Only two weeks are left in the semester, and it is hard not to ignore the impending final assignments and tests in favor of making plans for summer vacation. It would be so easy just to go back to my usual summer routine. I’d sleep all day and then go to work at night. If I did that, I would be able to pay rent, but my summer tuition would go to waste. In our lives, it is so easy just to fall back into our old routines, whatever they might be.

Last week I had the opportunity to help judge Web pages constructed by high school students as part of a technology fair. When I walked into the judges’ area, I found myself surrounded by people from the business world, retired teachers and people who just seemed to know a whole lot more than I did. I found myself wishing that I was in class like I normally would be, instead of completely out of my element.

As the morning went on, I saw computer projects by elementary school students that were better than anything I had ever done. I was amazed at the work I saw, and I learned a lot about myself. I found out that even though I might have been the youngest judge, it didn’t automatically mean that I didn’t know what I was doing, and I came away from the day feeling like education was definitely the right major for me. Very often it is the experiences different from my regular routine that open my eyes the most.

Many other things are the same way. It is often so much easier to follow the popular fad, or back the popular opinion. Just on this campus it is easy to see how few people actually stop to form their own opinions rather than accepting what everyone else says as being automatically correct.

In the weeks before Veishea, it seemed as if popular opinion was to abandon the whole celebration in favor of having one huge kegger on Welch Avenue. I am sure that not everyone was in favor of the second option, but many people did leave town refusing to even attempt to have a good weekend. I had a great time just exploring all of the events that were going on. I must admit that Dew the Rec and Rock Veishea weren’t the best events that I had ever been to, but I had a lot of fun just spending time with my friends.

It can be hard finding yourself on the opposing side to popular opinion, and I will be the first to admit that it is often easier just to be silent and not express your own view. Whether or not you agree with the whole September 29th Movement, you must admit that however unpopular their cause might be, they continue to fight.

Nothing new ever does come easy, and all of us must work hard to struggle through obstacles that might appear in our lives. We struggle through difficult classes, all-night cram sessions and last-minute projects to finally get that piece of paper officially pronouncing us graduates of this university.

That isn’t something that will end after graduation, either. Competing for jobs and submitting endless numbers of applications will take more time and effort than I even want to think about but will be necessary to get a “real” job.

It has been said that to follow in someone’s shadow means leaving no footprints of one’s own, and that is something that all of us need to remember. As we go out into the real world, even if it is just for the summer, we don’t want miss out on opportunities because we are afraid to take chances.

The moments when we know that we were in the right place at the right time are often the ones that wouldn’t have happened if we weren’t willing to step outside our normal routines.

More often than not, there is a lot of truth in the saying that you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the things that you did, even if it means stepping out on your own.

Robert Frost wrote, “I took the road less traveled by, and that had made all the difference.” When I look back on my college career and my life someday, I want to be able to know that I didn’t always follow popular opinion, but that I was strong enough to know what was right for me.

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Laura Luiken is a sophomore in English from Webster City.