College offers young adults the chance to rediscover and redefine themselves. College is not an expectant space when you enter, many students start their college experience with an undecided major. Courses and human connections can help uncertain students find their purpose and apply their skills to relevant careers in their future.

I went into my freshman year as a Digital Cinema and Filmmaking major, hoping to hone my love for film into a possible career in my future. My freshman year advisor recommended that I take as many general education courses to start with, getting them out of the way. This way I was left to take my major-specific classes towards the end of my time at college. 

For my first semester I took a critical writing course that changed my entire outlook for my future. The professor was incredibly honest and transparent with us; he treated us like human beings, like adults. He showed us important events of history, current issues of racism, sexism, etc., and created a space in our classroom for open discussion and active discourse that engaged our class to think deeply about the world around us. I often left that class lost in thought about the weight of the world. My friend and I shared the same class and we would sit around for hours discussing what we had learned and how it affected the way that we think. My effort in the class resulted in a writing award for one of my essays where I wrote about my high school community. The official recognition for the quality of my work helped me to realize a skill that I had, a skill that could be harnessed and utilized to build a career for myself around writing. 

This small push encouraged me to rethink my major. Throughout my time in high school and elementary school, I had always been pretty good at conveying my thoughts on paper, but until I received this award in college, I had never recognized my writing ability as a skill. I had always taken the ability for granted. Now that I had someone physically proving to me that my writing was worth praise and widespread acknowledgment, I was able to see it as the talent that it truly was. With this newfound realization, I altered my plans for the future. I shifted my major from Digital Cinema and Filmmaking to Writing and Rhetoric and noticed a significant change. As I started my sophomore year, I began to take many major-specific courses. My workload increased, and it was often very overwhelming, but now there was a higher level of enjoyment. I had found a subject that I was both passionate about and efficient in.

It can be daunting to look at the sheer amount of job possibilities; there is a vast and ever changing job market. It can be difficult to narrow one’s career focus to one specific subject when there are so many different concepts floating around the job pool, tugging one’s arm in all kinds of directions. College offers all sorts of resources to help students manage and find careers that might suit their abilities. Counselors and advisors exist to guide students, general education classes offer students an insight into a variety of subjects applicable to the real world, clubs and athletics provide students with the opportunity to branch out and discover what activities or topics they may be interested in. Forming connections with peers and professors can help to expand a student’s network and broaden their understanding of what careers might be out there. There are always going to be other people on campus who can offer advice about finding a career focus. It can be very helpful to go to others to seek assistance when faced with uncertainty, especially in cases like this.

It can be hard for students to build a plan for their life when there are so many decisions required and so many career options thrown their way. College exists to help and ease students into the eventual workforce, holding their hand if they need guidance in finding what subject they want to pursue and what topics make them happy.

By Ryder Huseby

Ryder is going into his Junior year as a Writing and Rhetoric major at Pace University in Pleasantville, New York. Ryder is a passionate reader and enjoys going to the movie theater as often as he can.

For over 25 years, the Campus Clipper has helped college students in New York City—and later in Boston and Philadelphia—save money and succeed in city life. We offer a digital coupon booklet with discounts on food, clothing, and services, plus an Official Student Guidebook with real advice on how to navigate college life in a big city. Our internship program lets students build skills, earn money, and publish their own e-books. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @CampusClipper, and sign up for our newsletter to get deals straight to your inbox. To access the digital coupons, scan the QR code on our printed card—available in dorms, student centers, and around campus.

Graduating from high school marks a significant chapter in a person’s life. It symbolizes a shift that propels a person forward into a life far away from home. Students are separated from their friends and families and are expected to form bonds and connections with new people on their own. It can be hard to build a stable bridge between the relationships that already exist in your life and the ones that are being constructed in college.

In my first year of college the transition to life amongst new friends and new people felt quite natural. I jumped at the chance to participate in campus events and other social engagements that Pace University had to offer. I worked with people in class and found like-minded peers who shared similar interests with me, prompting out-of-class studying and socialization. 

My sophomore year, I joined the Nature Club and made friends with some of my fellow club members, finding a small but strong community of people who care about the same things and enjoy outdoor activities such as hiking. However, I am most thankful for making an effort to form strong relationships with my freshman year suitemates. Both of my suitemates were on Pace’s Swim and Dive Team and because we became such close friends, I was often invited to social gatherings with the rest of the team, despite not being a swimmer myself. I found some of my favorite people on this team and I am forever grateful for making the connections that I have, even when the connections seemed so simple to begin with. This process of making new friends was never easy though, as a lot of these friendships took time to build. Some relationships did not last very long, with some of them ending very badly and some of them slowly deteriorating over time. I only ever joined one club and I have never been a part of college athletics, but I did my best to take advantage of situations where I was surrounded by new people to create a fresh life for myself. 

