Gillian Cowley

Before I came to college I had a very closed and certain idea of who I was and what I was going to do. However, since I started University, I have met so many new people and found so many opportunities that have caused me to completely change my idea of self, as well as who I want to be. As soon as I arrived at school I joined a varsity sport that I had never even played before and in which I found a new family. Within a couple months I realized that I no longer wanted to follow the career path that I had envisioned for myself since childhood, but also realized that for now my lack of direction was not something to fear. Over the past two years I have found a multitude of unique and beautiful people who have inspired me to constantly question my own ideas but also never put them down. While I no longer have a specific career goal in mind, I think I have found a new goal of who I want to be: someone who is able to inspire and help the people around me in the same way that others have inspired and helped me in the past.

All in all, my experience thus far has helped me become a person that has parts of my original identity, but so much more. With this building of new person, I have found many new passions and opinions on various topics, such as women’s rights and environmental activism, as well as less serious topics such as whether or not JK Rowling’s Severus Snape deserves our sympathy or not, or the fact that mini M&Ms are better than regular M&Ms because they have the perfect candy to chocolate ratio.