My name is Gretchen Wittry and I am a first year undergraduate student at The Ohio State University.

My top five StrengthsQuest Strengths are Strategic, Positivity, Adaptability, Relator, and Developer. All of these seem very appropriate fits for me. I do consider myself strategic; I like planning things out well in advance so I can be as prepared as possible for whatever I need to do. I get stressed out when something changes and I do not have ample time to prepare for it mentally. This is ironic that I got adaptability as my third strength; I do think I am adaptable in many situations but there are some situations where I do not adapt well to change, it all depends on my current level of stress.

Even though I am only one semester through college, I have learned several things about what it takes to be successful in adjusting to college life. The two most important things I’ve learned so far are:

1) Read the textbook material BEFORE each lecture. It will make the lecture a lot less confusing, and it’ll be the second time you’re hearing the information. (This is especially important for math and science classes.) I did not do this at the beginning of the semester in chemistry and my first midterm ended up being quite ugly.

2) Procrastination in college is a lot different than procrastination in high school. If you wait to complete an assignment or study for a midterm or complete a reading assignment, it is going to affect your grade in that class a lot more than it would in high school. In high school, classes have a lot more cushion points so you can survive a bad test, but in college, classes have very few assignments that go towards your final grade, so it’s important to do your best to prepare well in advance for all of them.

My favorite Ohio State tradition is singing “I Don’t Give a Damn for The Whole State of Michigan” as everyone is leaving the Shoe after each home game. I grew up my whole life in Cincinnati, but my parents moved to Michigan (and took my dogs 5 hours away instead of 2) one week after I came to OSU, so I relate to this song on a whole other level.