Though it’s only been three weeks since classes began, this year is drastically different than when I was a freshman trying to make a name for myself. I dropped nearly every single extracurricular activity I joined to focus on the one I enjoyed and became a resident assistant. On top of being a an RA, I kept my position with Boston College Athletics and decided to take a yearlong philosophy and theology combined course that has a weekly eight hour service requirement. As much as I wanted to I give myself more free time for this coming year, every I ended up having a more busier schedule than last year, but I’ve gotten somewhat better about time management and try to keep the chaos organized.
Personal growth is one of the key points of going to college and should be something we all strive to obtain. What you expect to happen once you get into college may not come true and the mindset you entered with should be different every coming year. If not, then you’re missing the point of college. A takeaway from my first year is that there’s nothing wrong with failing in an objective as long as you’re able to pull valuable experience from it. No matter how much I strategized last year on how I was going to get a 4.0 and get a summer internship things didn’t go according to plan. Sometimes you’ll have all of the variables set up, but life happens and it gives you a solution you weren’t expecting from your calculations. After trying for a year to steer my life the way I or others wanted it to go, I decided to relinquish control to a higher force in the same way as St. Ignatius, the founder of the Society of Jesus, and just see where each day takes me. While I still have aspirations for the year I would like to achieve, I’ve been focusing more on a day by day case of how I plan on the most I can. The best advice I can give as the semester goes on especially for first year students is to focus less on finding a job, going abroad, and how to make friends and more on challenging yourself each day to do something different or uncomfortable that will help you grow as a person. Developing intellectually and personally is worth more for yourself and society than the piece of paper that doesn’t entitle you to a high paying job without trying.