The College Experience - Exploration and Self-discovery
What do you want to do with your life? If only I had a nickel for every time I was asked that pesky question ... in particular,
by some overly-concerned adult! I swear, if I hear it one more time, I'll launch into a
screaming fit! It's right along the same lines as the annoying, "where do you see yourself
in ten years?" As a student wrapping up my freshman year at the University of Southern
California in Los Angeles, even the question "what's your major?"can pose a bit of a problem.
At this point in my life, I simply feel that such questions are too restrictive. Why is society
fixated on categorizing everyone into neat little groups? I thought that college was meant to
be a process of self-discovery, rather than a mere obstacle on the way to a career that's been
predetermined since kindergarten! Yet you'd be amazed at the pitying stares you receive when
you tell someone that you're undecided. You'd think that you'd just told them that you'd been
diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor!
I'm here to reassure all those "lost souls" out there that there is nothing wrong with not
knowing what you want to do. My first year of college has been a veritable roller coaster of
trying on and discarding various ideas of "what I want to be when I grow up." Like most people,
I felt the overwhelming pressure to settle on a career before entering college, and so I arrived
at USC as a declared broadcast journalism major. The only experience I had in this area was
co-hosting my high school news program, which was more sketch-comedy than real news, and yet on
the basis of that alone, I decided on my major...
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...magazine, Palaver. And next year, in contrast to the small film company where I am now
interning, my goal is to have a summer job at DreamWorks. All of this is an effort to cram as
much into my four years as possible. And why not? There is something to be gained from every
new experience, whether I stick it out for the duration or not. Maybe I'm flaky by nature, or
maybe I'm just determined to get every bit of the well-rounded Liberal Arts education that my
parents are shelling out big bucks for. Does it really matter? The point is this: don't ever
let anyone tell you that there's something you can't do. If you have a yen for something, try
it. You never know, you may discover some hidden talent that you didn't know you had. Or you
may not. But hey, exploration and self-discovery is what the college experience is all about!
We know not what we are saying. Our head is reeling." The emotion shown by
Byrne, Sandie. "Jane Austen's Emma." British Writers Classics 1. (2003): 65-86. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 20 Mar 2012.
Picture this. You are heading off to college to begin the next chapter of your life. It is a moment you have always been waiting for. You are past the high school drama, and are ready to start taking classes that will allow you to obtain a degree in something you have always been passionate about. It’s your first week on campus and you are invited to a party being hosted by a group of upper classman. You show up to the party and immediately are handed a red cup with what you know is something you shouldn’t be drinking. You take a sip anyway and soon start talking to that guy in the corner who at first seems friendly, but soon begins to take advantage of you. Just like that everything changes. This is a situation millions of people face every
Although I am pretty sure of what I want to do career wise, I asked
The portfolio project will be based on Duke Energy Corporation (DUK). Sector and Industry are utilities and electric utilities respectively. Duke Energy Corporation operates in three segments: regulated utilities, international energy and commercial power. DUK is an energy company headquartered in North Carolina. As a regulated utility company, more than 80% of the total assets are regulated (EEI, 2015), DUK is regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission along with many state service commissions. DUK, the largest electric power company (DUK, 2016) operates in multiple states in the United States along with Latin America (DUK, 2015). While some utility companies face direct completion in their service area, DUK operates in a
the production of my school’s newspaper; lastly, I helped make posters for a medical camp for
Eyewitness identification and testimony play a huge role in the criminal justice system today, but skepticism of eyewitnesses has been growing. Forensic evidence has been used to undermine the reliability of eyewitness testimony, and the leading cause of false convictions in the United States is due to misidentifications by eyewitnesses. The role of eyewitness testimony in producing false confessions and the factors that contribute to the unreliability of these eyewitness testimonies are sending innocent people to prison, and changes are being made in order to reform these faulty identification procedures.
Everyone at one point has to make a decision on what they want to be when they grow up. For me, that decision came rather unexpectedly and was a result of a new found interest due to self-discovery. It all began when I was around the age of 8 and I watched a documentary on aircraft. It documented all about planes, how they work and the science behind them. I was immediately captivated and gaining all that information as a young child really hit the spot in terms of a new found passion and interest that I could see myself later using. This passion stuck with me ever since as I have spent tons of spare time studying different types of aircraft and collecting model planes. It ultimately helped me with my answer to the question of what I wanted to be when I grew up as being an aeronautical engineer. It is not a career most would pursue, but it shows how self-discovery impacted me at a very young age and the impact is so log lasting that it has influenced most of the decision I make now in terms of courses I take at school and the extracurricular activities I am a part of. Without self-discovery, I was able to gain an understanding of where my interests lay, the abilities I have to acquire complex information and the feelings I had towards my new found interest and
Austen. Critical Insights: Jane Austen. 2010: 8-14. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
Within recent decades, college has become a more easily available path than it has been for the past generations. In a current news release, The Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that, “Of the 2.9 million youth age 16 to 24 who graduated from high school between January and October 2014, about 68.4 percent were enrolled in college in October” (BLS Economic News Release from April 2015). When a student graduates high school, most of them intend to continue on to college. They have the idea that, while there, they can break away from all the general classes and just focus on what they want to learn. However, for almost all students, they find that this is not the reality. Just like high school, they find that they have to take approximately two years in general studies in order to attend and graduate with the major of their choice. General education classes should not be required because a majority of the information learned has already been covered in past years. Most of the courses do not benefit a student 's major, and the total amount of required hours for these classes can become a big waste of time and money.
of my current career goals as of right now. My current goal is to become some type of mental
The college life certainly has its share of fears, cheers, and jeers, but it really can be a worthwhile endeavor. The most important task is to find the college niche, that little place that just feels right, and not just the first time. Once I found clubs, organizations, jobs, and social circles in which I felt like a valued participant, I really seemed to be at home, and that's not something I could have found just by being matched with good roommates or schmoozing at a toga party.
When I first enrolled here at State University, I never thought I would ever be in the position to graduate. Finishing college was a huge goal growing up but it was also my biggest fear. But after three and a half years of dedication I plan to get my degree in the fall. Getting this far in college was not easy, it took encouragement from family, dedication, and assistance from others to reach this position.
must stick with it. A cabinet could be opened at home and a variety of tasty
Schedules are a difficult thing to balance. A person must find the time to complete a number of tasks in a day. A normal adult may have time to get everything done and still have time to spare. The normal college student on the other hand is constantly on the go. College students have busy schedules that include working, studying, and socializing.