“I say go for it” is a phrase I have heard my best friend of 17 years say countless times. She is the most wonderfully positive person I know. For years whenever I or one of our other friends were debating doing something, particularly things we were nervous about, she would respond with, “I say go for it”. Sometimes we would respond with an eye roll and a “You always say that!” As I get older and have to start reflecting on the decisions to be made for my future, I am realizing how important her advice is.
I am currently in the process of applying for a fellowship at the New York Times. The process is long and hard and quite frankly I am struggling to find time to work on it to meet the impossibly high standards of The Times that make it so appealing to me.
I have been tempted to give up so many times throughout the process thinking, there is no way I am going to beat out thousands of applicants for one of 15 fellowship spots. Why am I wasting my time on it?
That temptation to give up is something that has gotten to me in the past. When I was applying to college, I didn’t end up applying to any of my dream schools. I was busy with other things in the fall of my senior year of high school and all my reach schools had additional application costs and essay requirements. I just remember thinking even if I get into these schools I won’t be able to afford to go to them, so why bother?
The consequence of this ended up being that I didn’t get excited about any of my college acceptances. Getting accepted to all the schools I applied to and the scholarships that came with them was no surprise to me. I really struggled with my decision of which school to go to and looking back on it, it was because I didn’t really want to go to any of the schools I had applied to. I still wonder where I would be if I had applied for and gotten into NYU, which was my number one choice.
To offer an overused but well-meaning cliche, you really do miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Especially being in college and heading into the workforce, now is the time to take all the shots you can.
Whether it be applying to an internship, changing majors, asking out a guy/girl you have been crushing on, buying that $7 latte or $300 pair of Gucci sunglasses, studying abroad, applying for a scholarship, planning a trip with your friends, quitting a job you hate and the list goes on and on; just go for it.