What I’m about to do is paint you a super cheesy “image”. Ready? Go.  

Imagine yourself in a pitch-black box. You’re surrounded by 4 walls and darkness, except for the small hole that’s drilled into the top of this box. Through that hole, you see the brightest ray of sunshine; it’s something that you aren’t familiar with. Imagine reaching out to touch the sunlight with your fingertips. At first, this sunlight burns your supple skin just a little; you’ve never felt this before. But then, it seeps into your palms through your fingers and gives you heat.

Now imagine that hole getting bigger and bigger as you crave touching that sunlight even more. Can you feel it? The excitement of experiencing something you’ve never experienced before? The rush? The newness of something different? As the hole gets bigger, you suddenly realize that you’re looking at the bigger picture here. You see a few skyscrapers, or a few mountains; a waterpark or even a forest. You see what you’ve always wanted to see.  

 

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The question then is: Why? Why the process? Why did you have to feel the sunlight a little, get burnt, and then crave it to see something you’ve always wanted to? The answer is: delving into uncharted territory. And that’s what college is about.  

 

I’m not some expert on how things work in college. I’m only a freshman who’s been in college for a month. But I do know one thing: stepping outside your comfort zone and trying something new is the key to growing. That’s just the rule of thumb in life and not just college. Maybe you go out there and try eating insects for a meal or go bungee jumping (cliché) or scuba-diving (even more cliché.) But the point is, you go out there and do something you’re afraid of because I promise you, it’s going to teach you something your comfort zone won’t.  

 

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I know this entire concept is so monotonous. I’ve heard it from everyone, including my uncle, my mother’s uncle, to my mother’s uncle’s uncle. It’s so over-used, I know. I also know that you know this, but I can’t stress enough on how important it is to genuinely try new things. In the rut and routine of life, we tend to forget to take risks. We get used to our routine, we like things in place. Why? Because in our routine, we receive a certain degree of predictability and safety; that’s not something you get from trying something new every day. 

 

In fact, science supports this fact. The more we indulge in a routine, our brain and physiological elements get used to our activities. For instance, assume that every day after work at 8 pm, you go to the gym for an hour. This activity is a habit that is a part of your routine. Every day that you exercise, your body releases serotonin, endorphins and dopamine. Consequentially, the nerve cells in your body expect to receive these neurotransmitters/ hormones in that particular time frame. If you leave this routine, then your body needs to adapt to the lack of hormones being produced; this requires more energy, thereby inducing more discomfort. Essentially, the science of our body craves routine, and now that you are aware of this, you can better understand how and why we tend to create and stick to routines alone.  

 

But beat this Science. Break your routine.  

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Looking beyond your routine will give you the opportunity to truly reach your potential. You learn more about yourself, you fight your fears, and you gain more perspective. In fact, straying into uncharted territory could even make you question your own beliefs, and help you grow more. And with age, you will truly gain the wisdom you’re stereotypically meant to gain.  


At the end of the day, though, I know that it’s easier said than done. Personally, I had a really hard time stepping out of my comfort zone in high school when it came to sports. From a young age, I’ve always been an artistic person. Dance, music, art, writing. These are things I can do. But football, baseball, tennis, soccer. Nope. In the last 2 years of high school, PE had become a part of my school’s grading system. This meant that I had to participate. For the first 2 weeks, I found creative ways to skip class. But at the end, I decided that I would participant, and just get it over with. So I tried. I played volleyball and badminton; soccer and basketball. And to be honest, I wasn’t bad. This experience ended with me actually loving volleyball, and joining a volleyball club back home. It was pretty great. 

So I get it. Believe me, I do. It’s hard to do something new. But, humans are creatures of habit. Our fear of the unknown stops us from taking risks that we should be taking. Personally, I really do like my routine. But coming to Penn State, leaving my home in India, is the biggest risk I’ve taken and I can’t wait to see what it teaches me. I’m not promising you that taking a risk and stepping out of your comfort zone will automatically have a favourable consequence. Correlation doesn’t equal causation. But, it will teach you something new, it will push you to explore yourself more, and at the end of the day, you will appreciate all the risks you took.