I?m crazy, I told myself.
Crazy to come from California to Baltimore for an internship with a two-month-old newspaper.
Crazy to come to a city knowing no one; crazy to start an unpaid job at a daily newspaper after switching to a journalism major only the previous fall.
Or was I so crazy?
Taking risks was a part of daily existence way back when.
We tend to lose touch with that in a world of ever-increasing convenience.
But everyone is faced with a choice at some point.
For me, a soon-to-be college graduate, as well as for recent graduates, the choice is most often: Do I move to a new city, start a new job and try to carve out a new life, or ? should I live with my parents, update my MySpace account and put off the real world? Should I jump, or not?
Well, I jumped.
And I didn?t have a comfortable landing. The first time I was asked to cover an event I wrote about it in the first person ? a big no-no, and a laughable one now.
The life of a newsroom was foreign to me; I was constantly nervous, afraid I would only make mistakes.
Riding the bus to work for those first few weeks, I would ask myself: Why am I doing this to myself?
Why didn?t I just get a safe and easy summer job?
Why wasn?t I a lifeguard on a beach in California, where I could be near the family and friends I missed so much?
Isn?t it funny how we all ask ourselves such questions when we really do know the answers, we just don?t want to hear them.
I chose to put myself outside my comfort zone because I knew I would learn, and accepted the fact that it would be by trial and error.
When I leave Baltimore this week, I?ll miss the life I?ve found here, the friends I?ve made, and yes, even the work I?ve done.
So whether you are a college student or a parent, friend or mentor of a college student: Don?t be afraid.
Young people are more resourceful than they?ve ever been given opportunity to know.
Twenty-somethings are often encouraged to take the safe route and to stay in their comfort zones, where parents and mentors can be assured of their relative happiness.
But is that really what?s best?
Is that what will encourage America?s rising generation to bewise (they say experience is the mother of wisdom) and courageous, to put their youthful ideals to the test?
Of course not, but it?s easy to lose sight of that.
We?re programmed to think about now, about what?s good for ourselves or our own; comfort becomes the unacknowledged basis of decision.
It requires thinking about life in a different way to consider that, just maybe, being uncomfortable or unhappy for a short time will result in greater happiness, in greater understanding, and could ultimately result in a greater world.
Kristin Deasy, a Baltimore Examiner intern, is a senior at Gonzaga University, where she is pursuing a degree in journalism with minors in philosophy and music. Contact her at [email protected].
