Merging Into Adulthood: A Warning to My Fellow Trojans
By Ivy N.
When I was a freshman, I thought I would never become as "boring" as a junior or senior student that wouldn't come to campus and would only organize two days of the week to come to school, then disappear from campus in the last two years of college. Well, I'm not saying that I became one of them, but instead, I understand them now. I just can't believe how much you can change in four years of college, from a party girl to a nerd. Is it a curse for every college student?
Actually, not. I believe the biggest way college changed me this year was more of an enlightenment that very few students would talk about. Most of the time we talk about how freshman year is all about starting a new chapter of your life and dealing with uncertainties like an adult, but in fact, the transition from a naive hedonist that only cares about frats, football games and retreats to an adult that is actually concerned about their future career is just in the blink of an eye.
Why is that? Sometimes surroundings can just change everything. I notice myself being shaped by the people I'm exposed to. It seems like we all unconsciously agree on talking more about LinkedIn posts, connection numbers and coffee chats. We no longer get overwhelmed by the not perfect GPA because we get the tangible feeling that GPA doesn't equal what work looks like in the next few years. We also start mentioning terms like "my boss/supervisor" and "let me look at my schedule." Just in those moments of unconsciousness we start acknowledging the fact that we are adulting, and we just suddenly become used to being like that, and those habits quietly replace the naive and simple-headed freshman us.
Fellow Trojan, you may not agree with me right now, but let's see when you are a junior or a senior, you will understand me. Stress is real. Just looking at the billing information of the new semester and thinking about how my internship can't even cover 10% of it makes me feel that there's a long way yet to go to achieve the type of comforting lifestyle my parents have given me. Just the fact that you start seeing things clearer and start intentionally leveraging every opportunity like a businessman, businesswoman, or any gender, and you're no longer prioritizing happiness and intuitive feelings. I also wonder, why, when did I become such a boring adult. Where is the light in my eyes and do I still believe in the imagined dream job? The power of peers is crazy, to the extent that it makes you forget the way you want your career path to look like. When everyone is paving it with the same tiles and stones, you feel awkward and insecure for not building it the same way, but finding other ways. We often just let this enlightenment sneak in and take over us, and when we realize it, we exhale and say: "time flies," "I don't remember when I became like this." But we never stop to ask, to argue, to evaluate if the life we want is indeed college-internship-work-family. We just follow the crowd and merge into normality, so when we realize we actually had a choice, it's too late.
So, my friend reading this, remember that you don't have a specific sequence to follow at USC. USC embraces such a diverse group of students with such different thoughts in life, so why do you have to merge instead of opening a branch by yourself? Is it safe? Well it might be, but you just won't be ever as happy as your freshman self. Now think about this: are you really doing what you want to do, or are you just doing what everyone does to feel less "behind"? You define your life, and that enlightenment shouldn't be one that someone tells you to follow, but instead, your own awakening of what kind of adult you want to be. USC made us wear the gown on our first day of school, did you think about who you dreamed to become by the time you actually wear it for your graduation?
