Over this past week, I experienced a huge wakeup call—a wakeup call that I needed. I started to think that I was going through college with blinders on. I always felt that I was pretty much guaranteed a job once I graduated. I always thought in my head that I was the best, and that I would get a job once I graduate college. Well, this past week I had a huge wakeup call.

I decided to go to my college's business career fair. I had my eye set on one company I wanted to talk to. Not knowing what to expect, I walked in thinking I would be prepared and ready to talk to the people I needed to discuss a potential internship. I signed in, registered my name, and started my trip going from table to table looking for the one company I had an eye on. Once I found the table I needed to go to, I was relieved, yet scared again only because everyone and their brother were at the same table I was.

My confidence started to get smaller and smaller as I started to question if I was good enough for the internship. As I looked around at everyone else in line with me, I started to realize that nobody is guaranteed a job after college. You have to fight for everything you want in life. If you want a position or a job, and think you are the best, you need to fight for it. You have to be the one to stand out and make the best impression compared to all the other individuals aspiring to achieve their goals. As I was standing there in line waiting for my short time frame to impress the representatives, I could almost feel the sweat drip down my back while imagining all the possible things that could go wrong. Then I started to realize that I was psyching myself out. I took a deep breath and tried my hardest to be me. In the end, I was successful in securing a second interview that next day for being me.

What I learned throughout this whole experience is that real life is a dog-eat-dog world. There are so many other people fighting for the same career you want. Life can be scary, and you are not promised anything. You have to be unique and fight for what you want and try to stand out the most, no matter if it's for an internship or a potential job.