Like many people going into college, I had a general idea of what I wanted to do. I wanted to write, but what kind of writing? I saw college as a place to try new things, to take classes that sounded interesting, and even take classes in things I never imagined myself doing. Who knows, maybe I would enjoy it. Those classes helped me discover new things about myself, my skills, and my passions.
In my first creative writing class, I pushed myself to try writing fiction. The only fiction I had written before that were goofy stories in grade school. I never thought myself capable of creating whole worlds, characters, and dialogue and had previously stuck to mostly writing essays. The first short story I wrote was far from perfect, it was cliched and clunky, but I had done it, I had written a short story and loved it, something I never dreamed I would do, but how would I know what it was like until I tried it? Challenging myself in that class motivated me to take all three levels of fiction classes alongside my nonfiction concentration. And now I think I enjoy writing fiction even more than nonfiction.
I challenged myself in other ways too. I challenged myself to take ecology and biology courses, not because it was required, I chose them as electives. I chose those courses because it had always been something that interested me. Everyone else in the class was science majors, and it wasn't easy analyzing data and writing a whole research paper, but it was worth trying something new and pushing myself to realize I could do it and I enjoyed it too.
This semester I am challenging myself yet again. With some of my remaining electives, I chose to do something I was determined I could never do well, write poetry. It's probably the course furthest out of my comfort zone so far. I attempted to write a poem in junior high, but nothing seemed to flow right. I couldn't understand the rhyme or rhythm patterns and how to write them myself, but I had challenged myself so far, so why not try to tackle the one thing I never thought I could do. Maybe I can do it, and I just have to give it another shot and learn it. We will see how it goes. But I'm glad to say at least I tried. I gave it a shot. And who knows maybe I'll love it and actually be good at it.
My advice to anyone going to college is to use this as an opportunity to try things you never dreamed you could. Try the introductory courses of everything that interests you and if you like it enough go ahead and do a minor in it, change your major, or at least take a few more electives in it. And never assume you won't like it or be good at it. You'll be surprised at what you're capable of, and you may also find that what you thought you wanted to do just doesn't fit and that's okay.
