Muskie Moments: Undecided and Unaware

April 26, 2016 | Kristina Silva

I came to Xavier undecided and unaware. I was undecided on my major, my interests, and my career. I was also entirely unaware that these four years were going to be the best laugh/cry fest of my life.

Some people have an idea of what they want to do and what career they want to enter when they arrive at college, so they choose their major(s)/minor(s) according to their plans and interests.

I came to Xavier University with an undecided major, with no idea of what I wanted to study or do with my life. I came from an amazing all-girls school located four hours north in Cleveland. Being Catholic-educated and dressed in a uniform my entire life left me with a closet full of t-shirts, sweatpants, and athletic shorts. You could say that I was somewhat sporty with track and rowing under my belt, but I had zero fashion sense. I was afraid that people would judge me for my wardrobe and that people would not like me because I was quiet. At Xavier, clothes and popularity do not matter. What does matter is the talents, goals, and dreams you came with that led you here.

In the first two years, you are going to want to do everything, and you will.

You will join a million clubs on Club Day, make a bunch of friends, eat your weight in the Caf, scream your head off at Cintas, and see places and things you have never experienced before. You will also struggle a little bit: you will pull all-nighters, lose some friends, and some days you will cry, wishing you were home. It is not the end of the world. I shed a fair share of tears over the past four years but those nights you stay up until 3 a.m. studying, (or accidentally binge-watching Grey's Anatomy) you will find that you have friends there to support and struggle with you all along the way to graduation. You will find classes you truly enjoy and some classes you don't have the eye for and that is ok.

The best part about college is... that you can change your mind.

You can change your mind about your major with a quick trip to your advisor and the offices of the associated department. You can change your mind about anything. Nothing is final. College is the best time to figure out who you are as a person and what you want to be doing. I declared an Advertising major during the second semester of my first year along with a few other minors that I later dropped. Even though I declared my major as a freshman, it still took a while to realize that I made the right choice. I was still exploring and learning about my major and myself.

In the classroom, I came to know my professors and they came to know me. Some professors, even let you call them by their first names. The idea that college was a big and scary place filled with so many strangers began to go away. Xavier is the right amount of small to make it feel like home. You get to know a lot of people in classroom, on the field, and in passing. But Xavier is also the right amount of big to ensure that you are meeting new people your senior year.

Starting out, I was unaware that I would become a part of a family: the XU Communication Arts Family. From learning about communication and media with Dr. Mellinger, creating my first ad campaigns with Dr. Wendy Maxian, constructing surveys and exploring research methods with Dr. Thomas Wagner, becoming literate in media with Dr. Randy Patnode, learning about the depths of the internet and interning for the Communication Arts Department with Dr. Ashley Hinck and Cecilia (CC) Nonis, and pitching my first advertising campaigns to community partners with Dr. Leslie Rasmussen. This family has taught me more than I could have ever imagined about communication and life.

Looking back on all of these experiences with co-intern, fellow Advertising major and friend Cecilia Nonis, we can say that we learned a lot. We became more aware and more certain about our choices.

We learned:

1. to get to know our professors and classmates in our classes/major because they would become our support system and were with us these past few years. Start building these relationships right away. They are one of the best things about college.
2. that there is never a wrong answer in class. Professors just want to get you to think, so say what you are thinking. Do not be intimidated.
3. to work in groups. We organized group meetings with our classmates, brainstormed fantastic ideas, and pulled all-nighters for presentations. We know we'll need this group work experience in our careers after college. Take group work seriously. This won't be the last time you'll have to complete a project with other people.
4. that to do well often just meant doing my work. To excel in classes, projects, and internships, even when assignments seem tedious, all you have to do is do your work. Do the reading, do the assignments, and be open to learning. You'll be surprised at how big of a difference those three things make.
5. to articulate what our major is all about to students and family members who have never taken a communication course before. We learned how to not let other students in other majors put us down, thinking our major and our coursework is easy. Every major requires hard work, time and dedication to be successful. Return this favor for your fellow students.
6. to relax.. When you're in the middle of a busy week, take one thing at a time and know that you are ok.

All of these things has shaped us into the people we are today. Confident, experienced, and ready to take on the world. As seniors, this chapter of our lives is finally coming to a close. We are approaching the last couple weeks at our adopted home with our adopted families at Xavier University. These experiences here have taught us that it is never too late to start over and start something new. It is never too late to make new friends. It is never too late to find out who you are because you will change along the way to be exactly who are are supposed to be. We wish you all the best and hope that you find your home here.

May we meet again,

Kristina and CC