I'm the type of person who likes to plan things out, especially if its something that I'm doing on my own. I'm not crazy spontaneous without the influence of my friends and I'm not extremely outgoing either. It takes a while for me to make decisions and even when I'm leaning towards one over another, I still have to get other opinions. But even then, that doesn't really help, instead having an effect that is the exact opposite and I become even more unsure.
Since I was in high school, or at least since senior year, I've known that I wanted to work in the technology industry, particularly in cybersecurity. And to be honest, I was inspired by the great Penelope Garcia from Criminal Minds. So, like I've probably mentioned, I came into Rutgers as a computer science major. But, before that I was debating between what is now my home, Stevens, and Penn State. At both Stevens and Penn State I was accepted into programs that focused exclusively on cybersecurity and analytics, but was barely given any financial aid and/or scholarships. While I would have loved to be apart of either program, it would not be a good choice financially. So, here I am at Rutgers, not a computer science major but in information technology and informatics with minors in critical intelligence studies and geography. But, that first year of Rutgers made me question exactly what I wanted to do.
Of course, I got over it but having the opportunity brought up those same feelings. Is this something I really want to spend the rest of my life doing? Will I really be able to get a job after college? These questions and more came up and I sat with the declaration page up on my laptop screen for about twenty-five minutes. But, I did it anyways and I'm pretty happy with my decision to do so.
Being a sophomore and having the pretty usual amount of credits, a little over thirty, I was set to register last week on Wednesday, November 13 at 10pm. I created potential schedules on Course Schedule Planner and you know what happened? An elective on probably the most perfect schedule I had at the time, freaking CLOSED. So, while I was at work, for the last (probably about) two hours of my shift, I created schedule after schedule with different electives. I debated whether or not I should work on my major and minor requirements or if I should finally get to finishing up the SAS Core. I figured it out, deciding to go with my original plan of working on my geography minor since I literally decided to follow this track three weeks ago. And let's not forget those ten minutes of buffering where anything and everything could go wrong.
Overall, regardless of my ability to overplan and overthink things, I'm still pretty happy with where I am in life. And that's not something everyone can say. I'm lucky to have been one of those few people who came to college knowing exactly what they wanted to do. But, I know that it takes others a little more time to do that and I completely understand because there are days where I question my own choices. Having so many options here at Rutgers, especially options that have such an impact on your future, are never ones that should be taken lightly. You have to find what fits you best, what truly makes you smile because at the end of the day, if you are not happy doing your job is there really a point?
Sheetal Tadiparty
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