How Saying “Yes” Opens Doors in College
This post is about the power of saying yes to opportunities that come your way in college.
As a freshman entering San Diego State University, I was utterly overwhelmed and entranced by the power of choice I had. I decided when and what I wanted to eat, which classes I would be taking at what time, when I wanted to study, and who I wanted to spend my time around. I was no longer governed by a strict high school class and sport schedule and I felt I had the power to steer my life in the directions I wanted to go. This immense amount of independence, although frightening at times, served as the most amazing platform to discover who I was as a person through the choices I made.
One of the single most influential pieces of advice I gleaned from my mom before I left for college was “just say yes to every opportunity that comes your way because you never know what doors it will lead to”. I am not joking when I say that I took this 100% to heart. Within the first week of living in the dorms, I was running for the position of treasurer for the Maya/Olmeca dormitory council, attended my first college club meeting (a sustainability club on campus), and was signed up for sorority recruitment. These three examples are interesting exposés on this mindset of “just say yes” because I ended up losing the race for treasurer, did not enjoy the time I spent at the club meeting, and was harshly confronted by the reality that sorority life was not for me. Although all three of these opportunities I tried for turned out to be a bust, this did NOT stop me from continuing to avail myself to opportunities that came my way later in the year. I got my first real job through applying to become a Supplemental Instruction (SI) Leader (a peer-facilitator of group study sessions twice a week) for the chemistry class I had just passed. I still hold this job as a super senior and have since been promoted as the mentor for that chemistry class’s SI Leaders! Freshman year was also when I began to volunteer after a friend and I visited The Museum of Biodiversity at SDSU and spoke with the curator, a man we later endearingly called “Santa Bob”. We expressed our interest and asked if we could come once a week and help in whatever way was needed. This self-made volunteership lasted for the entirety of spring semester and it ignited several unknown passions and career goals I was unaware I had (such as the idea of becoming a botanist and the immense joy I got from working outside). Both of these positions were actualized because I was open to the idea of giving them a shot.
The wonderful part of this mindset surrounding an openness to opportunities is that you are able to learn a multitude of things about yourself and your goals along the way. Some of my most pivotal experiences surrounded rejections to jobs and internships I applied for while other opportunities allowed me to realize that the ideas I held about this organization, career, path, etc. were either what I had envisioned or the exact opposite of what I was expecting. There is also something to be said about spreading yourself too thin and ensuring that you make time for yourself in the wonderfully hectic world of college life, but that is a post in and of itself! Throughout college I knew that the idea of being my own roadblock to an opportunity was one I did not subscribe to, and as a result I availed myself to every opportunity thrown my way. How will you know something is right or wrong for you unless you try? So the next time you are offered an opportunity that strikes even the smallest spark of interest, why not say yes?!
