Four and a Half Years of Learning

Caroline Reid
PDP 450
Dr. Alice Trupe
November 6, 2015
Personal Development Profile Reflection Essay

Bridgewater College, a small liberal arts college nestled in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley, a
place I learned to call my second home. I came to Bridgewater College in September 2011 as a
headstrong, confident 18 year old high school graduate who knew what she wanted, determined
to achieve her goals no matter what got in the way. My plan was to get through Bridgewater
College in 4 years, make some friends, go to as many events as possible, get my diploma, and
teach elementary school for the rest of my life. As the years progressed, my attitude, plans, and
life changed for the better.
The summer before my freshman year at Bridgewater College, I came to orientation with
no idea what to expect. I was surprised when my orientation leader informed me that I had to
take a math placement test and a Spanish placement test in McKinney 100 at 1:00 pm with a
room full of other incoming freshmen students. I fake smiled for an ID card picture, played
annoying get to know you games and ice breakers with random strangers I planned to most likely
never become friends with or speak to again, and I signed up for my first semester of classes. I
sat in on the Liberal Studies major class sign up session because my plan was to simply get a
Liberal Studies major and teach elementary school. However, Dr. Kauffman and Dr. Hogan
quickly went over the English as a Second Language Endorsement that Bridgewater College
offers, which correlates with the Liberal Studies major, and I decided that taking four extra
classes in exchange for getting a whole endorsement was not such a bad idea. On that hot
summer day, I decided I was going to be a Liberal Studies Major with PreK-6th grade Elementary
Education Certification with a newfound English as a Second Language Endorsement.
September of 2011 quickly rolled around and I arrived at Geisert 215 to an empty room
with all sorts of possibilities. Well, actually there were only two ways to set up this tiny cramped
room, and since I got to the room before my random roommate, I chose which bed I wanted,

which side of the room I would make my own, and where exactly I wanted my bed placed. My
mom and I lugged my three pink storage bins of clothes, bedding, school supplies, and snacks up
the stairs with a little help from an overly confident freshman football player, and there I was in a
room that was going to be my home for the next 8-9 months. I quickly hung up my clothes in the
awkward shaped closet, threw my t-shirts in one of my four small drawers, and situated my desk
perfectly. My roommate showed up with her parents and sister and they threw her stuff on her
bed before running off to Walmart to grab a few things they had forgotten at their home three
hours away. I assumed she would be back within an hour and we would be able to talk and
become best friends, but by about 9:00 pm, I realized that she did not have any intentions of
spending time with me that day. After my mom left, I ventured off and made some quick friends
both old and new, because I did not want to be alone for my whole first year of college!
As my first semester of college began, I spent most of my time slacking off and just
doing enough to get by while my friends labored over writing papers that took me 30 minutes to
write. For the first time in my entire life, I realized how much going to private Christian schools
from kindergarten to twelfth grade put me ahead of my peers. While they labored over paragraph
setup and correct punctuation, I typed up quick papers that were at least B+ worthy in all my
classes. My parents and teachers had instilled great study skills in me and I was able to do well in
all of my classes for the entire year. Cs were never acceptable at my house, however, over time,
sometimes Cs became unavoidable. I was flustered when I received my first D on a PDP 150
paper. Dr. Erickson gave me and the majority of my classmates Cs and Ds on our first drafts of
our first reflection papers. We were all frustrated and annoyed at his grading, and to this day I do
not understand why we got such low grades on our papers. We eventually submitted final drafts
and Dr. Erickson eventually bumped our grades up a little bit and everyone passed his class. If

