By: Rohaan Shanmugarasa
When you are given a choice in life, there are many paths you can take. I don’t think it’s ever easy to choose which way you would like to go. Also, I didn’t mean to start this off with a cheesy line, but this one is super relevant!
Being an indecisive person, choosing my next step in terms of education was one of the most stressful choices I encountered. I’m sure you can all relate as each path will completely change the outlook of your life. I was committed to York University up until the week before courses started. I soon realized that university wasn’t the path I wanted to take. So, I dropped it and applied to Sheridan’s Marketing Program. It was one of the best decisions I could’ve made.
Going to Sheridan pushed me out of my comfort zone. I’m an overthinker, like many of you might also be Here is a shortlist of things I’d overthink:
How I was going to introduce myself in the class icebreaker
Whether or not my interaction with someone was super awkward
Whether specific people liked me (as a person, not romantically)
How I was going to reply to my crush (this could take over an hour sometimes)
Overthinking held me back in a lot of ways as I’d always think of the worst-case scenarios of my next step. Overthinking and indecisiveness don’t help anyone. Luckily for me, I got hired at the SSU. Honestly, I exaggerated when I told my interviewer that I could easily approach random students and start up a conversation (insert emoji with smile and sweat). However, the person I was describing was someone I wanted to be. Having to talk to random students every day helped me realize that I didn’t need to overthink my interaction and could just be natural.
But I’ll be honest, it wasn’t like that at first. My first few interactions were extremely brutal. They may have been incredibly harsh in my head, but it was enough to demotivate me. These were the moments I regretted at the time. I would think, “why am I doing this?” I remember one time where I tried to talk to a student, and they completely ignored me. Hey, I get it, you never know what someone is going through. You learn not to take those interactions personally. Eventually, I started to love talking to different people every day.
Looking back, I wonder to myself if I would be the person I am today if I decided to go to another school. Would the person I am today have been the person I was always going to be if things were different? Or was it dependent on the path I took? I’m still am an overthinker, but now I’m more comfortable with it while pushing my boundaries. The key for me was to make the best of my decision while making sure I didn’t end up regretting it. My advice to you is to choose that path and don’t look back!
In a time of incredible change, we are all experiencing this monumental shift together. With a global pandemic, the transition into online schooling and so much more, members of the Sheridan community have become chameleons to welcoming change into their daily routines.
But not every situation starts and ends so easily. There are hardships, challenges and struggles that we experience to come out successfully on the other side. In this blog series, students, Sheridan Alumni, and members of our Sheridan community will share their stories of resilience and how they were able to overcome these obstacles.
We are proud to call this series #SherYourStory.
If you wish to be a part of it, you can submit your stories either publicly or anonymously here.
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“I was just another international student coming to Canada from Punjab with huge dreams and little experience. It hasn’t been all fun and games coming from my hometown, but you know what they say, “Difficult roads lead to beautiful destinations.” Indeed, it became true.”