In the 250 Words series, the RU Student Life writers are posed a question, and in 250 words they each offer their insights. Share yours with us @RUStudentLife.
Question 17: Next year, when you look back on 2017, what do you hope to see?
Jessica
A year from now, I hope to enter 2018 with a clear(er) perspective on what I want to do in life. As much as people tell me I have my whole life in front of me to decide, I feel an immense amount of pressure to narrow my focus and pick a career to embark on. The question, “What do you want to do when you graduate?” is a question I get asked a lot, especially being in a relatively unknown program such as Creative Industries. The truth is: I know where my interests lie, but whether it’s realistic and obtainable is a different story.
With the completion of an internship in an arts-related organization and some travel plans in my near future, I hope to feel more confident graduating in 2018. It’s been a long educational journey for me with many detours and stops. I’m excited to be so close to the end, but the anticipation is sprinkled with some doubt and anxiety. I prefer to take life day by day, overcoming obstacles as they come. Who knows? 2017 might surprise me, throw me into unfamiliar situations and spit me out an entirely new person. I’m eager to race to the finish line, but I’m enjoying the run.
Robyn
As a graduating student, 2017 will be a year of change for me. From my time here at Ryerson, I have learned that the rewards from your experiences often equate to the effort you put into them. Following this philosophy, now is the time to take advantage of a new chapter in my life. A family member once told me to do things you want to do when you want to do them, because your interests will constantly change and when you are older you won’t want to do the same things anymore. So if you put those hopes and ideas on the backburner of your priority list, they will be nothing more than dreams that never materialized. Being young means there is room for spontaneity. There is time (and there has never been a better time) for you to do those things you’ve always wanted to do. While I admit my goals for the new year could not be more basic (I want to travel, meet people and land a job I will enjoy), as I transition from student to the big scary real world, my greatest goal is to think like an opportunist. An opportunist doesn’t just fulfill their dreams, they are constantly seeking out new ones.
When I look back a year from now, I want to be able to say I did things that scared and challenged me. I want to recall saying yes more often than no, and that in doing these things I let myself grow in perspective.
Sunita
One thing I’ve learned about being in my early twenties, is that the future is getting harder and harder to predict. I look back on January 2016 and I could never have imagined what the next 12 months of my life would have been back then. It’s nothing like I thought it would be, but in the best possible way.
I’ve recently been given some incredible opportunities, but now that some of my dreams are becoming a reality it’s not the ‘happily ever after’ scenario that I thought it would be. Sometimes being handed the opportunity to achieve your goals requires a lot of hard-work and courage, and sometimes it can be terrifying. Despite the fact that I’ve come so far with my self-confidence, doubt is still a very much real thing in my mind. I think a very common question people in their early twenties ask themselves is: “Do I really have what it takes? Have I set my goals too high?”
In 2018 I will be getting ready to graduate. I hope that by then I’ll have shaken off the self-doubt. 2016 was a year of immense progress in terms of my confidence, but I still have a long way to go. I hope that I take more moments to look back and appreciate all the things that I’ve achieved instead of constantly feeling anxious about what’s to come. But most importantly, I hope 2017 is a year of even more growth and astounding moments of bravery, and taking the time to applaud myself for every step of courage along the way.
