Last week I had the chance to visit the campus of Anderson University to speak with a group of seniors in the English department. Deborah Miller Fox invited me to share my story because I have a degree in Creative Writing, a meandering career path, and at least so far, things seem to be turning out okay for me.
I love speaking to student groups for a few reasons. I got into the habit of having students shadow my work, speaking in classrooms, or leading student tours at various places I have worked. Initially my boss at United Way just assigned it to me. Later I realized doing so aligned with a few personal goals, namely helping others and improving my public speaking skills.
While there are endless ways to help others, earlier in my career, I found very few opportunities to practice speaking. Public speaking just doesn’t come naturally for me, and the idea of jumping in on something like Toast Masters was terrifying. I found speaking with students to be a great way to practice in a low-stress way.
Now it’s something I enjoy doing, and the value I get stretches beyond speaking practice. The energy of students is infectious, with their optimism, the possibilities and future before them. I find today’s students to be ambitious and experienced in a way I wasn’t, often having multiple internships and real world experience under their belt before collecting their diploma. Just walking around on college campuses inspires me—taking in the green spaces, the limestone, the walkways. Who doesn’t love a good field trip?
And of course, I hope to help by sharing some things I’ve learned along the way. I recall the uncertainty and panic from those last few months of college, knowing my friends were dispersing all across the nation and still not having a firm plan for myself.
Above all, what I hope to share with students when I speak with them is this: perspective and hindsight are some of our greatest teachers. Unfortunately, you don’t always have access to those lessons until much later. So I try to share some of the a-has I had as I grew from rudderless college grad to finding meaningful work.
I moved to Chicago, hoping to be a writer. Instead, I worked for seven years in a book store. At the time, I was pretty down on myself, thinking I really should have been using my degree. Later I realized that with each promotion I got at Barnes & Noble, I was learning valuable leadership and team building skills on a pretty escalated path. I got a solid corporate training on operational things like reading P&Ls, managing inventory, HR basics. If I had to guess, I conducted hundreds of interviews, and hired and trained scores of people. All of this stuff became incredibly valuable later, and opened up unexpected opportunities.
The big a-ha for me was to value where you are, and learn what you can from each experience. You really never know when a skill will be useful later on. Particularly for liberal arts students, there isn’t one neatly defined path like some other disciplines. You really have to find your own way. Trust that wherever you end up, there is something to learn, and where you are now does not have to be the final destination.
Thanks to Deborah Miller Fox for inviting me to speak. It was my first time on Anderson’s campus and it was a lovely, inspiring experience. See more photos on Facebook.