November 2017

Paving My Own Path by: Armind Chahal

For as long as I can remember, when someone talked to me about college, they always said something along the lines of college being the time that I will be able to take classes on topics that I am passionate about and that this would be the time that I “find” myself. When I came to Michigan last fall, I thought that these next four years of my life would be filled with classes that I enjoy and unlike high school, I wouldn’t be stuck on the same, boring path that so many others were stuck on. I quickly learned that this wasn’t the case.
My schedule consisted of mostly math, science, and programming classes and left one spot open for a “fun” class. With a major like Computer Science, this is how the next four years of my life looked; a bunch of hard classes that take up the bulk of my time leaving very little time for me to find other passions. Although I am passionate about technology, I knew that that was not the only thing that I wanted to do. I wanted to take other classes and learn about so many other important topics. After all, that’s what college is for.
My second semester of freshman year, on a whim, I took a class called History 325: Islam in South Asia. What I learned is that I am deeply passionate about South Asian history; I found myself actually doing the assigned readings and enjoying them. Thanks to this class, I attended the Pakistan Gender and Sexuality Conference here on campus and learned about social issues surrounding the South Asian community. I realized that I wanted to help change things in the part of the world where my ancestry is the strongest because if I’m not using my education and privilege to help others, what good am I really doing in the world?
I found myself at this crossroad trying to decide between two majors. Did I want to be an engineer and create innovative technology or did I want to study history and help others? I spent so much time going back and forth between the two before realizing that I shouldn’t have to choose. I am capable of doing more than one thing with my life and there is no way that I am going to let the major that I choose at such an early point in my life determine what I do for the rest of it.
So, here I am. A Computer Science and Asian Studies dual-degree student trying to step out of the box and pave my own path in order to create a unique career that caters to my passions.