Finding ways to use my skills to help others

This past week, I have been learning a lot, and I’m not talking about my classes. What I have found is really nice about working as a reporter for the Minnesota Daily is that I get to meet, talk to, and learn a lot about a variety of different people on campus. 

For example, I have recently been talking to members of the University’s Solar Vehicle Project team. I had been acquainted with one of them back during freshman year of college, so it was fun to get to talk to him again and listen to him explain about their race and their mission, something he and the rest of the team is passionate about. 

The team was just in Australia for six weeks, racing the World Solar Challenge, where they placed second, an incredible accomplishment. When I talked to some team members, they were  in the middle of a much needed vacation in New Zealand–and I’m jealous. 

But it was amazing being able to listen to these team members, who are only students, talk about why they race and build solar cars. I’m glad to be able to tell their story and help them using my set of skills. 

I have also been having conversations with students and faculty about internships and how colleges prepare students for careers after college. Recently, I had a conversation with the director of student engagement and career development for the University’s business school, Carlson. She, too, was very passionate about her job and helping students in any way she could. It was inspiring listening to her explain to me the different required classes students take in order to help them design their career and life. 

She also assured me there are similar resources for other colleges as well, even though we students often overlook them. I guess I should probably look into that at some point. Hopefully someday I can be in a job where I am as passionate and excited as the director was. 

But I already talked about that in a previous column, so I will move on. My friend texted me this morning saying he was looking for people to go to the Noah Kahan concert with him in June. I enjoy his music, so I asked how much the tickets were: $160. Now, I have been to only one concert so I don’t know what the proper price range is for concert tickets, but it made me hesitate. Why spend that much money to hear music that I can listen to on good speakers comfortably in my bed? I understand the appeal of live music, I do, but I know I can have just as much fun by not going. Maybe people only go only to be able to say they’ve seen that person live or heard that music live. I don’t know. My friends are always looking at concert tickets. Between the rapper Lil Uzi Vert, singer Joji, and now Noah Kahan, I’m realizing concert tickets can be expensive. Maybe I only see it that way because I’m not a huge concert person. Who knows? I told him I preferred not going, so we’ll see if he actually finds someone to go along. 

My Determination: “I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.” ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird