I came to Geneseo thinking I knew what I wanted and what I was going to experience. I knew nothing. My first semesters were marred by terrible diets, struggles to maintain a realistic sleep schedule and the cold realization that my friends from home weren’t going to be joining me in class. I stubbornly held on to high school and wouldn’t let go.
The only thing I did know those first few semesters is that I wanted to go into marketing. I have always been a creative and business-minded person, so marketing just made sense for me. Having complete confidence in my business administration major helped to ease some of the uncertainty and change that freshman year forced upon me.
By junior year, I was entirely comfortable with every aspect of being a college student. With my social and academic roles down pat, I wanted to get more involved. I made one of the most important decisions in my college career and joined the business team for The Lamron. I also accepted a position as a marketing intern on campus. These two positions, while somewhat different, each served as crucial roles in my development process, both personally and professionally.
I entered my marketing position entirely sure that it would reinforce my desire to make marketing my eventual career. Having held that same job for almost two years now, I can confidently say that that is no longer true. Will I end up in marketing? There’s a strong possibility. Is it far-and-away my dream career? Not anymore, and that is perfectly fine.
In holding that position and getting more involved with The Lamron, I discovered that a piece of the marketing puzzle, graphic design, is where my heart truly lies. I have always been interested in art and the concept of graphic design, but never intended to pursue it until I became more involved on campus. My largest regret of my college experience, bar none, is not getting involved sooner.
And that brings us to senior year. I am not ready to define this year, nor am I ready to admit that it is far enough along to try to define. As I write this, I have no idea what I’ll be doing in six months. There is an immeasurable amount of uncertainty in my future, but that is not Geneseo’s fault. It is through the tools that Geneseo provided that I learned what I truly want.
I often wonder if I made the right choice by coming to Geneseo. I wonder if every college experience is essentially the same, with only the minor details and characters changing. I may never know that answer, but I am ready to retire that inquiry. Geneseo was everything I needed and more, once I let it be. My experiences at Geneseo allowed me to realize what I hope to one day do professionally and what kind of man I wish to become.