In my sophomore year, I took Intro to Fiction Writing at UNC. Unfortunately, this was the semester that got interrupted by the disastrous pandemic, which we are still going through. However, I loved it, and it inspired me to do more creative writing.
I was not aware of just how much I loved it until I had a moment of re-evaluation about what I want to do in the future. I had been planning on law school after I completed my undergraduate degree, but I came to the realization that I only “wanted” that because I wanted to be considered traditionally successful. I grew up with young parents who did not have the opportunity to get a degree, and I wanted to make them proud by doing “big” things.
But I realized that, while these reasons were completely valid and came from a good place, they were the wrong reasons to go into law. Don’t get me wrong, law is an extremely important profession, which was all the more reason for me to re-evaluate my choices. Anyone who goes into such a position should be fully invested and truly understand the responsibilities they are taking on. Therefore, I simply came to the realization that this was just not for me. Of course, I’m glad that I made this conclusion when I did rather than later on, but it still put me in the predicament of deciding what it is that I do want to do.
Creative writing had luckily remained in the back of my mind, and I remembered how much fun I had had in the class I took. I also used to write a lot as a young child, so I knew that it had always been my passion — I just made a sort of roundabout way of re-discovering it.
Unfortunately, though, I am a second-semester junior, and there is just no feasible way for me to graduate (on time) with a concentration or minor in creative writing. I even e-mailed the head of the department, and he confirmed that disappointing truth. But he was also helpful in telling me that graduate schools place the most emphasis on students’ body of work rather than whether or not they completed a creative writing concentration or minor. This was a huge relief to me, as this is something I can definitely handle. All I have to do throughout the rest of my time at UNC is build up my current writing portfolio.
The point of telling you about this long-winded identity crisis was to say that it’s okay if you’ve spent a significant portion of your time in college doing something you’re not passionate about. You can discover your passion at any point. Sometimes it hits you suddenly, but sometimes it’s a gradual process of realizing your true purpose. No matter when you discover (or, like me, re-discover) your passion, try not to feel like you’ve wasted your time. If you hadn’t made the choices you did, you might not have ever come to know your true passion. Be thankful for all the experiences you have had and work hard to fulfill your purpose!