Growing up I always liked having a plan. I loved making lists and setting timelines so during the first four months of my university career I made a plan-based decision.
I told myself that during each co-op term I would use my spare time to build something. That each co-op term would have some time spent on building a plan- a plan to do something, start something, make an impact on a topic that I had not yet established. In my mind, I constructed the idea that as a student I would be too engrossed in my studies to have time to pursue something at this stage of life. I figured that I would take baby steps and build on this “plan” each term so that it would be ready for pursuit once graduation came around.“I’m too young and inexperienced, how could I pull that off?”, I’d ask myself. Silly. I was only restraining myself by the idea that I was far too young to do anything so early in my career- that maybe, just maybe, once I graduate I’d be able to make my mark on the world somehow.
I’m here to tell you that I was wrong. I’m here to centre out that little part of you that is stopping you from doing that thing you’ve been dying to do/start. Maybe you don’t know what it is just yet, maybe you’ve been thinking about it for a while- whatever the case may be, I am telling you that there is no better time than Right. Now.
Let’s take a step back, why am I saying this?
Well, for starters, if you don’t think you have time now as a student then realistically, will you have time when you’re working a full-time job, balancing family, taxes, mortgages and all those other fun adult things?
Maybe, but maybe not- the point being, today’s society feeds off of young innovation. Take advantage of all the resources available because trust me, there is a lot of support centered around student innovation.
Which leads me to provide you with one of the greatest pieces of advice I have to offer: get out into the world. Explore everything and honestly anything, go to as many workshops, conferences, meetups, etc., as you can. Find what interests you most then focus on that. You have the capability to do so much as long as you stop giving yourself reasons to put it off. Good things take time but they cannot occur until you start. Let this serve as a wake up call; now get started on that thing, whatever it may be, and prove yourself wrong.