only I would have known that I could have switched PDP professors: I would have done that in a
heartbeat! But if Dr. Erickson taught me one thing, it is that professors do not always care how
good the author thinks their writing is, the professor gives the final grade. After that first
semester, I realized the importance of spending time on my assignments and working to do better
than just what was required. I wish I would have known everything I learned by my senior year
when I was a freshman.
I joined Eagle Productions during the second semester of my freshman year. I thought it
would be fun to work with other Bridgewater students and meet cool performers, band members,
and teams that visited our school. I enjoyed working the few events I was assigned and had a lot
of fun at the HelloGoodbye concert I helped set up for and tear down. I enjoyed the sense of
family that Eagles Productions offered and I wish I would have had more time in my schedule to
stay involved in that club for the next few years. Some of my other fond memories at
Bridgewater College are volunteering at events with my friends. Most of my friends found
volunteering to be a waste of their time, however, I grew up in a family who volunteered at
lots of events for many different organizations. One place that I volunteered at for numerous
hours was The Life Care Center in New Market. My friends and I spent our evenings helping the
elderly play bingo two evenings a month. Although I did not know many of the people living at
this center, I was able to build connections and friendships with many people who came to bingo
nights. Watching someone win a bingo game with such excitement and receive a small stuffed
animal as their prize was the highlight of my week every time I went. I was able to reach all of
my volunteer hours each year by volunteering too. Although Bridgewater College took the
volunteer hours away from the final PDP assignment, I continued to do my part and reached all
of my volunteer hours that were formerly required by the end of my senior year.

Over the next two years of my time at Bridgewater College, I took lots of general
education classes and began to see what education classes were going to be like for the next
couple of years. I took advantage of interterm every year and spent time goofing off and driving
around Harrisonburg with my friends when we had breaks between classes. Since Liberal Studies
students are required to take Spanish classes through Spanish 202, I decided to get those out of
the way my freshman year. If only I had realized I would have been taking a Spanish placement
test at orientation, I would have studied more so I could have exempted those classes! I had taken
Spanish since kindergarten, but I did not realize that the Spanish placement test really had
anything to do with my major when I sat down in the middle of the summer to take it. As I went
through my Spanish 201 and Spanish 202 classes, although it was a lot of review, I began to
enjoy learning and speaking the language. During my Spanish 202 class, I realized that I could
take three more classes and receive a Spanish recognition when I graduated, so I decided to keep
taking Spanish classes. The more classes I took, the closer I became to getting a Spanish minor.
So after taking a few more Spanish classes, I decided to go ahead and declare a Spanish minor.
By the end of my sophomore year I was going to be a Liberal Studies major with PreK-6th grade
Elementary Education Certification with an English as a Second Language Endorsement, and a
Spanish minor.
It was at the end of my sophomore year that I was asked to be the PreK-6th Grade
Bridgewater College Student Representative on the Bridgewater College Committee on Teacher
Education. As a member of this committee, I was able to voice the opinion of Bridgewater
College students to department heads from across the whole college and discuss ideas and
changes in the education program at Bridgewater. I was one of three student representatives
present on this committee, the other student representatives were from Secondary Education

department and the Health and Exercise Science department. I was chosen out of all of the
students in the education program at Bridgewater to represent all of the education students in the
PreK-6th Grade education certification program. It was at that point that I realized that all of my
hard work was being recognized by someone and was paying off.
In the Fall of 2013, my junior year rolled around and I moved back into Wright 115 with
my roommate I had lived with my sophomore year. We both had been very busy in the summer
and had not talked much but I expected to have a normal junior year with my roommate,
watching television, baking cupcakes, going to Eagle Productions events, and hanging out with
friends in our room playing Call of Duty on the XBOX. I showed up on move in day to a room
that was already all set up and no roommate. Apparently she had come in at 9:00 am when the
dorms opened and set up her side of the room. That same night, around 9:00 pm, she finally
showed up with her boyfriend and we had a tiny conversation before she began to ignore me. I
figured she was just having an off day, but when that off day turned into an off week and that
off week turned into an off semester, I decided something had to change. Not only had my
roommate invited her best friend, a commuter at Bridgewater College, to live in our room for 6
weeks after her foot surgery, my roommates boyfriend had also been spending many nights. I
was kind of used to this since her previous boyfriend had lived in our room for a while
sophomore year, even though he only lived a floor above us, but this time around, I decided I
only wanted to be roommates with the one person I had signed up to live with.
It was December by the time we both decided it was time for an intervention, and we set
up a day to meet with our Area Coordinator. We both sat down to talk to the Area Coordinator,
and of course, I had to talk first. I remember saying, I think it was April when I noticed things
started to change a little, would you agree? and I looked at my roommate, she rudely responded

