I satisfy my need for competence in my academic life firstly by majoring in a subject that I am naturally interested in and naturally adept at. Supplementing my required courses with challenging classes in literature and religion, which I am passionately interested in, and I carefully choose classes to fill my required credits in subjects in which I am interested. This provides me with quite a bit of internal motivation to complete my work and dive into the subject matter. This motivates me to perform well and to communicate effectively in order to ensure that I do. Also, my previous experience in higher education instil me with a certain feeling of competence that comes from experience.

Satisfying my need for relatedness academically has been considerably more challenging. I started at ODU in June of 2020, and my classes have all been conducted remotely. Although this has limited opportunities to develop relationships with other students, I have tried to engage with other students in the classes that call for it. I have tried to learn about my classmates and develop a report with them whenever possible. Because I am considerably older than most of my classmates, however, I often find it easier to communicate with my professors. I try to build a relationship with them as well.

Autonomy is possibly the easiest of these needs to satisfy for me. I consider my academic demands themselves to be exercises in autonomy because of what they mean for my future. I intend to go from an academic environment to a career, which in turn will provide me with financial autonomy.