As my semester comes to a close, I have been reflecting back on how the last couple of months have gone. They had some severe ups and downs, including less and character-building. One of the ups was my changed perspective on how I should maneuver through this life I have so graciously been given.

Someone who influenced a lot of these changed perspectives, is one of my professors here at the University of Arizona, Suzanne Dovi. It is not often that I am drawn to the idea of sitting through a lecture class. I don't typically go beyond the textbook knowledge I will be required to know for the next test.

On the first day of class, I took a seat in the middle-back section of the lecture hall. I sat there assuming it would just be another class, one I was required to take and would breeze through by studying hard and making sure to make an appearance. However, this was immediately different. At the end of the first class, Professor Dovi said something I will never forget, “You have no excuse to not make your life extraordinary, it is on you.”

I haven't stopped contemplating what she said to us and I do not believe anything else has resonated with me more in my young adult life. It was strange to me. I noticed it more than the rest of what she said because it was slightly odd for a college professors to say. Her words were not the usual lingo you commonly hear while sitting in a typical college course--especially one about politics.

Too often I find myself sitting in classes that make me feel as if I am wasting away my life. Where I constantly find myself drifting off into space. I daydream of the world I could be experiencing outside, and for once an adult was telling me to force myself to live those daydreams. It truly inspired me.

Over the semester my plans have changed. I no longer want the same things, and I never let opportunities slip out from underneath me if I can prevent it. If I am invited to do something or a new opportunity presents itself, I take it. The plans I had so long set for myself began to alter in a fraction of the time I possessed them. The whole concept brought me to the acceptance of not needing to know everything, while also showing me the one thing I do want. I do not want to waste any more time, doing the wrong things, with the wrong people, carrying the weight of the wrong dreams.

One of my favorite quotes says, “You can have goals, but write them in pencil.” Things will and always continue to change. Let the change be for the better. We do not know how much time we have, and once it is gone we cannot get it back. I have Suzanne Dovi to thank for this newfound knowledge.

It is not always a waste to sit through the lecture that’s so easily skippable.