What can college do for you?

From the time of our childhood days, many of us aspire to be many things in this life.  Some of us aim doctors, policemen, or maybe even a writer for a well-known newspaper or magazine. 

For me, college helped me to find what I wanted to do with my life.  

Just like many teenagers coming out of high school, I had no idea what career I wanted to choose.  One thing I did know was that I wanted a job that could help me become financially secure. 

Ultimately, I told myself that I would go into the medical field.  Everyone I knew was doing it so I figured, why not? To do this, the first thing I did was sign myself up as a biology major and I started taking classes at my local community college. 

At the time I entered college, a friend had just graduated from a prestigious pharmacy school.  Being a pharmacist struck my fancy because they make insane amounts of money and all they do is just count pills all day?  Well that was enough for me gear all my efforts towards being a legalized drug dealer.

As I was going through my prerequisite classes, all I could say to myself was, “Damn, this stuff is hard.”

I found myself studying almost all day and after all that studying, all I could manage was a measly “C” in most of my classes. After a couple of semesters, I got to thinking that if I am struggling so much this early on, what more down the road? I decided to stick with it, just hoping that I could succeed by getting by with a “C” average.

It wasn’t until my girlfriend asked me what I wanted to do with my life when I really started to think about a different career. At the time, I was still unsure about choosing a different field because I felt that I would disappoint my parents.  They were so proud of me when I decided to become a pharmacist and I didn’t want to let them down. 

When my girlfriend asked me what I was good at, the first thing that came to my mind was writing.  In all of my classes, writing always came easy to me.  So easy that I would almost always wait till the last minute to write my papers.  Despite the procrastination, my papers always came back to me with above average grades.  It was at this point when I decided I would to transfer to Sacramento State and pursue a career in journalism.

For me, I could honestly say that college was one of the best things that has ever happened to me. It has given me the opportunity find direction in life, and it has also shown me a career that I am excited about pursuing.

College is, and should be, an important aspect in everybody’s life.  It can give us the opportunity to find out things about ourselves and also help us mature as men and women.  If college can help this teenager, who could only think about making money, find a craft that he really loves and enjoys, then it can do the same for you.