Throughout my teenage years, I was consistently fed a ubiquitous narrative that college would be the “best years of my life”. Yet, upon the end of the first semester of my freshman year at UC Santa Barbara and nothing but anxious “have I made a grave mistake” thoughts swirling in my head, this promised narrative was taunting me. 

In the midst of this young, existential crisis, I felt I had two choices in front of me: decide that I indeed had made a grave error and wallow in my own self-pity or… decide to do something about it.

I chose door number two. Before throwing in the towel, I was determined to exhaust all my resources. So, I did something wildly unusual for my character: I decided to get involved in school activities. 

Throughout my high school years, my family experienced some monumental mental health challenges. Therefore, “school spirit” and extracurricular activities weren’t necessarily on my radar. However, when nothing is working to change your present circumstance, one tends to become more open-minded to options previously dismissed. 

It was in this headspace that one day, walking across campus, I stumbled into an A-frame sign that read: “Mental health peeps? Come check out this job opportunity!” A week later, sitting atop a squishy pillow on the floor of the Counseling & Psychological Services, I knew I had found the prize on the other side of door number two.

Getting involved on campus by finding a job that aligned with my interests led me to my most cherished college memories, a sense of purpose on a campus that I didn’t totally align with, and some of my longest lasting friendships to date. My personal experience finding meaning and happiness in college is serendipitously reflected in Dr. Martin Seligman’s, former president of the American Psychological Association, positive psychology theory to finding intrinsic motivation and higher wellbeing. He called it the PERMA Model.