Sticks in a Bundle
The Common Thread
More Than One
There isn't only one experience that makes somebody who they are. Each person has built themselves on years worth of unique experiences, outlooks, and perceptions. One experience is a stick. Many experiences is a lot of sticks. Put those sticks together and you have a person. I am no different. I'm made of many sticks bundled together to make the person I am today, the Elior that graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in May 2022.
Sticks That Look the Same
Through all of my experiences completing the five pillars of GCSP, there has been one lesson that I've learned from all of them: the value of time. Starting a business taught me that everything novel takes more time than expected to reach the outcome that you'd want. My study abroad in Madrid taught me the necessity of spending time to live the life we were granted. My time teaching taught me about creating a legacy and passing on ideas that transcend time. My time as a researcher taught me that it takes exponentially more time the more confident you want to be with a decision. And finally my education about water made me ask myself where I should put my time.
Where to Now?
When I came into college, I thought I knew what I wanted to do. I was going to become a mechanical engineer then go work on planes to decrease their emissions and help curb global warming.
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But now, I don't know what I want to do.
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The experiences I've had while fulfilling the five pillars of GCSP have showed me so much more about life than I could've imagined when I was joining it four years ago. While it has left me with less sense of direction, it has left me with something more valuable: wisdom. The sticks I've collected have made me question the world and consciously decide what is valuable and what is not, and for that I am grateful to for this program and the people who have helped me through it along the way.
Feedback on the GCSP program at Mines
While I don't have much criticism for the program, there are a few points I'd like to hit on. First, the retention from the Engineering Grand Challenges Themed Learning Community is terrible. This creates a disparity between the community of EGC and the disparity of GCSP. Ultimately, this makes GCSP be a side story in may of its members lives. This is hard to avoid though since many of the people in GCSP are the kind of people who keep themselves extra busy, always filling their time with the coolest thing they can (which oftentimes contributes to completing the GCSP program). I don't know how much I would change the program though to make it a bigger part of people's lives because at some point, professional programs like GCSP can get in the way of doing things that are valuable like completing the five pillars of GCSP.
Overall though, I am thankful and grateful for this program and for the portfolio at the end. It was nice to complete the pillars in my own unique way and to build my portfolio how I like it. The open-endedness allowed me to find my own unique path and while this can be harmful for people who don't have the internal motivation to go do things, it's excellent for the go-getter types who are a part of GCSP. As I find myself going into the real world, I am grateful for the way that GCSP has helped me wrap up my experiences into a single theme, bringing conclusion to this chapter of my life.