A “perk” of being in college is the ability to have new experiences in so many different areas. For some people, these new experiences come through exploring new friendships, new activities, new student groups, new classes, personal growth. The list could go on.

However, what I have been most grateful for recently has been the ability to have so many new experiences professionally during college. While the job security is not great, that aspect can be a blessing and a curse. It can cause you to have to part ways with a dream job too soon, or the limited time frame of an internship can be reassuring in a position that just is not quite what you expected it to be.

Ultimately, what my experiences have taught me is how important it is to be able to find a job that satisfies you, that drives you, that does not feel like a chore, that gives you passion, and a sense of reward. You may go home tired at the end of the day, but you are excited to come back for the next one and see what it has in store.

This summer, I had an internship that I worked really hard to get that was in a field I was excited to get experience in. Unfortunately, for several reasons, I found myself struggling to get out of bed each day to go to work because nothing was personally driving me in the position I was in.

This is where that hard end date was a piece of motivation to get me from one week to the next, knowing that at the end of this position I would go back to school where a new experience was awaiting me.

That new position has given me a level of satisfaction and reward I had been hankering for over the summer. I remember thinking to myself in the first few weeks of the job how amazing it felt to be in a position where I could laugh and smile and let my personality shine in comparison to the work environment I was in over the summer where I felt the need to make my presence as small as possible.

Now I can leave my job at the end of the day excited by the progress I have made and know that what I am doing is working to the end goal of what this project is. Each day I leave excited for what I will be doing the next and looking forward to the interactions I will have with the group of co-workers I have.

Having these two contrasting experiences has taught me multiple things. But there have been a couple of things that I have been able to learn from this process that taught me a lot.

The first, you have to get through the tough times to enjoy the good ones. The times where you find yourself in a place where you are not loving what you are doing are hard, and they can get you down but as long as you know that you have the power to change your situation and seek out new opportunities, better experiences will come your way. Then, once you find that better opportunity be it any life experience, you will feel so much lighter in comparison to what you had been going through.

Secondly, you deserve to do what you love and no one else should dictate what you should do. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the buzz of life and what everyone else is doing around you. Ultimately though, if you find something that you are passionate about go for it because that inner sense of eagerness to do something or to try something new will make the moment all the better.

Do what makes your heart happy and it will make the rest of you happy too.