Stop, Reflect, Plan

My life looked great on my resume, but on the inside, I was feeling hollow and empty. While working my dream internship, managing a local office of an international not-for-profit, and attending an university of a full-ride scholarship, I was feeling miserable. I felt lost, confused, purposeless, I simply felt like shit.

So I decided to withdraw from the University in order to return to Poland, my roots, the place where I was born and raised, in order to do some soul searching.

I spent a solid month in the most productive way possible. I reflected upon what makes me happy, what movies I like to watch, what TV shows draw my attention. I browsed through my library and looked through books that I like to read. I reflected back on what I like to do with my friends, what topics we like to discuss over a cup of whiskey. I reflected on my earliest memories and asked my grandparents what I was like as a small child, what were my ambitions, what I liked to do, etc…

Through much reflection, I figured out that I am passionate about Psychology and Learning about the human mind. I study marketing, and I am not sure what I want to do with it, and that is OK because I am only 22. I am unclear about the how, but I know the why. I study marketing in order to shift consumer behavior towards environmental sustainability.

I wouldn’t be able to come to this conclusion unless I took 1 step back, so that I can take 2 steps forward. I learned that sometimes you need to exit the Go Go Go mode. Sometimes you just need to stop, reflect, and plan ahead.

Mateusz Milaszewski, Poland