Florin Shehu wrote a paper about his first semester experiences as a university student in Istanbul, Turkey. He was excited to start this new chapter in his life abroad and found the transition from high school to university to provide much more free time with only 18 hours of classes per week compared to 40 previously. Shehu enjoyed studying in his chosen department and participating in various extracurricular activities on campus. He also had to adjust to living with roommates in a new country but found the experience rewarding as he built strong relationships. Overall, Shehu felt this semester abroad made him more confident and helped him become a more social, intelligent person open to new experiences.

1. PSY 105, Section A Florin Shehu, Fall 2015, Instructor: Marat Zagidullin
Written Assignment
“Becoming a university student”
The purpose of this paper is to report and analyze the first semester in my university
life. The changes that I experienced during this period and the ways that helped
become a university student will be explained and analyzed in this paper. It will
involve the evaluation of my attitude toward the university life before starting it, my
first experience in the academic world, my life in the university beyond the scope of
classes and my everyday life in a new country. At the end, I will finally come up with
a conclusion from all this new experience.
I decided to go abroad for studying because I really wanted something new in my
life. I wanted a very different experience; something challenging that will somehow
push me to my limits and make me go beyond them. And it all happened. When I
came to Istanbul a couple of years ago I was amazed by the scope and beauty of the
city and I was very encouraged to come here for my studies. When I came to
Suleyman Sah University I was extremely excited to finally begin my university life
and to start this very different experience.
Everything was new for me. Starting with the place where I was staying till the
system I choose my courses. I had only 6 courses and only 18 hours of classes in a
week. It was a drastic change from approximately 40 hours class in a week that I had
in high school. This radical change gave me a lot of free time that I could use for my

2. other activities. The excitement that I had in my first days just kept increasing in the
following days in the university. Studying the department that I had personally
chosen with my full desire made the studying activity very enjoyable and interesting.
I was very enthusiastic to be there and I never wanted to miss any hour of class. This
atmosphere motivated me to have the goal of finishing all my classes graded with
the highest score. The professors noticed that I was trying to do my best and
eventually they showed the best side of their character, especially my English
instructor. He was the first who showed to me how all the university and specifically
academic life works. He taught me that all the students have different learning styles
and that all of us should find our own and focus on it in order to improve it. He was
the first who told us how important it is to be a good note-maker during a lecture
and how important it is to stay away from plagiarism. He was the first to open to us
the door of this enormous fortress called ‘academic life’.
My life in the university was unexpectedly full of energy and amazingly interesting.
By having more free time and more independence I was able to research for all the
opportunities that the university was offering to improve my professional and
personal life. I was very eager to participate in any activity organized in university
and after a while I was also trying to be the ‘guy’ in the backstage. I wanted to be
part of the organization team of some clubs that grabbed my attention. I remember
registering to a couple and I managed to be part of the board of 5 clubs at the same
time. It was incredibly enjoyable and entertaining having such a lot of responsibility
in such a short period of time. I was definitely enjoying every moment of it. This
process helped me at the same time create such a wide network of friends and “co-

3. workers”. It was a great opportunity for me to meet new people and make really
new amazing friends.
Beside university I started a whole new experience out of it. When I left Albania I
closed the page of that chapter and I opened a brand new, empty page in Istanbul,
Turkey. It was literally empty. Ready to be filled with new ink, new wor(l)ds, new
experiences. I was staying in a house of four people and it was very different from
what I was used in my homeland. Staying under the same roof with people that you
have just met and you barely know is not easy. But fortunately it was quite easy-
going for me. Due to my excitement of experiencing a whole new abroad experience
I was internally motivated to have a nice time with my housemates and I was usually
inspired to put a smile in my face and go on. It was only this way that I would find so
many common things with my housemates in a very short period of time and
eventually build a strong relation that would last long. It was thankfully easier and
better than expected.
In a conclusion I would proudly and thankfully say that after all this groundbreaking
experience I feel so different and new. I believe that I became much more confident
than I was. This new ‘me’ seems to be even more cheerful, intelligent and social. I
feel like after this new experience I am able to achieve even more and beyond my
limits. Attending to a lot of new activities gave me the experience and motivation to
build a new ‘me’ who would be more open to innovative, different and unforgettably
unique experiences.