The first article I ever wrote focused on the fact that you did not have to commit yourself to the standards and ideals that others forge onto you. My first article for Odyssey focused on the experience I had in learning from others and myself as I grew up and entered college. The point of this article is meant to be a continuation of those beliefs. But, instead of focusing on others, I would like to focus on the ending on never elaborated on: the takeaway. Like I said, college especially is the time to make mistakes. In fact, other than a few extreme scenarios, this is probably the only time you have to make mistakes that will not completely hinder any future you're dreaming up. Whether that be to become the first rock 'n' roll weatherman or woman or to invent some insane piece of technology, anything is still possible as long as you continue to explore your interests and passions.

For me, I guess I want the takeaway of this article to be that not everything in your life has to be perfect. You can and will for sure make mistakes. And that's fine, as long as you learn from them. The inspiration for this article comes from my entire freshman year at Rutgers.

These last seven to nine months have been the absolute best months of my life thus far. However, not everything was sunshine and rainbows. I am unhappy to announce that my GPA is not where I would like it to be nor am I involved in as many extracurriculars as I would like to be. And while my studying methods shifted to suit my college needs, there is still the fact that I got regular headaches from just thinking about exams and figuring out how I was going to remember fourteen weeks of information for each of my finals.

While I did my best to balance my social and academic lives, there were still certain aspects that remained a mystery to me. The most important ones being what I really wanted to do with my future and the rest of my time at Rutgers. During the year, I struggled to come up with the right combination of majors and minors to make me appealing to future employers. With the shift from computer science to information technology and informatics, that search became a little more daunting. And even now, while I think I've got something, I'm still unsure of my plans.

Looking forward to the upcoming year and the fall semester, I'm worried that I'm going to make it just like the last one. I'm worried that I'm not going to have enough time, that I'm going to fall behind in all the plans that I have semi-worked out. I'm worried that all of my worrying will overwhelm me and make it that much harder to handle these next to semesters.

But from talking with others, I'm realizing that I shouldn't have all of these worries, at least to the magnitude that I do. Even though my academics are important, I should also be focused on making memories and soaking up everything that any opportunity offers. I shouldn't be worrying about how solid my plans are when in reality, they're practically nonexistent at this point. My life is not at all together as it should be and neither is anyone else's, no matter how put together they may seem. It is completely okay to struggle to find your purpose or goals in life, and in fact it should be expected. Nothing ever comes easy. Just remember that you are not the only person who feels this way.