What does my future look like now?
Illustration by Marielle Taylor.
Jalyn Thomas, Contributing Writer
It took me a year and a semester to figure out what I wanted to do with my future and it’s taken President Donald Trump two months in office to convince me I should have chosen something safer.
I love free speech as much as I’m sure whoever is reading this also loves it. This whole country is built off of free speech. It’s why we’re able to say what we want without legal repercussions, though of course, the internet gives a better punishment. Free speech is ironically the backbone of our country and is something that is the most targeted.
Since the day President Trump was sworn into office, it has felt as though an executive order was being signed each day. On those days I wonder if I chose the right path. Maybe I should’ve gone a more scientific route or maybe just decided to do business like before — when I just chose a major to make others happy. Those would have been terrible for my mental health and they would’ve also been a cop-out.
Kendrick Lamar was the halftime performer for Super Bowl LIX. After the performance, you could go online and see how much hate he got for a powerful performance not many would have been able to pull off. A lot of the hate was coming from conservatives or politicians who understood the message and didn’t like how it was calling them out — or people who love Drake.
As I was scrolling through X, I was wondering: What am I supposed to do? These people claimed to not like Lamar or know who he was, even though he had won five Grammys one week prior.
What does that mean for someone like me — a third-year student studying media production and public relations?
Should I just say what would make the majority happy? I could always start a farm and never use my skill of telling a story. It’s a scary feeling when you spend all that time trying to figure out your future and in just four years it could all be for nothing.
I graduate next year. I will go out into the workforce and try to find my way in a field I am passionate about. With that, I will continue talking about things that need to be brought to attention. I will think about the topics that everyone wants brought up but nobody is in a position to talk about. I will bring myself to the position to talk about those topics, and hopefully prevent someone else from feeling like all they did to get here was for nothing.
