Who Am I and What Am I Doing Here?

On the surface, “who am I” and “what am I doing here” are very self-explanatory and easily answered questions. However, once you delve deeper they are probably some of the hardest questions to answer. I feel like our life experiences largely influence how we answer those questions and because we are always gaining new experiences, good and bad, our view on who we are and why we are here are seemingly subject to change. If you asked me a year ago who I was, my reply would have been very centered around being a musician and friend. Now, those two things are still who I am but student is just my main focus and it is the most relevant so that is how I would describe myself and my reason for being here. 

My name is Katherine Shauh or KK to most and I was born in San Diego, California. I was born into a very tight-knit family of five. I have two older sisters, Lauren and JJ. The majority of my life was very constant and unchanging. I attended a K-12 school and thus many of my friends have been a large part of my life for around fourteen years. The majority of my friendships were made in orchestra and music classes and they continuously developed until I graduated high school. Music has always been a huge part of my life. I started playing violin when I was five years old and from there my love for it has been unparalleled. When I was younger it was more of a task, but as I incorporated it into my life more-and-more, I realized how much creativity and expression it gave me and it was an outlet for everything around me. Violin became a part of my daily routine and led to some of the most meaningful relationships in my life. Upon transitioning to college life, the question of who I am feels harder to answer because so many things have changed. I feel that the things that define me here are completely different from those that used to define me back home. 

Although transitioning from my life back home to something and somewhere completely new has not been all that easy, I definitely believe that certain things happen for a reason. Going to the same school for fourteen years and having a similar routine for most of those years kept me in a very small comfort zone. Choosing to study abroad in Greece and then moving across the country to study at Northeastern definitely shook that up a bit but it has been an incredibly good experience. I think it was necessary in order for me to grow up a bit more, become more independent, and see things from a refreshed perspective. I am an extremely indecisive person who is pretty scared of failure and I think I am here to change that. I believe that I am here to learn, develop new relationships, figure out what I love to do and what I am good at, have some successes and some failures, and just enjoy the college process.