My Goals For College

At this time last year, college application season, I had absolutely no idea what kind of college I was looking for, let alone exactly where I wanted to go. I was overwhelmed, confused, and hoping that the answer to “where are you going to college?” might come to me in a dream. As lost as I was, there were three specific things I was looking for in a school: study abroad programs, opportunities for service and volunteering, and a Spanish major. Those three things, now that I’m attending a college that offers all three, are some of my goals for the next four years. During my time at Hope I want to study abroad, volunteer, and become fluent in Spanish. However, I have more, broader goals for my time here. Once I have graduated from college, I hope I can say that I’m happy with how I spent my time here. I want to be able to look back at the previous years and feel a sense of accomplishment, excitement, and peace. I want to experience a lot of new things and make a lot of new friends. I want to
I’m afraid that I will somehow “waste” my education. It costs a lot of money, and I want to get my money’s worth. I know that it is up to me, and sometimes I worry that I won’t be able to do it. Because I recognize that I have to make the most out of my education, I try to work hard to succeed in my classes, get involved outside of academics, and have a social life. I feel like if I don’t do all of these things I will have wasted my time at college, the supposed best years of my life. Another, perhaps more rational fear I have about my education is the fear of failure. There are certain subjects I have never been particularly successful in, mainly math and science, and I’m afraid that I will have a hard time taking these courses at a college level. I worry that I won’t be able to keep up in college level courses of subjects I have never been especially talented at and have very little interest