life – The Medium Blog

Dear First Year Student: Embrace the Tough Choices

April 24, 2016April 24, 2016Kaitlyn Fernandes

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably elated that all the dilemmas and decisions you faced during your senior year of high school are now behind you. You’ve picked your university (great choice by the way), you’ve picked a general stream of study, and that all-too-stressful decision of what to wear to prom is now a distant memory. When I was in your position last year, I thought the tough decisions were behind me. I’m sure you’ve realized by now that that isn’t the case. Since beginning university, I’ve had to face more tough decisions that involve asking questions with answers that aren’t so clear.

What do I want to do with my life?

April 19, 2016April 19, 2016Meg Sharpley

This one sentence in itself gives me anxiety. It’s the question you get at every interview, during an awkward silence in a conversation, and family dinner. As if people expect you to have it all together. Well, I can tell you that I personally have no idea. Heck, I started in forensic science and I’m now in digital enterprise management. I am the definition of lost in life.

So what does it mean to know what you want, to search for a dream job? Is it about finding your “passion”, that deep-rooted desire that everyone supposedly has? Or is it about doing something just for the money? How does one decide what they, in fact, want to do with their life?

Dear First-Year…

September 21, 2015September 28, 2015Candace Ramlall

Dear first-year reader,

Embrace change.

Believe me when I tell you that those days that seem so frustrating are just one of the many chapters of our university life. Getting lost trying to find the tutorial rooms in the basement of Davis was only one of the struggles I faced as a first-year with ambitious dreams. September 2014 was the year I learned that we need to embrace change and that things always have a way of working out.