A new year and a new semester have brought on a new attitude. In the wake of feeling as if something is missing from my life, and more specifically my college experience, I have decided it is time for me to go out in search of a "Great Perhaps." Considering "the Great Perhaps" were François Rabelais’s last words, made famous by John Green’s book "Looking for Alaska," I believe it symbolizes exploration. At that moment, Rabelais was preparing to find out the world’s biggest uncertainty: what happens to the human spirit after death. To seek the Great Perhaps is to seek the unknown. It is to go around the bend, because you do not know what’s over there but believe it could be something brilliant.

So how does one search for the Great Perhaps? You do this by taking experiences. I saw the rewards of this drive back in September when a random opportunity in my First Year Seminar class lead to me sitting in on a conference with James Higa (Former Senior Director in the Office of the CEO at Apple Inc.). I remember leaving the small talk and calling my dad, because I was so excited about what I had just experienced, Higa had been a great speaker, and his story was inspiring. Had I not just raised my hand and said “Sure Professor, I’ll go,” I never would have gotten to even know who that man was. Unfortunately, I feel that I really slacked in the experience-taking department the rest of the semester, but with the spring semester quickly approaching, so is the chance to take advantage of more opportunities.

So what do I seek in a Great Perhaps? I seek activities. I seek passion. I seek adventure. I seek risking it for the biscuit. I seek inspiration. I seek hearts won and maybe even some broken. I seek things worth writing about. I seek life. It’s taken a long time, but I have finally come to the realization that to be the exciting and spontaneous person that I long to be, I have to do things that are exciting and spontaneous. Go figure. The first step is this: what I am doing right here, deciding that I want to change, that I want to do something with my life. The most important step though, is actually doing it. That’s my plan, to seek a Great Perhaps, and to always keep seeking it. There will always be another bend in the river or another corner to turn, and there will be so many possibilities to what is around every one. So I urge you to seek your own Great Perhaps, because who knows what you will really find?