"Have Courage"

Darian Dempsey
Jan 22, 2018
4 min read

Everyday I remember the incredible time I had when I was in college..... granted it was only a few weeks ago that I graduated. Sports every weekend, tailgates, parties, and so much more. No matter what time of the day, or what day of the week, it was normal for someone to beg you to go out with them..... and you would always say yes.

That was me; I was the girl who always got her work done right away so I never had to miss a good time. I was the girl who found a friend to join her every night. I was also the girl who made it to class (almost) every morning no matter what occurred the night before - college really taught me how to budget my time!

I still like to think of myself in that way, but it’s a little more difficult when you become a real adult. By real adult I mean waking up at 8 a.m. in order to get to work on time, not taking breaks to watch your favorite episodes on Netflix, or taking a nap at 3 p.m. when you want to catch up on sleep from a late night out. To me, being a real adult means being so tired at the end of the day that all you want to do is lock yourself in a dark room and sleep forever.

When I first started college I was so scared. I was scared the campus was too big and that there were too many people. I was scared I wouldn’t make any friends and that my grades would have no hope...

I persevered and found that I was incredibly wrong. College is a time to take advantage of all the amazing things that happen on a huge campus. It is also a place to be exposed to a fantastic and diverse group of over 40,000 students. When they say college is the best four years of your life, they aren’t kidding.

Those four unforgettable years flew by. All of a sudden I was ordering my cap and gown and planning days to meet my best friends for graduation pictures. In the blink of an eye, I had completed my degree and graduated from college. I was done. It was time for the next chapter in my life.

Again, I was scared. The scramble to find a job was even more horrifying than my fears when I started college. What am I going to do for the rest of my life? How am I going to support myself? Will I be able to succeed?

When Lisa Salters, a reporter at ESPN, spoke at my graduation, she told us that she had these same fears. She ensured me and the many other students listening to her that it was okay to not have a job lined up and that it was okay to be scared. A few weeks before graduating from Penn State, Lisa received a job driving the Wienermobile for Oscar Mayer Wiener. She let us know that her mother was not too thrilled about it; actually her mother was horrified. Lisa said she was going to take that job; she was going to make it work.

Eventually things began to fall into place for her, as they are now doing for me. Just before starting the job driving a truck shaped like a hotdog, she was offered a Production Assistant position with WBALTV, a Baltimore TV station. She was ecstatic and her mother no longer had to worry about what her friends would think of Lisa driving the Weinermobile! She took the PA job and began the next chapter in her life.

After a year or so and a little more experience, Lisa was offered a job as a sideline reporter for Monday Night Football and again, she was scared. She was scared she wouldn't do well and that she would not be able to prove herself. When she was preparing for her new position at a football camp, Peyton Manning approached her and told her to trust that the hard work she had put in would pay off. He told her that you must have courage to be great. What he said stuck with her, and finally she was ready for her new job.

Fear is something we face all of the time and something we all have to overcome. Instead of being afraid, we must be inspired. We can achieve anything we put our minds to.

I graduated from the Penn State Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications with a focus in Public Relations and Advertising. I currently work for an incredible Event Marketing company in Royal Oak, MI. and am very happy to have been able to begin my career here. From here, there is only up. I have learned there is no reason to fear what is to come next.

The Transition from college to work was frightening, but so are a lot of things in life. I was so scared to begin college and then scared to start working, but look how that turned out! We must learn to overcome our fears so we can do great things.

“Have courage. When it comes time to decide what’s good enough and what’s great, have courage. When it comes time to decide between doing what’s comfortable and what’s right, have courage.” –Lisa Salters

Lisa Salters was right. We all must have courage so we can move forward and do great things with our lives. It is time to overcome your fears.