First Things First: What I Did (Or Didn't Do) When I Joined HonorSociety.org

When I first joined HonorSociety.org, I honestly didn’t know what to do. I knew I had access to exclusive scholarships, job opportunities, and classes, but being a senior at UCLA well on his way to graduation, I couldn’t help but feel these services weren’t as vital as they would have been in my, say, freshman or sophomore year. At the moment, however, I was preoccupied with graduation and my last few classes, so HonorSociety.org fell to the wayside as I attempted to chart a course for myself outside of college. After I walked, the very last thing I wanted to think about was school, and thus HonorSociety.org remained on the wayside.

I had been out of UCLA and enrolled at a community college for a few months when, seemingly out of nowhere, I was contacted by this little organization that I had joined during my last year at UCLA and had completely forgotten about in the subsequent excitement. Apparently, HonorSociety.org was looking for interns to write for their website’s blog, and encouraged anybody who was interested to apply. Having taken up reading and writing as hobbies since I graduated, I decided to give it a shot and applied. I remember the nervous feeling that crept over me as I filled out the application. “How many other people are applying?” I asked myself. “And how good are they at writing?” I worried. My fears proved to be unfounded however, for I was admitted to the program. My nervousness turned to excitement, partially because I was one of the few selected in what was most likely a highly competitive process, and partially because I had a platform from which I could express myself and have others provide feedback on what I had to say.

Naturally, I had to introduce myself to my readers, so my first post was just that: an introduction to me written by me. As I wrote it, I hoped that readers, aside from the obvious goal of getting to know me, would find me a helpful source of advice and information about college life and work. I will be the first to tell you that my first two years at UCLA were anything but easy: in fact, that might very well have been the most difficult time of my life. So it is with this mindset that I approach much of my writing for HonorSociety.org. I write to inform others with my news pieces and engage them with my book reviews, yes, but with my education pieces, I aim to not only advise college students but to encourage them as well. This sentiment is what gave me the courage to open up about the unconventional nature of my own academic career right from the very beginning of my time writing for HonorSociety.org. After all, how many people go from UCLA to community college? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Perhaps it should for many people, but if you can do it another way, why not?