Two years past, two years to come, my whole life ahead of me – The Daily Free Press

I think I'm going through a crisis in the middle of college.

In three weeks, I will be a junior. In three weeks, I will be halfway through my college experience. I haven't been here long enough to be there, or at least I don't feel like I am. I've only just started to adjust to my life here. How can I be expected to start thinking about what comes next?

It feels like it was just yesterday that I visited BU and had just submitted my early decision application and been accepted into the College of Arts and Sciences. It feels like just yesterday that I graduated from high school and walked across the stage to receive my diploma. It feels like it was just yesterday that I moved to Boston and all my stuff still belongs on the thirteenth floor of Rich Hall.

Yet all of this happened two years ago and so much has happened in the meantime.

I helped pierce a girl's nose and received three new piercings myself. Mom, I swear mine were all done professionally. I went to Madrid with some of my best friends, people I knew only six months before. I have had pink eye four times among many other illnesses of various natures.

I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly, and honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Boy, time flies. It's horrible to think that as much time has passed since I started college as the time I have left here. I don't want to remind readers of the impending vastness of our real lives, but I'm sure there's plenty of sympathy on the other side of the screen.

I'm afraid I'm in too deep, there's really no turning back now. This fear is purely career-focused, and instead of throwing myself down a rabbit hole of self-sabotage, I thought I'd put my thoughts on the page and see if I struck a chord.

As I mentioned before, I applied to the College of Arts and Sciences when I set my sights on BU. I came here as a political science major with the intention of majoring in sociology or journalism. Since then, sociology has completely disappeared, advertising has been added to the mix as a minor, political science has since been demoted to a second minor, and journalism has earned its place on the pedestal as a major.

If you had told me two years ago today that I would have decided to write lifestyle articles as a career, I would have thought you were crazy. I still wonder every day if I myself am crazy or not. I am 99% sure that this is what I want to do with my life and the remaining 1% abstain from voting by an overwhelming majority. Therefore, I am 100% passionate about succeeding in the field of journalism, and there is 0% chance of failure.

I will not allow that to happen, and frankly, there is no room for it anyway. If for some reason I decide to do a 180, or if my own Mitchim Huntzberger comes and tells me that I don't have what it takes to succeed, Gilmore Girls fans will understand that I would be completely lost.

It’s a fate I’m not ready to accept because switching to journalism was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Over the past two years, beyond adding professional piercer to my resume, I've also added a ton of other skills and experiences. I wrote between 20 and 30 articles and landed my first internship reporting on food and entertainment at a Philadelphia city newspaper. I had the opportunity to interview business owners, chefs, city officials and more, hearing the stories of so many people I would never have known otherwise.

The journalism industry has so much to offer that I would have never known, and I would miss it every day for the rest of my life if I pursued any other career.

It took me about a year and a half to recognize that I didn't see any future for myself in political science because I think I always saw my future in journalism. From all the essays I loved writing in high school to my repeated failures in traditional learning in the form of a lecture test, all paths have always led me to journalism.

I'm not panicking because I'm not sure what the future holds, I'm panicking because I'm actively witnessing what's unfolding in front of me. This is the scariest part of how quickly time has passed. The unfathomable and exciting reality is that I am accomplishing what I never thought possible and anticipating all that is to come.

If all of this has happened in such a short time, then I can't wait for the next two years to pass by as well. I can't wait to do it all again.

So, as heavy as the weight of fear of failure is, it is another counter-factor to balance the scales. How can I ever give up everything I have already accomplished? My fears are completely irrational, and all it takes is a subtle reminder of my passion to help me remember them.