My Big Question is an ongoing segment exploring various topics and answering your curious questions.

It is finally the final week of the final quarter of the year, and boy has it been a wild ride. This final article is more for me and a reflection on my journey than anything else, but I hope you will appreciate my musings and find some meaning in it for yourself along the way. Enjoy 🙂

This week’s big question: Where do I go from here?

When I started planning this column and published its first edition back in October, I had no idea that I would continue to write it for the rest of the year. Not gonna lie, my fall quarter was about as rough as it gets. My roommate was constantly mad at me for nothing, my friends turned against me and, on top of that, I was sick almost all the time (turns out my immune system has a slight deficiency, but we’ll save that story for another time).

In the midst of all of this, I couldn’t help but have a lot of questions: Why am I still here at DU? What is the purpose of all of this? How am I going to handle everything that’s being thrown my way? Why is this all so hard???

I really wanted to write a column, and I had an inkling that I couldn’t be the only DU student feeling overwhelmed by all of the major questions taking over during the year. I heard about other people having roommate problems, figuring out study abroad and wanting to find ways to have fun. So, I decided to tackle one big question every single week that was either bothering me or that I thought was on the minds of students.

Now, 14 big questions later, I feel a huge sense of relief and accomplishment over what I was able to do these past three quarters. I tackled everything from housing to music to adulting to the community on campus. However, my curious mind never stops, so I sit here and ponder what will go on after the questions end.

Well, things have certainly gotten better. I have my own place, made a whole new group of friends, completed a year-long CCI project, got an internship in the Office of Undergraduate Admission, written short stories and kept my grades up. My questioning has allowed me to explore my life at the deepest level, and really turn things around for the better. A little elbow grease doesn’t hurt either–I put in the work to create a PLP Intramural Soccer Team, to complete the project and to get a summer job here on campus. 

That work allowed me to have a lot more positive experiences than if I just dwelled on the past. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t spent time thinking about all that happened and what I could do differently–it just means that I’ve moved on to bigger and better things.

Where I’m literally going from here is to Aix-en-Provence, France, in Fall 2023. I’ll spend almost four months eating bread, cheese and fruit from local markets, drinking cheap French wine and enjoying the beautiful coast and fun excursion classes that I’m taking. It sounds like paradise.

However, it doesn’t mean there won’t be challenges along the way. I’m sure my luggage will get lost or my flight will be late or it’ll be too warm or too cold for the clothes I brought or my phone won’t work or something along those lines will trip me up.

I don’t expect my return to be peachy either. I still have to find housing (I decided to start renting in January when I return from abroad instead of attempting to sublet) and get everything I need for a new apartment. I’ll have to register for classes while I’m abroad and settle back into the American routine upon my return, something known as reverse culture shock.

None of this will be easy. But I’m not doing it because it’s easy, I’m doing it to have all the experiences life has to offer, so as not to miss out on anything. The world is wide, and I’m ready to see it (or at least the European part of it, so far). I’m ready to take my next leap, despite all the hardships this year has tested me with. 

And I know that, as long as I continuously question and reflect on the things around me and those experiences, I’ll find all the answers I need and come out happily on the other side.

It’s been an honor writing for y’all, putting it out into the void, and I hope you’ll be able to answer the biggest question of them all: what answers will I find in the questions of my life?

Best,

Jackie