Happenstance Moments

This past week I began my spring semester classroom rotation of administering, scoring, and interpreting results of the Self Directed Search for students in the freshman experience course at my community college. As career counselors my colleagues and I utilize this assessment to guide students into exploring potential careers based off of their interests which they may not have thought of for themselves. The workshop is broken into two parts wherein the first portion is where the counselor administers the assessment and the second part is all about explaining and interpreting the results and the six theme (e.g. RIASEC) code based on John Holland’s theory. It was within the second part of this workshop that I relayed my story to the students of how I ended up working as a coordinator of judicial affairs at the school.

I began by explaining to the students that most individuals seldom end up where they thought they would when it comes to their careers. I urged them to never turn down any opportunity that came their way as it could lead to something rewarding. Certainly, one should never pass up an opportunity which falls into his or her lap as those happenstance moments rarely occur. That is exactly what happened for me and why and how I ended up working in the area of judicial affairs.

When I began my internship last January as a career and transfer counselor I worked only under the umbrella of counselor. However, a few months into that position my supervisor asked me if I would be willing to work with a fellow colleague within the office of judicial affairs as he desperately needed help. After thinking over this for about five minutes I instantaneously jumped on the opportunity. Needless to say I have never looked back. I have never once regretted my decision for I have learned so much about myself and what I truly want to do with my masters. Certainly, this opportunity led me to the current job I have within the college.

Undoubtedly, my work as the coordinator of judicial affairs led me down a career path I never thought I would take. However, just one opportunity which fell at my feet was all it took to make me realize how much I love guiding students through the judicial process. Within this role I am able to help students with their careers as they transition back into their academic lives post judicial process and counsel them on a personal level based on the incident reports our office receives. But if anyone had told me I would be doing this a year ago I probably would have laughed.

As I retold this story to my students I realized that sometimes the greatest career opportunities come to us in the smallest and seemingly trivial ways. Many a times we do not realize what type of opportunity is being offered to us until we immerse ourselves in that new role and take it on wholeheartedly. As a soon to be new student affairs professional I urged my students to never let anything pass them by even if the opportunity seems like something they would never do because, as I learned, we never truly know what we love or who we are until we take on a new challenge or role.

Originally posted on The Student Affairs Collective: https://studentaffairscollective.org/happenstance-moments/