in a snarky tone, I dont know, since I dont know what youre talking about! and all the
attention was back on me. I regrouped my thoughts and began to discuss all of the things I
thought had been a problem since we moved back into the dorm in August and although she
agreed with some of them, she turned everything on me. I was really hurt when she stated you
are an untrustworthy person, a liar, and you talklikea lot. I already knew I talked a lot, and
I told her to just tell me to be quiet if it ever got annoying. Apparently everything between us
started to go downhill when I got a boyfriend and did not tell her about him. She said that she
thought I would talk to her and tell her about everything because we were roommates, but I did
not talk to her about him, so apparently we could not be friends anymore. By the end of our
meeting, it was decided that she would move out of our room and move in with her new friend
Erika. I was not opposed to this idea, because I got a room to myself and would not have to live
with one, two, or three extra people in the room every day. The rest of junior year went pretty
well after the roommate drama finally ended.
Although junior year roommate drama had ended, I was beginning to feel a little
conflicted about my major. I loved working with children, I loved my friends within my liberal
studies major, and I loved my classes, but I began to realize that I did not want to teach students
in a classroom forever. I began to put a lot of thought into what I should do at this point in my
college career. I had already completed two and a half semesters of education classes, paid
hundreds of dollars on education tests, and there I was, trying to figure out if I even wanted to
ever teach. I talked to my advisor and she told me that I was doing great within the liberal studies
major and that I would make a great teacher, but I never was one hundred percent happy with my
major choice. I decided that instead of switching majors and having to stay an extra couple of
years, I would simply add a Business Administration minor to my plan. By the end of the Fall

semester of my junior year, I was a Liberal Studies major with PreK-6th grade Elementary
Education Certification, an English as a Second Language endorsement, a Spanish minor, and a
Business Administration minor.
After figuring out all of the minors I wanted to add to my course load, I studied hard, read
a lot, typed a lot of papers, and worked in many groups for group projects and presentations. By
doing many group projects, I learned how to relate to people who are very different than myself.
I worked with people who did not get along with each other, I worked with other students who
did not contribute to the group or do any work, and I often had to pick up the slack for them in
order to finish the project. Getting along with diverse groups of people and finding ways to make
things work is a necessary life skill for everyone. At some point in life, everyone will be in a
situation where they will have to work with individuals that they do not get along with. I have
been able to collaborate and brainstorm with others, compromise, and work as a group to figure
out answers to hard decisions in many classes and in real life. I am grateful for the group
projects, especially in my business classes, because they gave me the chance to know other
students in my class, work with them, and determine the best ways to run a business, interact
with business partners, and how to create a long lasting business. I can use these skills I learned
in any future career I might have.
My education classes offered a variety of instructional strategies to use in any classroom
to manage students in a positive manor. Whether I had to write lesson plans, create games using
technology, or write an evaluation of my practicum experience, I was able to be creative and
understand how to best make it possible for students to learn in a classroom. I have used the
teaching strategies, classroom management skills, and curriculum planning throughout my
practicums and student teaching in grades K-8th. I have been able to use my Spanish abilities to

converse with students who just moved to United States of America in August and started school
a few days later, feeling completely lost. I successfully was able to teach Spanish speaking
children how to do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division in Spanish at my English as
a Second Language student teaching placement. My oral Spanish, written Spanish, and reading
Spanish skills have all improved throughout my four years at Bridgewater College. I was pushed
outside my comfort zone to speak, write, and read Spanish that I never would have imagined I
could successfully do, but with the help of my professors and friends at Bridgewater, I am now
able to use my Spanish skills within the classroom setting and outside the classroom as well.
Every summer since my freshman year, I took summer classes at Blue Ridge Community
College so I could stay on track with my classes at Bridgewater College. From an easy Fitness
Walking class to a complicated Macroeconomics class, I worked hard each summer to knock out
as many classes as I could while working 40-60 hours a week. During the summer of 2013, I
applied for a 4-H summer internship at the Greene County Extension Office. I went through the
interview process and was accepted as their intern for a 10 week internship program. I had also
applied for a Food Lion summer job and happened to get accepted for that at the same time. I
decided I would work in Greene County during the week and at Food Lion on the weekends
while taking a night class once a week at Blue Ridge Community College. 56 hour work weeks
proved to be long and tiring, and although the paychecks helped with my bills, I was completely
worn out by the time my Monday 5:00-10:00 pm Macroeconomics class rolled around. My sister
had just finished four years at Ferrum College and had one more class to take before she received
her diploma and Macroeconomics was a class we both needed to take, so we decided to take this
class together. My sister and I both learn very differently and she can memorize words straight
from a book and rewrite them, I can summarize what I read, but not memorize it all word for

