{"id":19989,"date":"2023-04-28T19:24:09","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T19:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=19989"},"modified":"2026-01-19T00:34:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T00:34:04","slug":"a-look-back-at-unfiltered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2023\/04\/a-look-back-at-unfiltered\/","title":{"rendered":"A Look Back at Unfiltered"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Talia Bank &#8217;23 \/ Photos by David J. Turner<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As part of the <em>Unfiltered<\/em> project, we asked a group of Macalester students the same five questions every semester, beginning in fall 2019, following along on their college journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What class are you most excited about right now?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What&#8217;s one recent triumph (large or small!)?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What have you learned lately?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What do you wish you had known six months ago?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What&#8217;s one thing you want to do in the next six months?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>College is often a time of change and growth. New challenges, triumphs, and experiences both inside and outside the classroom influence how we see the world and live our lives. <em>Unfiltered<\/em> is an effort to capture a snapshot of that transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This spring, our first <em>Unfiltered<\/em> cohort is graduating. We asked them how they have changed throughout their time at Mac, and what it was like to look back at their responses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Ross Relic \u201923, a physics and music double major from Crystal Lake, Ill., <em>Unfiltered<\/em> serves as a time capsule of sorts. Some goals, like composing new music and spending time with friends, show up time and time again in his responses. But he also mentions reaching new milestones and taking time to recognize his needs as a college student. From mental health awareness to dating, a social media hiatus, and weight loss, Relic has been candid about the highs and lows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA lot of people deal with that stuff. In my mind there\u2019s no reason to not be vulnerable and talk about those sorts of things,\u201d Relic says. \u201cAnother motivating factor is it\u2019s just not interesting if it\u2019s not vulnerable and true to your life. There\u2019s just not much substance otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hannah Scharrer \u201923, an international studies and Latin American studies double major from Tacoma, Wash., thinks of <em>Unfiltered<\/em> as an exercise in reflection. Especially during her sophomore year, with classes taught virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it encouraged Scharrer to identify some positives and explore what she truly values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was definitely hard answering those questions during sophomore year, but I think it also helped me reflect on what I am actually excited about and sort of pulled me out of despair,\u201d says Scharrer. \u201cIt\u2019s just really nice to have this method to make you take stock of what has been changing or what has been constant in my life and what I\u2019m enjoying and what I\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Carter Rutherford \u201923, a geography and Asian studies double major from Alexandria, Va. and Santiago, Chile, likewise appreciates the ability to contemplate a challenging time in his life and ponder the takeaways of his college experience as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt seemed like a great way to reflect on my college experience as it was happening,\u201d he says. \u201cI never imagined the pandemic would happen, and having this small record of what was on my mind as I navigated college and life over the past few years has been really helpful. I would give myself a warning: college is going to be more challenging than you could possibly imagine. Keep being yourself, show yourself lots of compassion, and continue to be curious and adventurous no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Inspired by looking back over her time at Macalester, Scharrer also gave the following advice to her first-year self, and others embarking on their college journey:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is an exciting time of your life. Just throw yourself into whatever you want; Be liberal arts. I took a statistics class my freshman semester and I loved it, though I was not planning on being a statistics minor,\u201d says Scharrer. \u201cDon\u2019t force yourself to do everything, but try to get to know yourself and other people and get to know what you like to do. Exploration is the best way to achieve that. And if you don\u2019t have the answers, that\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read some of the responses from our <em>Unfiltered<\/em> students\u2019 journeys as they navigated college and lived and studied through a global pandemic. Look for their final <em>Unfiltered<\/em> responses in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/2019\/11\/unfiltered-fall-2019\/\"><em>Unfiltered\u00a0<\/em>Fall 2019<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/2020\/05\/unfiltered-spring-2020\/\"><em>Unfiltered\u00a0<\/em>Spring 2020<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/2020\/11\/unfiltered-fall-2020\/\"><em>Unfiltered\u00a0<\/em>Fall 2020<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/2021\/04\/unfiltered-spring-2021\/\"><em>Unfiltered\u00a0<\/em>Spring 2021<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/2021\/11\/unfiltered-fall-2021\/\"><em>Unfiltered\u00a0<\/em>Fall 2021<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/2022\/04\/unfiltered-spring-2022\/\"><em>Unfiltered\u00a0<\/em>Spring 2022<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/2022\/11\/unfiltered-fall-2022\/\"><em>Unfiltered\u00a0<\/em>Fall 2022<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Talia Bank \u201923 is a political science, legal studies, and Spanish major at Macalester.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>College is a time of change and growth. <em>Unfiltered<\/em> is an effort to capture a snapshot of that student transformation.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1077,"featured_media":20039,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"article_type":[8],"flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","custom_link_url":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false,"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","post_thumbnail_style":"default","press_downloads":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1077"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19989"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30225,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19989\/revisions\/30225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}