Opportunities are everywhere

By Gena Anderson | ganderson@flagler.edu

The sky is falling. Not literally, but sometimes it feels like it.

The best part about being a college student is the abundance of opportunities that surround those of us attending institutions of higher learning. Things have a tendency to fall in our laps and we just have to make sure to grab them.

Internships are everywhere. Who better to hire than a student? After all we will work for little-to-nothing and are constantly competing with each other to stand out. Plus, where there is one of us there are hundreds of us.

We are lucky. Our faculty is usually really good about spreading the word about any possible opportunities they hear about. They want us to succeed. When we look good, they look good.

But what is more exciting, at least to me, is what we can do for ourselves. It isn’t so hard to make your music video if you can check out a camera from the communication building for the weekend, now is it?

Or say you want to do freelance graphic design work and can’t afford Adobe Suites? Looks like you’re screwed right? Try again. Find a Mac in the library, any Mac, and the programs are all there and available for your use.

Obviously if you are sitting on your butt doing absolutely nothing, you’ll probably get absolutely nothing, but in that case it is kind of your fault. Get involved with something, anything, and stuff can find you.

There are dozens of organizations on campus that are all constantly doing something. Not a club person? Join a professional society, even if they don’t have a campus chapter. The resources those kinds of organizations have are limitless and are something you can carry with once you leave Flagler.

Remember there is life after Flagler. If there weren’t, why on Earth would we be paying so much money to be here? College is a stepping stone. A time and place where you can explore your interests and build your portfolio. Use it as such.

Just this school year alone, I was contacted by an author who wanted my help for her research, I was asked to help a friend with her layout internship and now I am finally seeking out opportunities on my own.

For one of my classes we had to make a CD insert booklet. I chose to do mine on a song called “Carolina Born” by an artist named Righchus out of South Carolina. I loved the song and was really excited, so whenever I tried to get the lyrics and Google failed me, I started looking into how to contact the artist.

Well, that’s when Google failed me again. It’s not everyday that Google fails to deliver what I need so I was kind of shocked. After sometime went by, I was able to find the number of someone who might know the number of the artist I wanted to contact.

Kahlil Smith answered the phone and I gave my little speech about who I was and what I was doing and what I needed and he informed me that he was Righchus’ manager. Sometimes life really is that easy.

From there we talked for a few minutes and he was really excited to see what I was going to come up with. He thought the project was cool and seemed just as excited as I was. The second after I hung up the phone I pulled a girl stunt and danced around my living room in sheer delight. Don’t laugh.

During my research on Righchus I out he made his music video in college with a little help from his friends, a lot of favors, and some pretty impressive motivation. Best part? The whole video cost him $42.

You have the world in your hands right now and your only real obstacle is actually finding the motivation to make your movie, get your novel published, save the whales, land that dream job or whatever else you want to do.

People literally hand us things because we are college students. People want to help you. They typically aren’t threatened by you. They know you aren’t taking their job for another couple of decades anyway and by then they will have moved on.

Moral of the story? Do more. You aren’t doing enough. That’s probably harsh to hear, but we could all be doing more. If you don’t do it, whatever your it happens to be, someone else will. Or worse, no one will and your great idea will be wasted.

I’m not saying turn into a little productive robot and stray away from everything fun. Just use your time wisely. You can change the world and become successful all while still getting to see your friends and destroy some people on Call of Duty. So long as Call of Duty isn’t you’re first priority you should be fine.

Sleep when you have a job. Now is not the time to be wasting time. That’s what retirement is for.