Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the Rose Cafe hosted by Sam Beck, a social and cultural anthropologist and Director of the New York City Urban Semester Program. This cafe focused very little on his experiences and expertise and more so on us, the audience– a very refreshing and slightly startling realization halfway through the talk.

We went around the room and each gave our major and aspirations for our futures. It was interesting how he grilled us. He pressed on and on with the question “what does that mean?”, which for a lot of us, meant I don’t know. It was so different to be continuously asked what is your specific goal for your future? What do you want to do? For me, I don’t know yet and I think that is okay. In lectures, we learn how things are suppose to be. And in my major, I think we also learn a little bit of what path we ‘should be’ heading down. I remember my first day of college the term “IB” was used constantly and that was what I thought my career aspiration was suppose to be. Now, I have developed more of an individualized goal.

Even so, I think Sam Beck makes us think of the bigger picture which is always a good thing. Sometimes we get stuck in just doing the monotony of schoolwork. He allowed me to think about different options which I am thankful for. One big point he made was to come talk to him. Send him an email. He genuinely was interested in each of us which made his advice all the more worthwhile.