This Is A Really Good Job

You might not know this, but Admissions Blog Writer isn’t a job I asked for, exactly.

When I was an incoming freshman at Carleton, I received a link to a work-related form before the beginning of the year. In retrospect, I really should have done more research in this regard, because I remember being surprise-reminded by the fact that it’s pretty standard for students here to work (a) campus job(s)!

Anyway, that form asked a few basic interest and experience-related questions, before giving a long list of potential campus positions and having us mark the ones that sound interesting. I think I checked something about writing and/or the admissions office, because I love writing, and I’m fascinated by college admissions.

However, I had no idea that would mean I’d end up writing for this blog, which, over time, has become one of the biggest honors and most rewarding opportunities I’ve taken advantage of at school.

Time in college tends to fly. Though I’m now firmly in the second half of my life as a college student, I’m still honestly in wow-gee-whiz-this-college-thing-is-such-an-exciting-brand-new-chapter-of-my-life! mode, mentally speaking. I can, have, and probably will write more about the (mild) existential terror embedded in the passage of this time for me, but today I want to take a more grounded and positive approach.

In a phase of my life that’s truly proven a preciously quick blur in the best way possible, I’m deeply grateful to have been afforded the opportunity to write about my life in this memorable, transitional, formative stage each and every week, and to get paid for doing so!

It’s all too easy for me to notice this time slipping by so quickly and get sad about how I feel like I’m not soaking up every minute of it to the fullest extent that I could. Often, when I feel my thoughts veering into that territory, I remind myself what my blog means to me. I’ve of course derived loads of value from the ways it’s helped me help prospective students that I’ve gotten to know through email, text, and visits (and even a student who ended up coming here and becoming one of my best friends!), but it really does hold value for me, personally, as well.

As I’ve dutifully performed my Job For Carleton every week, I’ve slowly built a chapter-by-chapter time capsule of what will end up being the entirety of my college experience. That’s an incredibly significant thing for me.

Looking at past experiences, especially valuable ones that went too fast, it’s easy for the big picture to look like a blur, where only general feelings and overall trends can be perceived. With this lil blog of mine, I have a personal, specific log of my thoughts, week by week, where I can excavate the recesses of my memory for details lost and lessons learned when I need that specificity to remind myself that I really did make use of my time here (ack, am still making use of my time here), all while tracking my development as a writer. I don’t know what else I can do with this besides thank the people involved with my being placed in such a position.

What I’d recommend to any (potentially?) incoming students is:

a) recognize that this campus job system at Carleton really is great and

b) if you’re coming here, really take the time to seriously consider your possible avenues.

You’ll end up committing a lot of time and energy to your job(s) at Carleton over the four years you spend here, and it may surprise you how significant a part of your overall experience that aspect of your life proves to be.

There are multiple approaches you can take: maybe you want to request jobs that will specifically complement your likely course(s) of study.

Maybe you want something totally different: a job that will keep you engaged with a different interest that you’d otherwise not spend much time with in your academic life here.

Or maybe this blog post sounds neat to you, and you, too, think it’d be really cool to have a job that essentially reinforces the profoundly beneficial habit of mind that is consistent journaling. Think about it!

Lucas is distancing through his junior year, bringing with him a passion for all things nerdy and a talent for overthinking and awkwardness (and self-deprecation). He hails from Pasadena, California, and hopes everyone is okay back there. Lucas sees himself majoring in Physics, while hoping to explore Cinema and Media Studies, Chemistry, Economics, Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, and pretty much every other department at Carleton as well. Meet the other bloggers!