The Challenge

How to balance your artsy side with your college major?

By Gabriel Matias Castilho

Starting college is a challenge in itself. You convince yourself you like this specific set of classes enough to live your entire life reading, writing, and performing things related to that field. You are forced to put aside your real passions to give way to more academically acceptable skills and thoughts. All you have left of what constitutes you and your dream is what people deem as a “hobby.” But sometimes your hobby can tell more about who you are and what you love than whatever you do in college.

My biggest challenge in college is keeping my dream alive. In the morning, I am known by my friends as a journalist (even though I am actually unemployed), but at night, I do what I am most passionate about: electronic music. I have been a “bedroom” music producer since I was 13 and just recently have started DJing for my friends at parties. I wish I had more time to spend on creating uplifting melodies, making new friends, collaborating, and DJing in clubs, but I have to write, write, and write. If I want to maintain my grades, I would fare better by putting a halt to music production, but somehow I am still compelled to create enough content to update social media about my music project. So how do I do it?

That is the challenge. You have to find out what makes you want to stay up all night. You have to feel like the time you spent doing it was worth it instead of a “waste of time.” You have to “feel” it, instead of “work” on it. I believe that what you trade your sleeping hours for is what defines who you are the best. This is how, nine years ago, I found the best definition of myself. Have you found yours?