I t’s easy to make a direct correlation between cause and effect. Before and after. Beginning and end. Muscles are torn and are then repared. It’s the middle portion, the path we take to get where we’re coming from, to where we’re going that can be the source of confusion. How do I know I’m on the right path? Am I making any progress? These are the question that plague us on our journey from point A to point B.

College is a breeding ground for these questions and the confusion that follows. With the pressure of our imminent future as well as an overwhelming amount of possibilities, many college students find themselves disoriented on the path that they once saw as crystal clear. The major they originally wanted no longer captures their curiosity, the person they thought they were is lost in a sea of thousands of other students. While I, myself, have yet to discover all of the answers to these difficult questions, I have discovered that progress, whether it be academic or personal, is not as obvious a path that we would like it to be. Progress can more often than not be tracked by failures (note: it’s plural for a reason.) Failures and mistakes, whether we like it or not, are often the markers that we end up using to track our progress. Unless you are the utter definition of perfection, you will fail but you will also have the opportunity to grow from your mistakes. Learn to track yourself and to be resilient and you will have at least one skill that will help you through the next four tumultuous years of your life.