As a child, I was creative. I loved expressing myself through art, fashion, and of course, writing. I would sit down and write creatively for hours and then share my stories. For me, writing has always been somewhat therapeutic; it is something that I never get tired of doing and it is something that I excel at. I never thought that I would necessarily want to pursue a career as a writer, especially when I first began college. But things have a funny way of working themselves out, because even though I was so sure I did not want to be a writer, I have realized that being a writer may be my calling in life.
During my teenage years and even into my early 20s, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to be. As an indecisive individual, there are many areas that peaked my interest, which made it challenging for me to really be sure of what I wanted to study in college. I ultimately decided to pursue a degree in Communication and keep it general, with the thought that maybe I would like to teach or work in PR. As my college career is winding down, I had an epiphany that I wish would have come to me years earlier: that is not to limit myself. There are so many roads you can go down in life, but for me, one road never seemed like enough. College often made me feel like Alice from Alice in Wonderland, with so many doors to open, treats to eat, and people to meet. Choosing one field to go into for the rest of my life always seemed like somewhat of an impossible task, but I am grateful to have an outlet such as writing that I can use for both pleasure and labor.
Over the course of the last nine months, while dealing with a worldwide pandemic and trying to juggle online schoolwork, I had what felt like an infinite amount of time to actually sit down and consider what I’d like my future to look like. I have taken communication classes, law classes, creative writing classes, art classes, journalism classes, public relations classes — basically as many classes as I could in order to figure out what I want to do in life. I was so focused on finding something new to study that I didn’t even consider what I simply love.
I think there are two kinds of people in this world — those who know what they want to do early on in life, and those who have absolutely no idea what they want. Coming to college, it felt like everyone around me knew what they wanted to do and I felt lost when it came to picking and choosing a career. I turned 18 only two weeks before I first went away to college, so it’s no wonder I didn’t know what to study right away. I was so young and had no idea what I wanted. I think that’s normal, so looking back on my college career I took a lot of risks, but they all seemed to lead me back to the same place. I didn’t realize it early on, but I truly feel that writing is my calling. At this point in time, it is genuinely what I want to be doing. It only took me 22 years to figure that out!