Illustration by MK Brittain
By Dylan Hart
When I first came to college, I knew exactly what I wanted to do and had no idea how to do it.
I saw some crazy documentaries in high school. Journalists from VICE would sneak into North Korea, do ride-alongs with drug lords and interview insurgents in the middle of a gunfight. It was adventurous and captivating, undoubtedly. It also let me dive further into video, which had interested me in high school.
But more than all of that, it made a difference. It seemed to me like something worth doing.
Now, I know how to do it. Maybe I haven’t quite gone to the realm of extreme journalism, but I feel seasoned enough with a pen and paper and I’ve written enough news stories to say I’m ready for it.
There’s just one problem: I don’t know what I want to do anymore.
The journalism program has seriously honed my skills as a writer, but not as a videographer. And I’ve gained ties and stability through my time here that I didn’t have before — friends, colleagues and interests that push me toward the thought that maybe I don’t want to move to the small Nevada town from Tremors and report on Uncle Joe’s chicken farm so that someday I can talk to Kim Jong Un’s successor in person.
Moreover, I’m not sure if hard-nosed, “shoe leather” reporting — as the illustrious Rob Hooker would always call it — is in my future or not. It’s still something I can do, but I can’t say whether or not being a frontline journalism soldier is for me.
I’ve also grown my other passions. My minor in history has taught me a tremendous amount about the world that I never would have considered otherwise. I’ve picked up a newfound interest in the heroic stories of sports, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of concocting music with my friends.
College is absolutely a place where you can grow and learn. It holds its reputation as an incubator for change for a good reason. But there is no reason we should stop growing as people once we’ve tossed our mortarboards in the air.
Sure, it doesn’t help that this might be the worst time to graduate in world history, and we’re probably all tired of being told that we need to push ourselves harder right now.
But if there’s anything I appreciate about humans, it’s the ability to adapt and overcome.
I don’t know where I’ll be in a few months. It could be a research position, it could be delivering pizza, it could be reporting on what the COVID-19 crisis is like in Myanmar. I really don’t know. I just hope that wherever I end up, it makes me a better person.
