What I learned in college

Well I did it! I finished all of my finals. I stood in front of the tower and walked across the stage. And now, I can finally say that I am a University of Texas graduate. Some days I feel like I haven’t learned much over the past four years. But today, I can say without regret that these are the things I learned in college. 

1. You have to pave your own way.  If I could send a message to every person entering college in the entire world, I would tell them that the most important thing they must do is pave their own way in the world. Don’t take the path of those before you, or even the path less traveled by, make you own path. Texas may have shown me the road, but I know that I paved my own way through the last four years and THAT has made the difference for me. 

2. Learn everything. When I got to UT I wanted to major in government (if you know me you are probably like “What? Why? Government? You hate politics!”).  College taught me that the best way to find out what you do and don’t like is to learn everything you can about everything. Lucky for me, it only took one government class to figure out that what I actually liked was the research and writing part of government. And what do people who research and write do? Well, public relations of course.  When I think that I may have never found my true passion had I not thought I wanted to major in government, it reminds me everyday to constantly learn and explore new avenues. 

3. The eyes of Texas will always be upon me. I’m not a Texan by birth, and even though I now call Austin my home, I finally feel like I belong here. College has taught me that wherever you go the things that you learned on the 40 acres will always be a part of you.  And that wherever you go, you are always in Longhorn country. 

I guess the most important thing I learned was that your heart never really leaves college, even if you HAVE to graduate.