word. Our professor liked memorization, and my sister ended the class with a B+. She and I did
the same work, both attended all the classes, but had differing test grades. The professor began to
make fun of me in class, share my grades with the class, and tell my sister to tutor me, and when
the summer ended, he gave me a D+ in the class. If he would have given me a C-, the class
would have transferred to Bridgewater College, but instead, he gave me the D+ so I would have
to retake the class. That Fall, I talked to the registrar and signed up for Macroeconomics at Blue
Ridge Community College again, this time with a different professor. I worked hard in her class,
studied just as I had done for the other class, and made it out of her Macroeconomics class with
an A! Hard work and determination pays off!
Senior year, the year every college student decides they will have fun and take advantage
of all the lost opportunities they missed out on during their previous three years of college. My
friends were all planning their lives, applying for jobs, finishing their major classes and taking
fun filler classes, and most of my best friends were preparing for student teaching in the Spring,
While they did all this, I continued to take Business classes, Spanish classes, English Classes,
Education classes, and finish a few lingering general education classes all year long. I had taken
over 19 credit hours for many of my semesters at Bridgewater College and tried to get everything
planned and set so I could graduate in May of 2015 with my class. In October of 2014, the
registrar informed me that I had picked the only major on campus that I had to complete student
teaching with in order to walk with my class in May. So I continued to work hard in my classes,
attended as many events as I could with my friends, and watched as my friends lives moved on
while I felt like my life was stuck in slow motion. I tried to save some time for fun and friends
since I knew most of my friends would be moving home after graduation and I would not be able
to text them and ask them to meet up for dinner every night or see them in the library and get

distracted from homework for hours. One of the strangest parts of college is spending almost
nine months with the same people each year and then after four years, watching them all move
away and pursue their dreams, unsure of when you will ever see them again.
I started senior year a little hesitantly with a new roommate, an old friend with a rocky
friendship. I figured it was only going to be a year, so even if things did not work out, we were
both seniors and I hopefully would not have to see her after graduation. We both had grown up a
lot over our three years at BC and I did not think we would have many problems, if any. As the
school year approached, my roommate and I talked, planned together, and moved into our room.
We really got along well for the first few months! Other than her boyfriend coming over almost
every weekend, we communicated well, we got along, we went places together, we ate meals
together, and I thought everything was going great!
Over Christmas break, we texted each other a little and I decided to ask her about her
boyfriend coming over so much. It would not have been such a problem if he would have come
up a couple evenings a week or once a month for a weekend, instead, he came up just about
every Friday afternoon and stayed through Sunday afternoons. They were in the room a lot of
that time and I was not very comfortable around him. He was 30 years old, she was 22 years old,
he was very immature, and I did not find his sense of humor very funny. They began spending
just about every weekend in the room and when I confronted her about it, simply asking her if
they could go to her parents house some weekends, or if we had discussed it before and I was
going to be on campus for the weekend, that he could not just show up and expect to stay, and I
thought we had come to the conclusion that he would be staying in our dorm less. His visits did
not decrease, and her attitude did not really change which caused our friendship to become a
little tense.

My birthday is March 6th, and since it was my senior year, I decided to have a few friends
go out with me to dinner at Macados to celebrate. We planned this outing during lunch on my
birthday and it was a pretty open invitation for anyone who wanted to come. My roommate was
at work and had been complaining about not having a lot of extra spending money and having to
get all her hours in, so I figured she would not come even if I did invite her, so I did not tell her
we were going out to eat. I did not think it was a big deal at all. One of my friends that went out
with us for dinner put a picture of our group on Facebook and the next thing I knew, my
roommate was yelling at me for going out to eat without her. When I told her we all just decided
to go and that I knew she was at work she got really upset and left the room. A month later, on
April 1st, I decided it was time to meet with our Area Coordinator and figure out what our best
options were. We only had one month of school left and it was very inconvenient timing, but I
could not live in the silence anymore. When we met, I came with a little 3x5 index card with four
or five bullet points on it. She showed up with 12 pages of a notebook filled up with problems
she had with me. At the end of our meeting, it was decided that we both were going to be moving
out of our current room and the mediator asked for any final remarks. My roommate flipped the
page in her notebook and began to read a 5 page letter to me about how bad of a friend I am. I
was not prepared for that at all and I held myself together until I left the room. I burst into tears
and continued crying for an hour in my car until my friends finally came and dragged me out of
my car and cheered me up. It was a harsher end to a friendship than I had ever envisioned
happening.
Through lost friendships and roommates during my time at Bridgewater College, I found
out who my real friends are. College is a time that everyone looks back on fondly and although I
had many bumps along the way, I know that I grew emotionally and learned how to handle real

