The Beginning of Halfway Through

Feeling reflective

I hope everyone reading this had a relaxing winter break and enjoyable holidays. I had a very enjoyable break visiting family and relaxing, but if I'm honest I'm excited to be back and school, and excited to reflect on my college experiences as I'm nearing the halfway through point. Here are a collection of the things I've most enjoyed so far, and the things I'm most looking forward to.


The Food 

I started off my weekend back before classes started by ordering food from a local Mediterranean restaurant and it was the best decision I could have made, it was delicious. Portland has so many good restaurants, and food trucks, it's always a delight when I eat off-campus. There's even a little food truck pod right downtown where the pioneer express drops you off, and it's perfect for some Thai food and Mexican or falafel or almost anything else you could want. I'm grateful I get to be here to enjoy the food and I look forward to all the delicious things I have yet to try here. 


The fog

Ok, this might be because I'm a dessert kid at heart, but every time it's foggy out, it just absolutely delights me. If you haven't had the fortune of visiting campus, there are tons of trees and cobblestone paths and when it gets foggy it feels like a mythical forest. It's a small thing but I love foggy days.  

NST Friendships 

I'm so glad that I went on a New Student Trip before fall my freshman year. I had such a good time, and I'm still close with almost all of the other people who went on the trip. Just the other night I had a game night in my room and a lot of those people I met on my NST came, and we had a great time together. It was a great start to my college journey 

Building New Relationships

I've already gotten to know so many really cool people in the year and a half I've been here,  This winter I attended Winterim, which is the entrepreneurship centers week-long course during the last week of break. I got to know lots of other students, and professors ad staff who work with the entrepreneurship center, and even lots of alumni who are still super engaged with the LC community. It was a great week of making connections and new friends. I'm looking forward to continuing to meet lots of amazing people the rest of this semester and the rest of my time here. 

 Challenging Experiences 

I've enjoyed all the fun experiences in college, but I've also really appreciated the challenges that I've had. It's been great to have challenging classes and feeling like I'm learning a lot. Even adjusting to life away from home comes with its own challenges, and I'm glad I've gotten to grow through them here. And I'm really looking forward to studying abroad next year and overcoming and adapting to the challenges that will come with that. 


If you have any questions or want to talk about like at Lewis & Clark, please email me at quentingaul@lclark.edu