Letter to New Students
Today’s Daily Deac is a guest post by our micro-intern, Blair Myers ’23
Dear Incoming Wake First-Year Students,
Congratulations on Wake and all of your high school accomplishments! I’m sure you’re currently feeling all of the emotions that come with transitioning to college. If you’re like me when I was a new student, you’re nervous, excited, and collecting all of the advice and tips that are being offered to you. When I was heading into Wake, I asked every older person I knew for advice. One common response I heard from people was “utilize the OPCD (Office of Personal and Career Development).”
Taking their advice ever so seriously, I made an appointment at the OPCD my first week of classes. I laugh in retrospect as this reflects all of my excitement and apprehension about college and life, but I can honestly say that I’m so glad I took this advice seriously. So, I want to tell you how the OPCD staff and college to career courses have impacted my journey and offer the same advice to you as you enter Wake.
During my first year at Wake, I was plagued with indecisions as I tried to pick a major. Ultimately I decided on an English major, but I did not see a distinct career path, because I had a variety of interests. Then in my sophomore year, I was overwhelmed with the pressure to land an internship. At times I felt totally directionless, even though my parents had always told me “pick a career that you love” and “major in whatever you want.” I feel lucky that I’ve grown up hearing those words, but it was still hard to constantly hear about friends on the pre-med track or pre-business track. Many of my peers seemed to have everything planned out, even down to where they wanted to work upon graduation. I thought that they had absolute confidence in what they wanted to do with their lives. I felt lost.
During my time at home due to COVID, I questioned my career interests; as a response to those feelings, I decided to sign up for an OPCD college-to-career course. I’ve now finished two of these courses. Now that I’m a rising junior at Wake and have had the chance to reflect on these courses and the ways I have grown from them, I’ve begun to understand why older students so quickly told me to utilize the resources of the OPCD.
In the OPCD college-to-career courses, I learned that everyone has to start their career journey somewhere. I realized that when I was feeling stuck, the best thing I could do for myself was take a step in some direction. Instead of feeling stagnant, or paralyzed by decisions, I had to take some kind of action. For me, some of the steps I took were: meeting with a career coach to review my resume, creating and updating my LinkedIn page, exploring Handshake, conducting informational interviews, and asking lots of questions.
While my career journey has barely just begun, I feel as though I have left the aimlessly wandering phase and I have a sense of direction now. Yes, my direction could change at any point, but the point was that I started somewhere. I’m now exploring careers that will allow me to be involved with and surrounded by art and writing, and the process has been very satisfying. My internship this summer expands upon these interests and I don’t think I would’ve landed it without the career exploration that I did. I have grown immensely and I owe a lot of this growth to conversations with Professor Heidi Robinson about careers and life in general. She has acted as a mentor to me, giving me the confidence to start somewhere and begin to carve a path for myself.
While in many ways I am still the apprehensive first-year student that made a career appointment on the second day of school, I am also a more confident version of myself. The advice to utilize the OPCD was great advice for a reason, and I’m glad I listened to those students and took the courses that the OPCD offered. While there are certainly many more nuggets of advice for you as you enter your first year at Wake, this is just one that I hope you will listen to.
I wish you the best of luck at Wake and hope that you come to love the school as much as I do. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your summer!
Sincerely,
Blair Myers ‘23
Daily Deac micro-intern