LYNX LIFE LIBRARY

Like many students, I started college not knowing what I wanted to do. Little did I know, the key to unlocking my passion wasn't hidden in a prescribed major, but in the unexpected detours, setbacks, and moments of revelation that shaped my transformative journey through college.

Since I didn’t know what I wanted to do, my academic advisor suggested I try Psychology. I am a first-generation college student which means my parents did not go to college/graduate from college, so it was hard to find out what I wanted to do. My parents couldn’t provide me with much help either, making the first year of college difficult. I didn’t know how much I had to apply myself to my studies, my on-campus job, and my friend group. I had no idea how financial aid worked either! I didn’t love learning at this time and was just trying to scrape by, just trying to survive. It all changed when I started studying what I loved. 

My sophomore year of college, I changed my major to Sociology after hearing my friend talk about her experience there. Later that semester, I had to leave that school due to personal and family reasons. I took a semester off and then started at a community college later that year. This changed how I saw learning. With the time off, and going into a new learning experience, I started to see that I was able to apply myself to learning, and it felt like I was meant to learn this much. Meant to love to learn. I was able to take only sociology courses due to completing most of my pre-requisites at my old college. And I thrived. Even when I was taking general, non-sociology courses, I was enjoying the act of learning. Before this transition, learning was terrifying. I never wanted to learn, I always wanted to just survive. I had never got good grades before this. This time around, I graduated with the highest GPA I ever had, and then transferred to CU Denver to earn my bachelor’s degree. 

Even though my two years as a student at CU Denver were remote due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, I loved my experience here. I was able to grow, and learned more about what worked for me as a student and what didn’t. I felt so proud when I graduated in 2022, being the first in my family to earn a college degree. I’m still proud of this accomplishment to this day.

Something that made me know that I wanted to pursue a career in higher education is an internship experience I had. I was offered an internship experience within the Career Services Office at Arapahoe Community College for credit. In this role, I was able to do new training, work with new software, and do research to see if more first-generation students work more than traditional students, and how internship/job offers varied to each different party. Talking to students, hearing what they have gone through, and learning how passionate students were to earn their degree. This was the deciding factor for me. I finally knew what I wanted to do after completing my internship at Arapahoe Community College and earning the last credit I needed to graduate with my bachelor’s degree from CU Denver. It’s something that changed my whole perspective on higher education and I knew it was something that I wanted to be part of.

So, the moral of the story is it’s okay if you don’t know what you want to do or where to start. That’s what college is for. That is what internships are for. You’re able to discover more about yourself and your needs and what your passion is through learning both inside and outside of the classroom. No one wakes up one day knowing exactly what they want to do. I went from someone who just wanted to scrape by to survive to someone who became passionate about what I do for work and what I studied. My advice is to keep moving forward, try new things, and eventually, you’ll find something that you will want to do. This is the time for you to figure out what you love and what you are passionate about. 

If you need support with writing a cover letter, resume, searching for an internship/job, or need general advice on what to do next—that is what LynxConnect is here to do. We are here as a resource to you, no matter where you are in any of these processes. You can email us at LynxConnect@ucdenver.edu, call our office at 303-315-4000, or find us on campus! We are in the courtyard outside of iPie, in the building that has the Comcast sign in front of it.