As college students, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. All four years are stressful with exams, scholarship applications, finding an internship, and deciding a major all with being involved around campus! Often times all of these thoughts are running through our minds at the exact same time. It can be hard not to get overwhelmed with it all. Even with those things happening throughout my college career, I’ve been amazed how everything happens for a reason.

My Closed Door

I was transferring to a new school for the fall semester, but I wasn’t able to schedule my classes until June. My time to sign up for classes was months after my fellow junior classmates had already signed up for theirs. In June, I sat down with my advisor and picked out five classes that I was excited to get into. Unfortunately, I was met with an error message telling me that most of the classes were already full. My advisor and I worked for what seemed like the entire afternoon before we found a group of classes that fit together and had empty seats. This was one of those stressful moments. I was transferring schools, which is scary enough, but I was also faced with classes that I felt uneasy with. Some of them seemed a little difficult for my first semester at a Big Ten institution and some didn’t even seem interesting to me. But again, everything happens for a reason.

My Open Window

On the first day of class, I walked into Principles of Commodity Marketing. It was one of the classes added late, but I was actually intrigued by the professor’s outline. As time went on, I became excited about the subject material and even applied for several internships with a commodity marketing focus. This summer, I will be interning with a leading agricultural company and working alongside their commodity marketing experts. Six months ago, this company and career was not on my radar. I never would have pursued their internship if I had not taken Principles of Commodity Marketing. I would not have taken that class if the first group of classes that I selected were not full. Before the class began, I felt like I was settling for the class. As the semester went on, this class caused me to dream of a new career objective.

In the moment, it’s difficult to see the reasons why things are happening. But, trust me, everything happens for a reason…to provide us with the opportunities we truly need to experience. When one door closes a window will open, so it is best to stay optimistic in those times when stress may try to swallow you. College is hard, but you come out tougher than before with experiences to last a lifetime!