“Dad, I want to be a journalist when I grow up. I want to write stories and interview people.”

I was in eighth grade, and I was in the phase of deciding my career. I loved writing. I wanted to make a career out of this. Writing has always helped me get out my emotions. Whenever I am sad, happy, angry or upset and frustrated, I write. I write furiously, I write to get all the emotions out of my system, I write so that one day when I read those pages I will remember exactly how I felt and what I was thinking at that time.

I was eager to grow up and be a journalist. I wanted to interview people and write about them. Little did I know it was not just a dream, it was a passion. However, as I grew up, I became practical and thought about my career as something that needs to be stable and that helps me get a fat paycheck at the end of each month. I forgot about my dream to be a journalist.

I stepped into USC as a transfer student with a major in Computer Science. After a year, I soon learned that Computer Science was not my cup of tea.

Writing was my passion and will always be my passion. I switched to Communication, and that’s when I understood the saying “Passion is the key to success.” Without passion, everything seems like a task.

After I changed my career path, there was no looking back. I enjoyed my studies and was eager to become a journalist. I truly believe that with passion, hard work and determination one can accomplish his goals and make his dreams come true.

Everything seems clearer to me now that I am old enough to understand what I want to do with my life. My life has changed again. Sometimes I wonder why things change so much; why can’t it just stay the same? But of course I know the answer very well. If life were to remain stagnant we would have never learned anything, never valued life and never valued ourselves.

Four years of my undergraduate life have whirled past me, leaving me with memories to cherish and giving me confidence to enter the real world. I remember my first day at USC. I was a nervous wreck since I was in a different country amidst new people. I look back on that day, and I realize that these four years have been so valuable to me. I have grown up, learned to deal with changes in life and more importantly learned to make my dreams come true.

Now that these four years of my life are coming to an end, I have these mixed emotions building up within me. I don’t want to graduate. Well, the reason is obvious: I am leaving the comforting and secure shell only to move to a scary, exposed and open world. However I do want to graduate, I want to explore this world, I want to work, be independent and more importantly pursue my career and earn money!

Graduation will be one of the most memorable days of my life. I will be stepping into the real world, which is a scary thought. But graduating from college and becoming an independent, working-adult sounds exciting.

Everyone has dreams. I do, too. But the difference between everyone else and me is that my dreams come true, always. Dreams are like wings, once you have a dream you have the power to fly, fly till you reach your destination.

Each day I wake up eagerly to fulfill my dreams. I dream, and I write. These are my two passions. Anybody can dream, but only a few have the ability to make their dreams come true. I am one of them. I want to work and then earn my Master’s Degree. This is my dream.

Congratulations, Class of 2011!