The piano piece I wrote for this opening narrative revolves heavily around my initial feelings and thoughts coming into this first year at Mines. I was unsure of how everything would play out given the circumstances surrounding this year, and had various other worries coming into a brand new environment. These feelings are represented in the dissonant opening of the piece, slowly moving into a more open and free section in C major. This transition matches my immediate realization that I was exactly where I needed to be when classes started up first semester; IDEAS was full of passionate and thoughtful students, and the overall environment was welcoming and enjoyable. I began to feel a desire to engage more and learn more about not just the class curriculum, but with the world itself. Over the course of this year I have found and amplified a true desire to learn everything that I can about the world around me. I feel now that I understand so much more about values and ethics and design principles. Additionally, in Module 5 I had the chance to explore far back to the beginning of the universe, diving deeper into the idea of Entropy and the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics with Allison Caster. This last module felt like a final capstone of learning and exploring more regarding things that interest me and inspire me; a capstone to a fantastic and enjoyable year in Thorson, where I felt I was truly able to explore the things that I wanted to understand further, leading to the creation of new interests and passions that are now a part of me. While there was undoubtedly many stressful and difficult chapters, the overall story from this year is one of increased knowledge and understanding of the world and of the universe.