It was very challenging to make enough time for friends and family back home amidst the influx of work and the new friends that I was trying to build relationships with. In order to maintain these relationships with old friends and my family, I made an effort to text them as often as I could throughout the week. We would exchange stories and give updates on our separate lives so that we stayed involved and engaged with each other even while we were physically apart. I would try my best to schedule Facetime calls at least once a week with friends and family. It helps to communicate over text but when you really miss the people you love it can be hard to go without seeing their faces and audibly hearing them laugh. I found a lot of value in making time for those Facetime calls. Sometimes things would get extremely hectic and busy and our schedules wouldn’t align in time to make a call, but we wouldn’t let it discourage us from making a call the next chance we were free. I found it very important to make that sort of communication consistent as much as possible, and I have stayed close friends with those who I remained consistently in contact with. 

Beyond making time for your relationships with others, it is important to fit in enough time to maintain your relationship with yourself. It can be overwhelming when it feels like there are so many different people to spend time with, but it is also necessary to allot certain points in the week purely and solely for yourself, free of others. I found that going on periodic walks helped to clear my head and give me the alone time that I needed every once in a while. There were certainly periods of time when I felt suffocated by socialization and I realized that I needed a break from dedicating so much time towards others.

The key to juggling relationships is just working out a plan, either mental or physical, that divvies up enough time for all of the people that you care enough about. Putting in the time and effort towards others emphasizes care and compassion; no matter how hard things are or how busy things may get, consistency is essential.  

By Ryder Huseby

Ryder is going into his Junior year as a Writing and Rhetoric major at Pace University in Pleasantville, New York. Ryder is a passionate reader and enjoys going to the movie theater as often as he can.

For over 25 years, the Campus Clipper has helped college students in New York City—and later in Boston and Philadelphia—save money and succeed in city life. We offer a digital coupon booklet with discounts on food, clothing, and services, plus an Official Student Guidebook with real advice on how to navigate college life in a big city. Our internship program lets students build skills, earn money, and publish their own e-books. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @CampusClipper, and sign up for our newsletter to get deals straight to your inbox. To access the digital coupons, scan the QR code on our printed card—available in dorms, student centers, and around campus.

My Chapter at Campus Clipper has come to a close. I am so, so grateful for all I’ve learned through this internship and the many ways I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone in the past year!

It may not come as a surprise after I’ve written all these blog posts attempting to give some tips and tricks to college students, but I actually don’t have all the answers, nor do I like pretending I do. At the start of last year’s fall semester, I started these blog posts with a focus on journaling because that was what I felt like I knew best. I still firmly believe that journaling kept me somewhat sane throughout high school and college, and without it, I don’t know where I would’ve ended up. Because of how much journaling helped me, I wanted to share the tactics I’d learned with others. It’s inexaplicably cathartic to write letters you’ll never send, to rant and rage on a piece of paper and burn it, to jot down senses and notes of appreciation, to exist as something that isn’t up for anyone else’s perception, unless, of course, you decide to publish your journals (or you’re like Emily Dickinson, whose sister published her letters, journals, and poems posthumously against her behalf).

When the spring semester began, I wanted to broaden my topic to more than just journaling as a self-help tool, so I branched out into self-care and wellness in general, though I didn’t have too much expertise on such. I did, however, have fun researching faux supplement trends, how to protect your peace in unhealthy environments, and ways to navigate digital life and mental health. I even started recording and editing podcasts about these topics, which was very new to me. Least to say, it’s been a ride, and a rewarding one!

Of course, all good things must come to an end. The truth is, as I board the halfway mark of my master’s degree and my year of being 25, I find myself having a perfectly scheduled quarter-life identity crisis. I simply don’t do a lot of the things I used to, and I’ve started to find difficulty in settling with that information. I haven’t touched my camera in ages, I haven’t journaled much these last few months, and it has become nearly impossible for me to write creatively as opposed to nonfiction or satire, as I feel almost unable to channel deep, passionate emotions into my writing the same way I used to. My reading habits are inconsistent. My Last Four Watched is too commercialized to actually log. Realizing all of these things is a tell-tale sign that I’m in a more transitory period than ever, personality-wise. Most of what I’ve always felt attached to has shifted, or been put on pause, and I’m in the midst of sorting out what I want to come back and what I want to bring in. 

For a long time, journaling was my coping mechanism AND my main form of writing. It was where I went to understand my feelings and process them. It was where I’d go to say my worst, most unhinged thoughts. It was where I let the other, less composed part of me live, in a way. I still think journaling is that place for me, but I’m not sure I’m in the mental headspace where I need it anymore, at least not as much as I used to. Maybe it’s the fully formed frontal lobe! Despite all the changes I’ve gone through, journaling was something that made me feel tethered to what I thought was a permanent version of myself, someone I thought I was inherently supposed to become.  It feels weird to not have journaled or taken pictures in a while, as I’ve pretty much been consistently doing both for the last 10 years. All that is to say, my creative endeavors are headed somewhere, but I’m not quite sure where yet.

 Thus, my blog writing journey at Campus Clipper has met its end. I hope to see you at my next spot!

-Brenna