While growing up, one of the most common questions we were asked was, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" I don't know about you, but I had so many different answers to that question. I never really knew what I wanted to be until my last couple of years of high school. One day my answer would be nurse and the next it would be professional ballerina. Seriously, that's how varied my answers were!
Anyway, around the end of my junior year of high school and into the start of my senior year, I decided I wanted to be a veterinarian. I got tired of seeing so many sad, tragic cases of animal abuse, neglect, and mistreatment on TV, in media and in my own town. Being the animal lover I am and the pet owner I have almost always been, I decided I wanted to try and make a difference somehow. Let's be honest. There will never be zero animal abuse or neglect in the world. But I'd like to think that I could help lessen it one day at a time (sappy and cheesy I know). This is currently what I am in school for, but, I've found something else I love to do just as much as I love caring for animals.
I never thought I was a good writer growing up. I mean, I would get occasional encouragement from various teachers and family members, but I took it all as stuff they had to say because they were my parents and friends. The confidence I had in myself in the writing department was low. When I got older, started high school, and had to write more difficult and longer papers, it was easy to follow a rubric and give the teacher what they wanted. This is one of the reasons why I felt as though my writing skills were sub par. Plus, being forced to write something I either did not want to or knew nothing about made me feel that much worse.
Over the past couple of semesters, a professor I have had for two different English comp classes encouraged the whole class to improve and to be the best writers we can. He had to tell us not to hold back for fear of failing. I did. I got A's on all of my papers this semester because of it! But, these papers were purely academic in purpose. I still had a fear of sharing my personal opinions and views with those around me.
Being a writer and now Editor-in-Chief for Odyssey has helped tremendously in this area. I'll admit that I was beyond nervous to publish my first article and hear peoples' thoughts on what I wrote about. Over the first few weeks, I received lots of encouragement from friends, family and my amazing assistant managing editor and I finally felt confident in myself and my writing skills. In fact, I have figured out that I love it so much that I would be willing to make it a part of my college education!
Now I'm at a crossroads of sorts. Do I continue to get my undergraduate degree in Biology and go on to veterinary school and just make writing a hobby or do I change my major to journalism or do I just make journalism my minor? I can't give myself or anyone else an answer to that just yet. I know The Lord has a plan for my life whether it is one of the above options or not so I will continue to walk with Him and trust Him with everything I have and everything I am until the answer becomes clear.