life situations in a mature manor, even when other people tried to drag me down to their maturity
level. I also learned how to be even more flexible than I was before. I grew up in 4-H and one
thing that I learned at a young age was to be flexible because plans always change and do not go
the way you think they are going to. In college, I learned how to deal with the friends you have
who are always late, you always tell them to meet you fifteen minutes earlier than you really
need them to meet you. I learned how to be selfless and compromise, especially when sharing a
small space with another person. Although it may not sound like it, when it came to living with a
roommate, I tried to do as much compromising as possible. I was raised in a family with three
other siblings and always had to share everything. Sharing personal space was not an issue for
me, but I still am working on figuring out how to make living with a roommate go smoothly. My
time at Bridgewater also taught me that I am my own boss. I am capable of making life changing
decisions, adding minors, choosing classes, deciding who to keep in my friend circle, and
experiencing a life of independence I had never known before.
For the most part, I took my time at Bridgewater College seriously. I paid for my own
tuition every year, with the assistance of Sallie Mae, an ever generous loan company, and I knew
that from the moment I stepped on campus, I was making a future for myself and needed to do
all I could to get everything possible from Bridgewater. I never partied or drank alcohol. I never
did anything wild, I just tried to have fun with my friends while keeping my grades up.
I was offered a work study position at the Funkhouser Center my freshman year and was
lucky enough to keep that work study job throughout my entire college career. I made new
friends, became a familiar face, and promoted Bridgewater College to many interested high
school students who came in the Funkhouser Center on tours and visits with their families. This
job at the school gym accompanied by many other part time jobs: catering, babysitting, working

at my family greenhouse, and cashiering at Food Lion kept me on my toes and taught me about
good work ethic and time management. My senior year, I also worked in the admissions office
for a semester calling potential or accepted rising freshmen students and answering any questions
they had about Bridgewater College. It was not until I began this telecommunications job that I
realized how special Bridgewater College has been to me. Yes, the school was making me stay
an extra semester in college while all my friends left, and yes, they did put me $30,000 in student
loan debt, but I would never trade my four and a half college years for anything in the world.
I have met famous people at convocations and even eaten dinner with them, I made the
most amazing friends from all over the world, I was elected as a senior class student senator, and
I served on the BC College Hearing Board. I served on committees, joined clubs, and even
helped interview for future professor positions. In January, my time as a Bridgewater College
student will come to an end. I will have completed 175 credit hours worth of classes, spent
months of my life living next to the people I have grown to love, taken advantage of
opportunities I did not know would ever be possible for me, and grown in more ways than I ever
could have imagined. This January, after four and a half years, I will graduate from Bridgewater
College as a Liberal Studies major with PreK-6th Grade Elementary Education Certification, an
English as a Second Language Endorsement, a Spanish minor, and a Business Administration
minor.
One thing that has remained constant throughout my four and a half years at Bridgewater
College was my faith. I have lived in a Christian home all my life and have found great
importance in believing in a God who is all knowing, all powerful, and trustworthy. It has been
with Gods help that I have been able to achieve my goals, find peace in all situations, and help
others grow to know Him. I have noticed a difference between myself and other students at

Bridgewater College when it comes to the faith aspect of life. Everyone is different, but when a
person is optimistic, smiling, and truly happy, even when things are not going the way they want
them to, it is evident that there is someone/something helping them through stressful situations in
life. I know that God was helping me all throughout college and will continue to help me in
anything I choose to do in the future. I am not sure what I will be doing with my degree after I
graduate in January, but I know that I have worked hard to accomplish my goals and that if I
follow what God has planned for me, it will not be my last chance to extend my wings and soar
as a Bridgewater College Eagle.