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I Finished My First Semester Of My Master's Degree! Here Is What I Learned:

Writer's picture: Annie KrollAnnie Kroll

I was lucky to finish my last final on Thursday, and now I get about five weeks of winter break before starting a new semester. This week, I want to share five lessons I have learned throughout this process.


1: Making friends had a positive impact on how connected I felt to not only the material I was learning but also my motivation to go to class.

Making friends is not easy for me, and I usually have to start the friend-making process over each semester because new classes bring new people. I am lucky that my program now is so tiny that my cohort has four people in the specific emphasis I have chosen, so I get to keep these friends throughout my time in the program. I have enjoyed seeing everyone's unique interests because it lessens the competitiveness I saw in my undergraduate degree and replaces it with a commonality all of us can connect on. I felt excited to attend class this semester towards the end when I would usually be ready for a break.


2: It is important to pick a major you are willing to spend a lot of time focusing on.

I spent so much time focusing on autism portrayals in media and disability accessibility that it would have been absolutely boring if I didn't love it. Next semester, my classes largely focus on education, and I am much less excited about that because teaching is not my passion. Hopefully, I will be allowed to bring an advocacy lens to everything I do, but I haven't met many of my professors yet to know if I can. Most of my classmates are interested in K-12 or early childhood education, so I have had to do more work to tailor my master's program to my specific interests.


3: Having a professor with extended knowledge about disability makes self-advocacy much easier.

In the past, when I needed accommodations, I felt a lot of pressure to prove that I was disabled enough to need them while also being studious enough not to be accused of abusing them. Last semester, I didn't feel the need to have to prove myself because I knew that my professor had an understanding of my experience. I am nervous about next semester because I don't know any of my professors, and my classes are not focusing on disability studies. Hopefully, I am worried about nothing, but I have had the burden to prove that I am the "right kind" of disabled that professors want to accommodate in the past.


4: Being vulnerable and asking for what I need can have positive effects.

My last final was to speak at an accessibility professional development day for administrative leaders on campus, where I shared about spoon theory and my experience navigating the campus with Autism and Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia. I felt nervous because I was being vulnerable with an audience of over 100 people. However, once I was done, I was able to connect with people who could relate to my story themselves or through family members and with people who wanted to help me. I would never have gotten that opportunity if I didn't choose to be vulnerable with my presentation. I also re fell in love with public speaking. I hadn't been able to do it in a while and felt connected to alternative ways to share my story. My long-term goal is to have a YouTube channel in partnership with this blog, but that will not be up for a while.


5: School and education are important, but they are not the only things that matter.

In my undergraduate degree, I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well. Being a good student was my only form of identity, and I didn't know who I was outside of that. I took a lot of time in my gap year to work through that, and while it is not perfect, I still have other identities that I value. For me, that is being a blogger, advocate, nonprofit advisory board member, and person who takes time to focus on mental and physical health. Having these identities and hobbies helps me not put so much pressure on myself in school while also being mindful of the fact that I want to do well. I think it is very important to have multiple identities and that it is safe not to be perfect. This is still a lesson I am working on, but it is a valuable one.


Thank you for reading about what I learned in my first semester of my master's program. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to comment on the blog, reach out at @Anniekrollblog on Instagram or Facebook, or email me at Anniekrollblog@gmail.com. I hope to see you next week!

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