Welcome Change

I was miserable as a computer science major. I hated school, failed classes and I couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. So after my second semester of academic probation, with the threat of more serious penalties looming, I decided a drastic change was in order.

I changed my major to journalism and media studies on a whim, deciding that what I really wanted to do was write TV reviews. I developed an intense passion for journalism, excelled in my classes — partially thanks to the incredible tutelage of one of my teachers, Bruce Reynolds — and now I'll be graduating with honors.

I had serious trouble making friends on campus. No one in my dorm seemed to go out of their way to hang out, and I was perfectly content sitting in my room watching cartoons and writing. Moving back with my parents was nice, but it certainly didn't help the friend situation. I felt a void; I wanted to have a group of friends on campus.

So I joined Inside Beat and got very active with The Daily Targum's delightful little entertainment insert. There I found my niche — a group that I could really call my own, made up of friendly people with plenty of shared interests.

Finally, I spent four loveless, unhappy years at Rutgers, scowling at every cuddling couple I saw, until I flipped an internal switch and changed my attitude on romance. Almost immediately, I fell in love — and have been exceedingly happy ever since. Just like that.

So how does any of this apply to you?

Well, if you're a college student, know that what you see in the movies about university life is completely false. Friends won't magically appear in front of you, and unlike in high school, you won't spend enough time around anyone to make them friends-by-default. Go out of your way to be friendly; join a group that sounds really cool, or get an on-campus job.

More importantly, don't try to complete a major you don't love. Going to college isn't about getting a degree in something you hate so you can get a job doing that same awful thing. If you take a class to fill a requirement and love it, take another. Give it a try. There's nothing wrong with going to school for five years or taking summer classes.

If you aren't a college student, my advice is this: embrace drastic change until you're happy. I never want there to be a day where I'm not proud and excited to tell people what I do for a living. I want to be genuinely, deeply in love. I want to be happy with every aspect of my life. If you aren't, don't settle. Make yourself happy.

I know it's a tough job market out there, especially for print journalism-lovers like me. But I know I'll get a good job, because I'm prepared to make changes. If I can't be a newspaper writer, that's fine — I love magazines and the Internet, too. If I can't be a reporter, I love editing. I love photography and video and drawing cartoons and chimpanzees and coaching rec soccer, too. And I'd embrace the chance to do any of these for a living.

Of course, if I found I was unhappy with my new career in one of the aforementioned fields, I'd stop, because life's too short to be unhappy. So try to love what you do — but if you can't, quit and go do what you love.