I remember one of the most exciting things to look forward to in third grade was writing a letter to my future self and burying it in the school’s courtyard, where many other 3rd graders had done so before us. There my letter would stay until fifth grade graduation, where we would dig up the letters to see just how our priorities and mindset had changed.
Almost the same thing happened when I decided to go back and read my prior #YouAtUW posts in hopes of finding some direction for my last submission. My biography reads, “Callie Elonen is a freshman from Knoxville, Tennessee…” (still true) “…majoring in Philosophy and Physics” (not true).
In fact, that changed before I even enrolled in classes at Madison. If there is one thing I have learned, it is that it is okay to set goals while remaining open to any twists and turns along the way. A lot of what I thought college would be like ended up being the complete opposite, but it does not mean that it wasn’t for the better; the same is true for my major.
Everything happens for a reason, and I have learned there is plenty of time to find what it is I want and what the world wants from me. I am not undecided. I am “multi-interested,” and I would like to thank a random girl I met the first week of school for giving me that perspective. College is all about learning to look at things a little differently.
In that same regard, don’t just look at college as school but as growth, adventure, and self-exploration. Keep on people, keep on and find #YouAtUW.