This semester has taught me a lot about not only myself, but my place in a group setting as well. One of the major lessons that I have learned is that the world does not stop moving just because you are going through complications in your personal life. There have been several difficulties in my own life that I have had to endure throughout 2026, but despite those trials, I have had to teach myself how to keep up with school and work at the same time. It has not been easy, but I believe that throughout this process, I have also started learning another valuable lesson, that hard work will always outweigh raw talent. High school was a breeze for me, so I never had to put in much effort, and carrying that same mindset into college was not a smart decision. I do not have the true level of responsibility that I wish I had, and I know that I need to work on that. I need to be able to push myself outside of my comfort zone in order to accomplish all of my goals.
CODES as a whole has been a major challenge on my collaboration skills. I have never been good at working in a group of people at any point in my educational career. This was a major challenge for me in college as well. I recognize now that it is a skill that I will need to be able to perfect if I want to get anywhere in my career field. I will need to be able to collaborate with others for the rest of my life, so it is a skill that I am attempting to work on that ability for next semester. However, I do believe that my ability to work with my classmates has improved towards the end of the semester. As long as I know my individual part in a project, I can get my work done on time. Overall, I have learned a lot through CODES, and I am truly grateful for my experience within this program. Now I have a lot of new insight on things that I need to change in order to be successful in my future.