Ouachita Stories

I was sitting in my 10 a.m. class on the last Monday of regular classes, and I was struck that this was my last week of school. It’s a pretty surreal time because I was thinking that everything I’ve done these past four years at Ouachita – really the past 21 years of my life – has been leading to one day: May 12, 2018. (Well, maybe. As my dad would say, “the first goal is to graduate college, but the real goal is employment,” but I digress.) Anyway, as I was sitting in class, I was thinking of a few things I would love to go back and say to 18-year-old Katie Smith.

Never say never

This is pretty cliché, I know, but it’s true. When I first came to Ouachita, I was majoring in mass communications and business. I chose mass comm because I was on yearbook staff in high school. I chose business because it works well with mass comm and my brother had majored in accounting at Ouachita. I was incredibly excited about mass comm, and I was honestly pretty indifferent about business. But I knew one thing for sure: I was never going to be an accounting major.

So, yeah, freshman me, just go ahead and major in accounting; you’re going to change anyway at the end of your sophomore year. There are other times during my college career that this advice is applicable, too, like “I will never take an 8 a.m. class” (looking at you, business law). You never really know what you’re going to enjoy, so have an open mind.

College has a way of rooting out what our interests are, and it also has a way of making things just change. Maybe this is changing your major or finding a new way to serve others or taking up crochet as a hobby. No matter how it comes, change happens. Be ready, accept it and enjoy it.

Adventure is out there

At the risk of sounding like Ellie from Up, adventure is out there. Sometimes, you just have to put off responsibilities and go chase it. Don’t go crazy or anything, but that day when you walk through Francie thinking about homework and you get invited to a random pumpkin patch, just go. It’s a lot of fun, you’ll make a lot of friends and they have a petting zoo with ducks. This may be a small adventure, but you have to start somewhere.

Sometimes you have to start small to get comfortable with small adventures before you go on a big one. And, spoiler, you’ll get to go on maybe the biggest adventure of your life. You’ll be sitting in intermediate accounting one day junior year, and Dr. Files will end class with a vague, “Hey, go to chapel today to learn about a cool opportunity.” Well, that opportunity may be a month-long trip to Southeast Asia.

Yeah, you heard me. A trip to the other side of the world. Even though this will be your first overseas flight (way to go on picking one of the longest ones you can take for the first), and it’s really far from home, you know you can say yes to this one because of all the practice you had the first two years of college. The food will be spicy, the humidity will be out of this world, the coffee will be good and the culture will be interesting. You’re not prepared in the slightest, but trust me. Go. You won’t regret this one, and you won’t regret any of the others either.

Calm down, it’s really not the end of the world

Looking back, this is a lesson I really wish I had internalized sooner. Eighteen-year-old Katie thinks she’s pretty chill, but then something happens. You’re going to encounter your first week of back-to-back tests during Tiger Tunes your freshman year. You’re going to be sleep deprived, and then you’re going to look down in your planner and see three tests. This definitely is not the worst thing to happen to anyone in college, but to you, it’s going to be earth-shattering.

You’re going to spend the weekend freaked out, forget the “adventure is out there” lesson and plan to stay in and study. Don’t get me wrong – study. This is actually something you’re supposed to do in college. But don’t just sit in your dorm stressing out. Calm down, talk with your parents and actually study. You might honestly spend like three hours total studying for those tests and think, “This weekend freak out might have been a slight overreaction.”

I hate to break it to you, but you’ll have these moments a lot – like a few times a semester. Your parents, friends and mentors are going to help keep you grounded. And many things you can easily fix with a change of attitude. The good news is, you actually do start to internalize this lesson your senior year. Sure, it’s stressful and wild, but you hit a point where you say, “No matter what happens, no matter how stressful things get, I’m going to enjoy my last year in college.”

Another spoiler: you get a good job, you’re going to have a fun roommate to live with in Little Rock and you’re still going to be close to a lot of good friends even after college.

It’s been pretty amazing to sit and think about all of the things I’ve been able to do here at Ouachita and what all of those things have taught me. I’ve had so many great experiences here from all of the amazing friends, traveling the world, directing a Tiger Tunes show and learning about what I’m passionate about. Even though I can’t go back and tell my freshman self all of these lessons, I hope I can pass them on to others.

 

By Katie Smith, a 2018 mass communications and accounting Ouachita grad from Shreveport, La.