Play More Often

I believe success is measured in terms of happiness. How happy you are with your life depends upon the quality of the time that you spend living.

Spending 8 hours a day in an environment that is miserable will carry over into your home life. The stress that is experienced can cause a variety of emotional and physical problems which, to me, roughly translates into a slow death.

On the other hand, spending most of your time surrounded by things that inspires you keeps you young and vibrant. The carry over effects from this environment helps you thrive. Things seem that much brighter and problems, because no one is immune, seem easier to tackle.

When your interests and talents overlap the line between work and play begins to disappear and what you are left with is a very large playground. Enjoy more of your life and dream big!

Choosing Your Major

It's the first day of class routine: go around the room and say your name, your year, and your major. Without fail, there are one or two quiet freshman who will embarrassingly admit that they are undecided at the moment, amidst the pre-med students and double majors. I was one of those freshmen. I remember feeling so intimidated by these people who were my age, and yet somehow had it all figured out already. I was scared that I would never be able to figure out what I wanted to major in, let alone be so confident as to pick up a second major, or even a minor. A year of college came and went, and with it I discovered my true interest in psychology and chose that as my major, and am currently trying to decide on a minor. I hope that my story serves to quell some of the nervous feelings that many first-year college students have when they attend classes for the first time. Even though I am a sophomore, I still do not have my mind completely made up on what my degree will say, but I am much closer to making that final decision. The point is, it's okay not to know exactly what you want to do when you are just starting college. In fact, when I was touring different schools, I learned that most students change their major three times before they graduate!

When I expressed my anxiety about finding my major to people, they always told me, "Don't worry, your major will find you." My advice is similar, but not exactly like that. I do believe that there is a serendipitous aspect to it, but I think that the "it will find me" mentality encourages laziness. My advice is to check out all of the classes your school offers in many different departments, and sign up for anything that sounds remotely interesting. Once you get yourself into those classes, your true interests in certain subjects will become apparent, and you can eliminate others that weren't quite what you thought they would be. So, I guess my advice is that your major will find you, but only as long as you are looking for it.

If that doesn't work, there are still more options. If you are feeling lost, it is important to know that there are people out there who want to help you discover your passions. Those people are the caring professionals at Dream Big-call them!

--Jillian Tessier