Spring semester has officially begun. First-Years have gotten their feet wet and are looking forward to redemption after fall semester. The sophomores are getting quite comfortable even though declaring a major is on their mind. Our juniors are knee-deep in their major, as they put their heads down and hope for the best. Seniors are finishing up the grind, looking to the future, and reflecting back on an unforgettable four years. For most Gusties, right now is the perfect time to ask one important question: are you happy?

For a good chunk of us, the answer to this question is a big fat YES. For some, the answer is NO. For the vast majority of us, the answer is I THINK SO.

Happiness for a college student can mean many things: good grades, having fun, participating in sports, great friends, you name it. But the largest contribution to your happiness level is what you put most of your time into. In other words, your major, how you perceive your major, your reasons for being in school, and the way you go about making accomplishments are all contributing factors affecting your happiness.

Achieving happiness, in theory, is really quite simple. If you are yourself and do what you want to do, happiness should be the result. However, in reality the pursuit of happiness is much more complicated. Why? Because in order to be yourself, you have to know yourself. Knowing yourself means having gone through enough life experiences that you have a pretty good idea of who you are. Most of us, though, have only begun developing that sense of awareness. Once you know who you are, you know what you desire. Once you know what you desire, you more or less know what path to take.

The problem I see a lot is too much obsessing on figuring out exactly which career path to take. We obsess over what job we want to have and about what we would be good at. We ask ourselves what do I want to do with my life? In doing so, we forget what’s most important. We get so caught up in being our future job or being our major that we forget to be ourselves. We try to take a step forward without realizing we are actually taking two steps back. So my advice to you is to take a step back. Assess yourself. For those of you to whom it applies, how can you decide what to do with your life if you don’t even know who you want to be? In other words, how can you know which direction in life to take if you don’t even know who you are yet?

Perhaps money is the reason we focus so much on a job we don’t even have yet. Society has drilled in us this idea that we need a well-paying job so that we can make a lot of money. We strive to make a lot of money so that we live a comfortable and happy life. Yet we all know money cannot buy happiness.  In fact, nothing can buy happiness. It is something we have to go out and earn.

It’s safe to say college is about finding yourself. This involves discovering your unique gifts. These gifts are what makes you you. Your talents are what you have to offer the world. It’s your job to first figure out what your gifts and passions are, then, you need to figure out what to do with what you’ve been given. The best way you can do all of this is to listen to your heart. Listen to your gut and to all of those faint whispers you’ve chose to ignore throughout your life. By shifting your attention and energy to developing you, it will be easier to listen to these.

Recently, I decided to listen to my own heart. And as a result, I switched majors. I will be focusing on becoming the person I want to be in my remaining time as a Gustie, rather than focusing on being trained in my future job. I have a fairly good idea of where my heart will take me but by no means do I know for sure. None of us know for certain what we’ll be doing years from now. What I am certain of however, is that by following my heart, any career path I end up in will be the one that makes you happy. The same should go for you.

The best service you can do for others is to be of service to yourself. Focus on being you rather than being your future job or your major. We all have a heart that wants to be heard. So take step towards being happy and listen to it.