Choosing the right university and major. I didn’t want to leave my best friends from high school and have to meet new people, so I just applied to the same school they did. I really wanted to double major in creative writing and journalism, but I ended up majoring in literature because it was the closet thing available. I had to do an extra journalism intership and pay for an online certificate program out of pocket to cover my knowledge gap, and I sort of felt like I was simultaneously overworked and wasting my time in college.

But, like, I wouldn’t have fallen out of contact with my best friends. It would have all worked out, and I might have made new friends along the way too.