Business (and Life) Thoughts from a College Student

By Shannon Farr, Writing Intern

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Now that is a strange idea, isn’t it? How could a current college student have business insights to offer? Especially, since this college student is an English and Communication majors?

Well, here’s the idea. College is hard, that much is obvious to anyone who has looked at college, attended college, or even pretended to be interested in college. But what most people don’t realize is that college is basically a practice run for life. And just like life, every experience is essential to leading a better, more successful life.

Here are a few things I’ve picked up over my three-and-a-half years in college.

Passion and excitement are everything

I am an English Literature and Communication majors. But once upon a time, I was a Mathematics major. Most people ask me how I went from one end of the spectrum to the complete opposite. And the answer is simple: passion.

After a semester of taking Mathematics degree classes, I realized that while I excelled at all my classes, I actually hated every moment of them. I was bored and couldn’t fathom having to continue. But what I realized in my first year as a college student, passion is everything. Hence, I switched to the majors that got me excited and ready to move forward: English and Communications.

This does not apply just to college students getting their degrees. Within your business plans and strategies, it is important to make sure that you are going after something that you are passionate about and that you are working towards something that excites you.

Patience is key

Well, this may sound simple enough, but believe me, it was a hard-earned lesson. Like all college students, I underestimated the work required to maintain my usual level of academic success. Long story short, some of the University Core classes that I took my freshman year did not go well and my GPA kind of plummeted.

Enter patience. Since then, I have been working tirelessly on regaining my usual level of academic success. I had to change how I studied, I had to look into different test-taking strategies, but beyond all that, I had to be patient.

Patience for a millennial-doesn’t that sound like an oxymoron! But it’s true. My grades were not going to improve overnight. And the same can be said about a business. If you want your business to move in a different direction, great! Make it happen. But realize that change won’t happen overnight.

The future is scary

This is true, regardless of whether or not you are a college student. During my final year as a student, I had to make plans for my future. Where did I want to work? And live? What do I want to do?

It is crazy to think that after being a student for more than 17 years, and for almost my whole life, I was suddenly supposed to decide what to do with the rest of my life. Luckily, I decided to continue being a student and to pursue my graduate degree.

The future is scary for everyone and it is important that you do not run or hide from it. Life is always changing and if you try to stop it, you’ll just get left behind. So just try to take each new day as it comes, and remember, tomorrow is never as scary as you think!

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