Senior Column: Living without planning

Almost exactly a year ago, I was sitting at my sorority's last meeting of the year. Feeling bored and wanting to leave, I almost snuck out early, but sheer laziness made me stay. At this particular meeting the seniors were saying their goodbyes and one of them said something I will never forget.

"If you have every detail of your life planned on paper and are following it to the letter, take that piece of paper and throw it away."

I immediately snapped out of my trance and started to pay attention. This particular senior was extremely happy, had already found a great job, and was planning her wedding for the next year. I thought how odd it was for her to say that when it seemed her life was planned exactly to the letter. But she had never expected any of those things by the end of her senior year.

Graduating a year early has made me plan each and every detail of my education. It has also made me rush through everything as well. I've rushed through classes, activities, friends and semesters. There was no room to drop a class, change my major three times or add a second minor. I haven't had much time to learn from my mistakes or even to take a breath and know to make the right decisions. I rushed through and neglected many different activities.

The experience made me lose sight of why I was here in the first place. I realized I needed to focus on the things that made me happy, and luckily I've had it all along. One thing has remained part of this Duke experience of mine ever since the beginning, and that is Chronicle sports.

Writing for the sports section has been a great source of joy these past three years. I started out at The Chronicle because I planned my life around being able to write sports professionally. No matter how much work I put off and left until the end of the weekend, when I sat in the bleachers of the tennis stadium to watch a four-hour long match on Sunday afternoon, I never failed to think "Wow, it's good to be here." When I sat even closer than the front row in Cameron during several women's and men's games, I felt honored. That feeling of watching a team achieve perfection--either your home team or not--is something I think only a true sports lover can appreciate. That feeling quelled any doubts of sticking with The Chronicle and only affirmed why I was there.

With the excitement of covering games also came great personal experiences. I'll never forget how two years in a row a fellow writer and I got lost at the Entertainment Sports Arena in Raleigh late at night after a basketball game. Both times resulted in very early morning stories and somewhat frustrated editors.

When I was a freshman, fellow freshman writers and I all had the same question for each other whenever we were on the quad: "Are you covering anything this week?" Now when I walk in the office, I hear one on the phone with University officials and the other was elected sports editor three months ago. Our conversations are no longer, "Are you covering anything this week?" Yes, we all went our separate ways and grew up as well as apart.