West-phalling in love with my time at Westphal | The Triangle

West-phalling in love with my time at Westphal

Photograph courtesy of Drexel University
Photograph courtesy of Drexel University

If there’s one thing that Drexel University did right for me, it’s that it helped me decide on my future.

It was difficult planning out my education, my life and my career, but having to declare my major before I even stepped into the door put some things into perspective.

I had to understand that what I chose would be a big decision, so I knew it had to do something I loved. I had no idea that choosing to study Film & Video at Drexel would be one of the best decisions I ever made.

Freshman year has certainly been an interesting year. We’ve all done many things, met many people, had new experiences, tried something entirely new at least once.

The finish line is almost upon us, and as I look back at this year behind me, I can see things more clearly. I can understand now what things are important to me. I know how to make better decisions that have a positive impact on myself and my future. I know how to plan things better.

Something that I realized is that we students don’t understand the power that we possess. We have the future in the palm of our hands. We have the ability to craft, to morph, to create a whole new world on top of the one we stand on.

It means something different for everyone. We all have different visions for how we want to change things.

Change is an interesting idea. I feel like change can only come out of an individual who is broad-minded, creative and free-thinking. It takes new ideas, seeing things from a different perspective and observing what’s already around you to change things.

Everyone has a dream. Dreams come in all different shapes and sizes. Some are grand, some are miniature, but all have some sort of effect on the world. The funniest thing about dreams is that they materialize from nothing.

Some people can say ideas that are planned and thought-out with some type of tangibility, but an idea is essentially nothing. It doesn’t exist, it doesn’t have matter. All dreams start out from a simple idea to do or to be something more.

Many people may not know what happens within the curriculum of within the majors in the Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, but it’s truly something special. It’s different, but it’s so valuable once you know how to use what you’ve learned.

It’s different for many majors. There are people who learn about cells and DNA. They learn about the genetic information that is the coding for all life. There are people who learn about financing, portfolio building and stratagem. There are people that understand advanced mathematics and plan schematics for all sorts of structures.

Then, there are people like us whose sole responsibility is to gear their mind for content creation, content of any facet. There’s an onslaught of skills we have to learn to do what we do best.

We take art classes that are rigorous and most of us can’t draw. We take design classes and most of us couldn’t visualize a cube if it hit us across the forehead. We take computer classes with editing, coding and formulas and it’s almost impossible to learn all keystrokes.

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me what in the world was I doing on a project I’d probably have about $200. Even I didn’t truly understand what I was doing, but little did I know I was learning the skills for the future.

The classes we take are difficult. They involve a certain expertise that has to be mastered. It involves studying of the basics to know what you’re doing. There is a foundation laid down that we have to overcome in order to be just good enough.

Many people can get by being good enough and people will appreciate that effort alone. For some of us however, we will never settle for just being good enough, we have to be better than the best just to be recognized.

The fact of the matter is that we are striving to be more.

Yes, people learn to be successful doctors, successful business women and men and successful engineers, but we are given a task for a future that isn’t laid out for us.

We are the creators of tomorrow. With all the skills we learn throughout our undergraduate years it prepares us to produce ideas that are truly worthwhile.

We are the people that will make tomorrow’s latest fashion trend. We are the people that will design the advertisement for your business. We are the people who will create the next one hit wonder song. We are the people who will make tomorrow’s biggest blockbuster, tomorrow’s big video game and the new dance craze. We are the people responsible for the new development around 30th Street Station, creating an entirely new urban innovation.

With just the simple ideas of today. We can create something beautiful for tomorrow.

It’s time for all of us to claim our future. We are going to create something great on top of the rubble.

When I was younger I had a dream that I would create movies one day, and show the world the powerful use of storytelling. That day becomes closer and closer with every passing year.

Everyone has a dream to create these big things. These ideas that we have are going to be built from the ground up, here, with the tools that we are given.

Drexel University is helping us pave the way to make our ideas a reality, something tangible that everyone can witness.

We are all in the right place to do what we love.