After going to college, branching out of my comfort zone, and interacting with people with drastically different backgrounds and socializations than I, I have realized that it is very rare for a person to know exactly what they want to do, and the steps they need to take in order to get there. Yet, here I am, having known my life's path since the third grade. I can even look back to incidents in Kindergarten that foretold what my calling would be.

Writing is my passion and I have known that I want to work as a writer since a very young age. This knowledge about my dreams and wants at such an early age eventually paved the way for me planning my college experience, and becoming an aspiring journalist, as a ten-year-old. Since I initially set my sights on my goal, I have taken steps to accomplishing my task.

I started writing a blog, wrote a daily journal, and always went to my teachers for revision notes on my middle school creative writing assignments. I also researched and planned out the best journalism schools that I planned to attend in my future. I changed my first choice school on an annual basis for close to a decade, based on which journalism school was rated the highest in the Princeton Review each year. I realize this is not exactly normal, and some might declare my earnest desire to chase my goals at this level, a version of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and yet I just call it work ethic.

However, now as a 20-year-old, I am way passed the planning process, and well into the resume building stage. However, that includes working at publications, writing for others to rather than just writing for my own personal needs, and above all working with others who have different thinking and writing styles. This has been an unexpected lesson that I have had to learn along my journey to success. Working with others is not usually my strong suit because of the amount of intensity I put into things. I despise group projects and eventually end up doing them all myself because if I don't, it will never be up to the highest possible quality. Granted, the project would have probably been fine if I chose to not do it all myself, but it would have been more rushed, and thrown together last minute, and I would have had a minor heart attack in the process.

This brings me to my rant on work ethic. I realize that I am a tad intense in everything I do. I go all in 110 percent, every time, and I expect those I work with to do the same. Realizing that the entire world works differently, and has different strengths is very difficult however it is crucial to learn to work with people whose work ethic is different than your own because that is what it is like in the common workplace. Sometimes I just have to give in and accept that the occasional all-nighter might occur because of a group project was thrown together the night before it is due or accepting that not everyone cares enough about an assignment to adhere to the deadline. Everyone has different priorities, it is about learning to adjust personal priorities, and the work you need to do in order to accomplish them, while meshing them with the goals of those you need to work with. It is safe to say, it is quite the learning process and my OCD is not a big fan of it.