Four years ago I was an eager student getting ready to embark on the journey of a lifetime. Little did I know that my college experience would not only meet my expectations of learning and gaining a degree, but my experience would go above and beyond my wildest dreams. The University of Oklahoma has been a place where I have been able to be whatever I wanted to be. From my Greek life experience to Campus Activities Council, each organization has shaped me into a better person and I know that I will be able to walk across the stage in May and go out into the world to be a successful member in society.

It is important to remember though that I did not always have this perspective on life. I came from a decent sized town in Southwest Oklahoma and graduated with a class of 275. In high school I was always the most involved, most likely to succeed, and most driven in my class. College was a rude awakening though, because I found myself surrounded by every other student who did the exact same things as I did. No longer was I the same Amanda from high school, and it was time to start over. This is what most students go through, but I started focusing on ways to stack my resume, instead of filling my bucket with things I am passionate about and love. The problem with this is that one begins to not truly be the person that he or she is meant to be. When one only wears clothes to impress others, signs up for organizations to have titles, and only wants to be the best simply to just trump others, then ultimately it catches up and he or she can no longer take it. I got tired of doing things for the wrong reasons, and to be honest, it is really hard trying to be something you are not.

So midway through my sophomore year I said, “enough is enough.” I started doing what I loved, and I found that the rise to success comes from passion, not from simply making oneself busy. Do not get me wrong, I definitely found myself busy, but I was enjoying every minute of it because I was passionate about each and every organization. I wish I had known a lot sooner this little secret to life, because maybe I would not have wasted time trying to just be the best, instead of being MY best. This might be a lesson we all have to learn on our own, but the sooner that someone realizes that passion equals success, we will have a lot more successful people in this world.

Amanda Easton
Public Relations Major, Political Science Minor
Class of 2013