My junior year of college has been something, to say the least. It definitely happened.
It's always so interesting to look back at the year and see small seeds that were planted, and reflect on how those grew as the year went on. Things I thought were of little consequence became integral to my life by the end of this year.
I took a newscasting class in the Fall. It opened my mind to the idea of going into news, which I hadn't even considered before. My professor was very supportive, and encouraged me to engage with the medium as much as possible so I could learn if this was something I wanted to pursue. In the Spring, I took two more classes, both with amazing professors and classmates. I enjoyed meeting people, telling stories, and finding out interesting things that were happening around the city. I think my favorite was a story I did on a "Carnegie library" (definitely not structurally sound) that's for sale in Middletown, or the one that almost got me kicked out of a Skyline (I was living by the "beg for forgiveness, not ask for permission" mentality).
I also learned how important it is for me to engage with creativity. I have definitely fallen into an academic mindset of creativity, where I need to learn how to be a technician first. When I am working in pure instruction for too long, I lose touch with my creativity, and therefore something that I enjoy. I definitely did that in past semesters.
So I found spaces for that side of myself to thrive. I attended workshops and open figure sessions at a drawing center near campus. I began teaching and taking piano lessons. I told stories with friends through D&D in and out of school.
The importance of true, honest rest was also affirmed to me. I am a work-a-holic and a night owl (a deadly combination), which left space for subtle burnout to creep into my life. In February, the flu knocked me out for a week, so was forced to sit on the couch and watch movies all day. Somehow, between the fevers, I recognized the value of truly doing nothing.
In what has definitely been the craziest year of college yet, I have learned a lot about myself and what I want to do. I am excited for what next year holds!
