By Risa Askerooth

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Looking back at my freshman year, I was so scared of everything to come. I had so little faith in myself when I first started here in 2012, thinking that I wasn’t capable enough to accomplish what I wanted to do. I wish I had realized that if I was only open to every new opportunity that came my way, I would have had such an easier time.

There are a lot of things that scared me going into this year as well, the biggest one being the future. About four months ago, I felt so discouraged by the fact that I had no idea where I wanted to go to college, what I wanted to major in and what I wanted to do for a career. It seemed as if my indecision would never end and I would never realize what I wanted to do. Even though this seems a little overdramatic, the feeling that I needed to cement my identity made me feel really awful when I tried.

It is this rigidity that needs to be eliminated in order to truly embrace the opportunities that you encounter. I still don’t really have a vision of what I want to do next year, but I have ideas. And I know that these scattered ideas will turn into something solid, but it is enough to know that for now, they are only ideas. Moreover, these developed because I looked at not what I thought I should do, but what I really wanted to do. And sometimes, I realize that I still have no clue what I want to do, and I still struggle to realize that that is okay. I like where I am right now, and I’m trying to realize that this is enough without poisoning it with nightmares of my future life.

If you are more flexible in your definition of yourself and your surroundings, it will be easier to accept when you discover that your interests or your personality have changed. If you have friends but aren’t happy when you’re with them, end it; if you hate a class, change it (if possible and it’s not required); if you hate the point in your life that you’re at and can’t do anything about it, realize that the time will pass. Everything is impermanent and constantly changing. The sooner that I realized this fact, the happier I was.

It’s so drastically different from “High School Musical.” You can be in both drama and sports, but no one will make fun of you for it. You can do whatever makes you happy and, for the most part, no one will care but you. I used to worry about this, believing that if I had conflicting interests, I would be forced to choose between them. But it’s not like that. If you realize that you love baking, you are probably not going to be publically silenced with the song “Stick to the Status Quo.” I have friends who bake and compete as athletes. Most likely, your friends will love that you found a passion that drives you every single day. If they don’t, they’re not worth your time.

I’m still learning these lessons and trying to make sense of what I do want as it changes. Even now, I am narrow-minded about some things. I’m attempting to change that, but in the meantime, I’ll keep going with the flow (or at least try to).