Summertime for college students can mean several things. Perhaps you're earning some spending cash working behind a counter. Maybe you've landed yourself a sweet internship in your dream career field. Maybe you're taking a few summer classes to stay ahead of the game. Or maybe you're traveling the world to pass the time. Whatever keeps you busy, I'm all for it.
When it came time for me to decide how to spend my summer, I was faced with a multitude of options, obviously, just like the rest of my peers. But my biggest dilemma when choosing a summer path was the question of money versus opportunity.
I have friends who have been on the job search since this time last summer and are choosing to devote their allotted 40 hours a week to earning their long-awaited wages. I also have friends who are eager to start gaining valuable field experience in labs, hospitals and classrooms for internships and academic programs. Both seemed like viable options to me, but I knew I couldn't do both. I had to decide.
I'm not going to write an essay detailing what my summer is going to look like or lecture you on why I chose the path that I did. Instead I'm going to offer a few words of advice on how to come to a decision when faced with options like these and what I learned while trying to accomplish it.
As the spring semester drew to a close, I learned what it meant to know my values. After much consideration, I came to the conclusion that I value resume buffers and field experience more than I value money and employment. This isn't the path for everyone, of course. Earning your own paycheck is a pivotal achievement for many young people on the quest for independence and freedom. But I chose to give this up to instead align myself with one of my core values, which is academic advancement. I've chosen to take classes and chase internships while working under the advisement of a trusted professor. And I'm very content with my decision.
Knowing yourself, i.e., knowing your values and opinions, is something I advise so frequently. I believe it's truly one of the keys to happiness and success. I advocate doing anything and everything you need to do in order to discover who you are as a person and what matters to you. As these pieces of the great and beautiful puzzle, that is your character, fall into place, decision-making and problem-solving become just a smidgen easier.
I like to believe that I know myself pretty well. I know that I'd feel like I would be wasting time if I weren't spending the summer learning something and sniffing out career opportunities. So, when making the choice of whether or not to sign up for that class and whether or not to accept that project, I chose what I knew would appeal to my core values.
If you're searching for a way to stay busy this summer, I advise you take a look at the things that you consider to be the most important. If you're in the process of making any difficult life decision, I advise that you take a look at the things that you consider to be the most important. If you aren't yet aware of what those things are, I suggest you take some time off to discover those things about yourself. You will be happier once you do and these types of decisions won't seem so daunting anymore. We're still young and now is the time we should be taking to get to know ourselves.
Whatever you're choosing to do this summer, I hope it fills you with a sense of accomplishment and purpose. I hope you feel as though you're truly gaining something valuable and important. And, most of all, I hope it makes you happy.
Just listen to Drake's "Know Yourself" a few times. You'll get it; I promise.
