Senior year of college. Well, here it is, the moment I’ve been waiting for.

Another four years of my life just flew by. It’s insane to think that just four years ago I started college, and now I have made friends for a lifetime and figured out what I want to do with my life.

If you were to ask me what I wanted to do as a career when I first started, I would have told you that I had no idea. I was still figuring out what was peaking my interest.

I just turned 21 in July; I’m just starting to figure myself out. So, if this is your first year, don’t stress and freak out. It’s all right to not know what you want to do as a career and your life. If you do, good for you.

Keep on keepin’ on.

Trust me, don’t freak out too much about it if you don’t. Freaking out will only make things worse. Take it from someone who learned it the hard way.

Listen, being the first generation of an entire family, to actually go to college, is pretty intense. It’s not as simple as one may think it is. My parents always managed to plan out my future for me. Or at least they thought they had.

According to my parents, I was going to be a doctor. A pediatric doctor, nevertheless. Therefore, my parents always made me focus on my science classes, as well as my math classes. These were the most important.

You all should know that I completely suck at science and math; those two were never my strongest subjects. I mean, I always got through them, but I always dreaded going to those two main classes.

If you put me inside a science lab and told me to perform an experiment, I’m not going to lie to you, I would most likely blow up the room. That goes for math too; if you give me a math problem to solve, I would most likely sit there staring at it confused out of my mind. 

Now, writing and being creative on the other hand, that’s a whole different story.

When I was younger, I would always watch the same movie or television show over, and over again, until I knew every single detail about it. From all the lines, the placement of the characters, to all the songs, it drove my parents crazy. 

My brain always managed to somehow store all that information, and now if I watch something from when I was two years old, I can recite every word from that movie, or tv show.

I know, I’m weird.

When I was younger, I never knew of this magical world of television and writing existed.  I always knew that movies and TV shows were made, but just never knew how. All I knew was science and math were the key to having a wealthy and happy life.

Well, maybe wealthy, but definitely not happy.

There’s a saying, “It’s not a job if you love what you do.”

I finally learned the true meaning of that when I came to Mercy.

When I’m in the TV studio at campus, it’s fun. I don’t see it as a class, I see it as my future career. The same goes for writing; I would rather write a news story or a column, rather than go to another class where I’m not interested whatsoever. 

***

College is when you have the time of your life. I never really felt that until the middle of my sophomore year. So, while I was figuring out what I wanted to do with my life, came friends for life.

The people I’ve met in this time are some of the most important people in my life, and I am extremely grateful for them. Most people know myself and my friends as the “Mean Girls.” But I see these women as my best friends. When you spend most of your days with people that are in the same major field as you, you get to know each other really well.

I consider Laine and Kayla to be two of the greatest people that I have met here at Mercy. Even if we bonded over pranking our professor, which I do not recommend by the way. Unless he knows how to take a joke.

Hence the name “Mean Girls.”

Another one of my greatest friends I made here at Mercy, is Miriam. She’s from Norway and I find her to be one of the best people out there. We first bonded in a feature writing class over Supernatural, of all things.

Yes, I had to sneak a mention in there.

How do you know when someone is your best friend? When they come up to you at the end of the semester and ask if they can move in with you until they find an apartment. That’s how. Those three weeks were probably the highlight of last summer.

I digress.

For those of you who this year is your first year, here’s a piece of advice for you. Find what you love to do, and what you enjoy. You don’t want to be stuck in an office filing papers, because it’s a simple nine to five job, do you? I know I don’t. I would honestly lose my mind.

Once I started watching Supernatural, I knew that was what I wanted to do – I wanted to create stories that inspire people, that move people. And most importantly, grab people’s attention. Not just any old show that just exists, a show that may change people’s lives like Supernatural did for me.

I know I want to create shows or movies that inspires people. Whether it be to act, direct, or to chase a passion.

That is what I want to do in my career.

Whether that is accomplished, that’s up to me. I need to make it happen.  I know I will most likely get knocked down a couple of hundred times, but that is a part of life. When you put your mind to it, it will happen. I will make it happen and along the way I made friends that I know will always be there when I need them.

So in the words of Kim Manners, “Let’s kick it in the ass!”