3 Ways to Explore Your Interests Outside of Class
When we think about our future, our purpose, our happiness, we should be thinking about our interests, our strengths and our values. When people ask us what interests us, we often lean towards the courses we excel in or the extra curricular activities we did in High School. Or maybe we have a canned response about liking to be outdoors or watch movies. These are all great ways to engage in your interests but if you’re looking for more specifics, more nuance and new ideas, here are three ways to do a little more digging into self-discovery:
Randomly attend an event at your school. If your in session or have a local college or university near by, check out their student life event calendar. Attend a club meeting, go to a lecture or presentation, peruse an art show or check out an intramural sports team game. If it feels to scary to do it alone, bring a friend for support. But be prepared to chat with people and engage with the topic. After you do this, celebrate putting yourself in a new place - it’s hard to do! Ask yourself to name three things you learned and three questions you still have. Rinse and repeat to discover all of the cool things happening around you all of the time!
Get to know your library. Libraries are truly hidden gems for those that don’t know their programming. First, you have librarians, themselves, the ultimate resource in connection to self-discovery. Want to know more about history of activism in your city or whether any ultimate frisbee teams exist, your librarian is a trained researcher and can help you find new ideas quickly and accurately. Further, libraries curate programming from gardening to investing to world travel. Many libraries have spaces with equipment to try out like 3D printers or power tools. And best of all, most programming is extremely low cost or completely free!
Get comfortable with the informal informational interview. The informational interview in a traditional way to explore a major or career by talking, in depth, with someone within that career or major. Questions could address career satisfaction, pitfalls or things they wish they knew when they started. It’s an excellent way to find alignment to personal values while exploring a career. The INFORMAL method is a way to get this type of information any time you meet a new person. While we don’t want to interrogate your new lab partner or bus seat mate, it is good to always be prepared with some questions about what they like, what they study and how they got to that point. This is not only a great skill to learn about some new ideas or hobbies, it’s also a great way to hone your interpersonal skills and make friends!
While it’s important to assess your interest level in your coursework, there are also myriad of ways people are engaging in fun and rewarding ideas outside of school. Take time to explore these to get to know yourself a little better and meet some great people in the meantime.
