Written by Delaney Harrington

To everyone who just completed a 60-hour degree plan: I feel you. Take a deep breath. It’s over.

I recently added a second major of Applied French. Never in a million years would I have guessed that’s what my future held in store for me. I took French simply because of the three-semester foreign language requirement for English majors. In hindsight, I can very clearly see God’s hand in the process.

Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t have it all figured out. Seeing the next two years of my life planned out on paper was reassuring, but it also felt limiting and uncomfortably set in stone. Someone recently referred to me as a “passionate person” — a characteristic I have never considered myself to be but am now realizing is quite true. Before deciding on adding Applied French as a second major, I tiptoed around the thought of adding it as a minor — theological studies as well. As much as I wanted to say “yes,” I had to determine the best course of action. I can’t stay in college studying every field that interests me, but oh, how I wish I could.

This raises an important question: “How do we as college students rectify our passions that don’t neatly apply to majors, minors and class schedules when so much of our current life is based around them?” I don’t know if I have a satisfactory answer, but I do know this: life isn’t a resume.

When I was a senior in high school, I dual-enrolled in a general psychology class at Harding. I asked my professor for life advice when it came time to graduate. He warned about the temptation to fill our schedules and leave no room for spontaneous activities. Keep this in mind during registration season. Internships, intersession classes and job interviews might be the only things worthy of space in your mind right now. And God will work through those experiences, but don’t feel stifled if, right now, you want to explore something Harding doesn’t offer a class for.

I can’t mention registration without sharing appreciation to all the advisors on campus. Thank you for bearing with us through our quarter-life crises as our college careers come to a close much faster than we would like. A big “thank you” to my wonderful advisor who put up with my ever-changing mind about what I wanted. You offered wisdom at a time when I most needed it. And we both made it out alive after spending two hours and fifteen minutes navigating the uAchieve software.