Coming to Northwestern, I was eager to express every facet of myself — after all, “AND is in our DNA” (or so the slogan goes). I knew I wanted to pursue STEM after doing so in high school, but I also knew I wanted to join communities that allowed me to embrace creative pursuits like music and debate. 

With these ambitions in mind, I started virtual college with much enthusiasm. Not only did I immerse myself in the sciences with the Integrated Science Program, but I quickly found a community of individuals who were just as, if not more, enthusiastic about physics and math as I was. I enrolled in philharmonia to keep up with my passion for the violin, and after partaking in Model United Nations throughout high school, I joined NU’s team. On top of that, I indulged in my passion for writing by joining The Daily Northwestern.

People tell you college is about trying something new, and here I was just trying to fill in the gaps high school left behind. It was nice to feel like I created some home away from home, but I quickly realized it’s not easy trying to do the same things in a new setting.

So freshman year was rough. I enjoyed learning about the Möbius strip in math and black holes in physics, but I constantly felt like I wasn’t taking away as much from the experience as my peers were. While my classmates spent hours working on problem sets, I was spending the night practicing the violin or preparing for a Model UN conference on deforestation. I felt like I was being pulled in so many different directions, with everything being so unrelated, only to achieve mediocrity in my work. I simply did not have enough time to delve into the history of the African Union, write another article for The Daily and understand quantum mechanics in time for the exam.

It can also feel isolating when you’re no longer included because you’re constantly busy with something else. This feeling pervaded every activity I joined. I felt like my classmates no longer asked to work on the homework with me because I hadn’t had time to read the chapter yet, and sometimes I had to skip Model UN meetings to write a Daily article on an Associated Student Government meeting. 

It’s probably not surprising, then, that not only did my academics take a toll, but so did my mental health. It’s hard not to feel overwhelmed and inadequate when you have so much to do and so little time to do it well. The worst part was that I no longer felt like what I was doing was meaningful.

While this approach worked in high school, in college I constantly felt the pressure of needing to have meaning in what I was doing and worrying about how it could impact my growth in the long run.

So I reevaluated: My ultimate passion is to care and advocate for patients through the advancement and application of science and technology. To align my lifestyle with my goal, I’ve focused my studies on neuroscience and computer science rather than on the sciences as a whole, as the Integrated Science Program allows. 

Toward the end of freshman year, I stepped down from Model UN and pursued health and science focused writing at The Daily while learning how to effectively communicate these topics to a general audience. Over the summer, I worked on research that forced me to expand upon my computer science knowledge as I tackled questions in medicine.

In my search for cohesive expression and identity, I’ve fostered friendships in all of my communities that accept and encourage my melding of interests — and that’s pretty cool.

It’s awesome to be multifaceted, and I think it’s so much more meaningful to look at my seemingly disparate interests from a different lens and to intertwine them in ways I didn’t in high school. To provide a science analogy, it’s like when the brain learns new information: You’re more likely to retain it when you create connections with previously encoded knowledge.

So truly don’t be afraid to try something outside what felt normal or comfortable to you in high school. In fact, rather than seek something out of the ordinary, I challenge you to find a connection between your interests and strive for the intersection — you might be surprised by what you find.

Angeli Mittal is a Weinberg junior. She can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.