By Dara Carr

As I am traveling through my junior year, I have come to realize two things:

1. Life is too short to do be doing something you can’t see yourself doing in the future or for the rest of your life.
2. You can’t go through life half-assing everything.

I had the first as I was registering for classes for Spring of 2019. I was currently in the Sports Media Certificate program, however the upcoming classes that I needed to take did not coincide with my extracurriculars nor with my will to continue the sports track since that was not my passion.

I talked to one of the Grady advisors and she gave me the best advice ever. It helped me understand that the main reason why I wanted to do Sports Media, was to expand my journalistic horizons.

“You do not go into something to expand, you have to love what you are expanding into also,” she said.

She was right. Why was I going into sports anyway if it was not what I really wanted to do?

I learned the second thing while being a contributor for the student-ran newspaper, “The Red & Black”. I had been writing for the Red & Black since my sophomore year and sophomore year was great. I was eager and had time to devote myself to this newspaper. More importantly, I loved my editors. However, this past semester and when I returned to campus, the editors changed and I did not like the new rules.

I decided to not return as a contributor this semester. I saw myself slacking from my journalistic duties and the drive and eagerness I once had for this organization was now gone.

These two decisions I made last semester were the best decisions I could have made in my college career, professionally.

I would also say it was a great call since this semester just began and I am already booked like crazy, and I can’t wait for Spring Break.

In the midst of prioritizing my time, I did find something else that has made me happy and that is being a part of the Digital Media Team at WUOG. It is in my line of journalism that I would like to do and it is very flexible.

But in all, I hope you all have certain realizations early in your life like I have experienced and do what makes you happy.

Do not think of it as starting something and quitting halfway through. Think of it like this, it would be worse to continue to pursue something  that your heart is not truly into rather than devote your time elsewhere. It will only be harder for you succeed in that area and truly love what you do.