In Defense of Indecision
Written for the Duke Students blog.
Last semester, I learned about openness, one of the big personality factors that refers to an openness to variety and new experiences. If you knew me during my first year at Duke, it wouldn’t come as a surprise to you that I’m very high in this trait. I joined more clubs than I could count and took classes in everything from Cultural Anthropology and Calculus to Ethics and Gender Studies. The advice that’s so commonly shared with first-years — ”Take this time to explore things you’ve never done or studied before” — is something I took a little too seriously.
As much fun as I had in these classes and clubs, I later spent a lot of time regretting all this exploration. While my friends finished their majors early and registered for fun senior year classes, I had to fight to make all my classes fit into my schedule. I couldn’t help but think that I would be more accomplished or have more free time if I had known what I was doing from my first day on Duke’s campus.
Looking back now, I don’t have those regrets. I needed that time to explore, to take advantage of the many different resources across Duke’s curriculum and student body. And one way or another, everything has made sense…
There’s no one “right” way to go to Duke. Without trying all these things (and realizing that some of them weren’t for me), I would have missed the chance to create my own path here. I would have missed out on so much of what makes Duke the place it is, and more importantly, on the Duke experiences that helped shape who I am now.
