Everything Happens for a Reason

It’s hard to believe yet another semester is coming to an end. I feel like it has only been a few weeks since the start of school. It only feels like a few months ago I was a sophomore and a year ago, if that, I was finishing pledging and my first semester of college. It feels like just yesterday I was walking down the grassy path at my high school to receive my diploma and take the first step towards my future. It feels like all of this has happened so fast, but college is almost over. You may argue with me about that, but try to see it this way: I’ll be gone all of next semester, then the summer will fly by, first semester senior year will happen even faster than this semester did, and then I will be taking the first step towards my future, yet again.

It’s hard to believe that everything happens for a reason. It’s hard to believe this because I don’t know what the reasoning is. I know that life changes every day. I know that plans don’t always remain the current plans and often get edited, altered, or deleted from your mind. I know that one day I will know what all the reasons were, but as for now, I don’t know any of it.

It’s hard to believe that I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. Yes, I have some ideas, but who ever really knows? I was sitting in the Starbucks in DuPont Circle this weekend, typing my responses for the SMPA195 take home final when a man sat down in the chair adjacent to me and commented on my pink computer case, pink Blackberry case, and bright purple bag. What started as a superficial conversation about the intensity of my accessories turned into something much more interesting.

He was a reporter for the Herald, Wall Street Journal, and the Post. Then he gave it all up for business. He told me this and paused. Then the conversation went in a totally different direction. He began asking me questions about GW, my education and what I plan on doing with an undergraduate degree that will ultimately cost around $250,000, when you include expenses, textbooks, travel costs, mental health, and partying. I gave him the same response I give everyone: I want to go to business school and get into advertising. So he asked me a few questions about my interests, why I want to do that and where I want to go to school. I spitfire responses then kept talking about my plans for the future until I was blue in the face.

It’s just dawning on me now that all of what I said is theoretically bullshit. Since everything happens for a reason (yes, I do truly believe this. After years and years of trying to believe otherwise I simply cant because I always get proved otherwise) the plans I make, career aspirations I have, goals and dreams I plan on achieving are all a waste. What ever will happen will happen, right? I’m not implying that I wont strive for a JD/MBA from NYU or Columbia with a focus in Marketing or Public Relations, but ultimately, my education that costs about the same as a nice house in Virginia isn’t what’s going to get me there. It may help, but ultimately if it’s meant to happen, it will, just like everything else.

So, in the mean time, I’m going to enjoy the three semesters I have left and wait for things to fall into place. After all, that’s all I can do, right?

-Missy S.