the most. Still, I couldnt shake the anxiety of having to tell people
I was going to UW after having worked so hard not to. Nevertheless, over the summer I finally
grasped the fact that I would define my college experience; the college would not define me.
William Saroyan wrote in the time of your life, live. I want to do exactly that, and in
that sense what I hope to accomplish in my time at UW differs not from the goals of any
freshman, or human being for that matter. I crave knowledge, and want to graduate feeling
enlightened. However, I think that peers and professors drive my quest for knowledge. It is not
enough for me to read a textbook and sit in a lecture hall to truly learn. I want to be engulfed in
ideas in order to mold my own. Our thoughts truly are profoundly molded by this long
historic flow, and none of us exists, self-made, in isolation from it.
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I want to learn, but more
than anything I want to make meaningful connections with those I encounter in the process.
Learning also needs not have a strictly academic connotation. As Brooks expanded on in the
article, I want to learn how to live life itself on a daily basis as a human being. I am a social
animal.
The mechanisms in which I will make those connections and learn will only work if I am
willing to use the opportunities around me. So far, I have made an effort to get to know everyone
around me, and as the year goes on I hope to get to know everyone on an even deeper level.
Although Brook argues connections are subconscious, the best way to form connections is to say
helloI plan to do, and have done, exactly that.

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Brooks, David. Social Animal: How the new sciences of human nature can help make sense of a life. The
NewYorker. 17 Jan. 2011. Web. 10 Oct. 2011.