I Came Into Freshman Year With A Checklist...

This article comes from my time writing for the Odyssey. It was originally published on April 9th, 2018.

I came into freshman year with a checklist, but I left with a world of unexpected experiences.

Embrace the unknown, because it's where you'll find the best people, places, and experiences.

I cannot believe this year is already almost over for me. In a little less than three weeks, I will be entirely done with my Freshman year of college.

Just thinking about that makes my brain explode. My first year of college is over. I spent a year here. One whole quarter of the best four years of my life is already over. What? I'm getting serious whiplash right now. I can't fathom where the time went for me.

When I moved in, I arrived with a backpack full of advice and things I needed to do from those who had come before me, namely my brother and our family friends. Everyone had something to say about where I should go and what I should do and what I should look out for. I was told that I was, without a doubt, joining IASA, the Indian American Student Association, where I would dance on stage. I knew that I wanted to join a writing club, like the Michigan Daily. I was told that I would love Mojo's chocolate chip cookies and that I would kill to go to South Quad for dinner. I had all these ideas of how to handle drinking situations, common bathroom spaces, the freshman 15, etc. etc. etc.

And I did. I did all of those things. I danced in the IASA show, I tried to join the Michigan Daily, I eat a Mojo cookie every day without fail, I make special plans to go to South Quad whenever I have extra time. And I used all of my skills for how to navigate through the natural freshman experiences.

Part of the All-Female Fusion dance team at the 2017 IASA show

And then there were things that didn't happen, and that I'm quite bitter about. For one, I was told that I'd find love here in Ann Arbor, named one of the best cities to be single in. Um, excuse me, World? WHERE IS MINE? I was told that I would have so much more time to workout and to explore the city and to do new things. For the most part, yeah I've had the time to do this, but at the very large expense of my sleep. And if we know Riya, we know she doesn't do well without sleep.

But there was also a bucket-load of shit that no one prepared me for. Like damn, a little heads up would have been nice, World. But I suppose that's the best way to learn–to be thrown into situations that push you over the edge without you knowing what's happening and coming out of it surprised to find a few more life lessons in your backpack.

Some of the best things that happened to me this year were entirely by chance. I just happened to stop one day in the Diag and talk to Jackie Katz about TEDxUofM. I didn't even normally take that route through the Diag, but on a whim, I did that day. And that's how I found my way onto a team of the best people I have met on this campus, doing work with a level of excitement and passion I didn't know I had in me.

I just happened to meet a friend of a friend during welcome week and connect with this random girl that I seemingly had nothing in common with, and I found my best friend in the entire world, who possibly knows more about me than even I do. I just happened to be lost on the 4th floor of Blau Hall when I found my favorite study spot on campus. I just happened to take a class in Communications because nothing else would fit into my schedule and I found my love of marketing and advertising. I just happened to, I just happened to, I just happened to.

My first TEDxUofM conference - Black Box, 2018

The best lessons I've learned while here, no one prepared me for. No one told me to go after those lessons. Yes, I've had some great experiences with the things that I had pre-set-out to do. But the best experiences, the best and most important lessons, the highest moments of my college life thus far, have come from the absolutely unexpected. They have come from keeping my arms wide open and catching whatever comes my way. They have come from always answering, "Absolutely, I do," when an opportunity comes your way that you don't a reason not to take.

For the next three years of my life–no, for the rest of my life–I hope that I keep saying yes to more things. I hope that I keep this zest for life, strive for more and more, and try new things and new ideas. Clearly, life will pass us by if we blink for too long, so we had better run out there and embrace the unexpected.