In my Honors English 198 class, we’ve been reading a book entitled Being Wrong, by Kathryn Schulz. We are also currently working on a writing assignment where we have to either write an Op-Ed or blog about a time where someone was wrong about something and try to relate it with a larger audience.

While pondering about what to write about, something clicked in my mind. Why not write about being wrong about my college experience? Actually, I’ve been wrong about a lot concerning my college career.

Originally, the University of Tennessee wasn’t even an option for me. I wanted to get out of Knoxville, out of Tennessee. Please, do not misunderstand me. Knoxville will always be my home. I was born and raised here. I’ve never truly known another place to call home. I have plenty of family in Poland, but whenever I came back to Tennessee, I have this feeling inside that I’m finally home.

But being young and naive, I wanted, and still do, to leave. To go to a big city, to experience life other than suburban Knoxville. I wanted to travel and I wanted to be able to be on my own. I applied to several schools, one being Columbia University. My parents urged me to apply to UT and I did, for them. But that wasn’t my dream. My dream was to live in New York City, to eventually move in to a small studio apartment where I could do my artwork and write. My dream was to be an artist and a writer, to travel the world taking photographs of every place I’d have been.

Unfortunately, to my disappointment, Columbia turned me away. Yes, I felt terrible. Now I’m not sharing this with you for pity. I’m okay with this fact now. I accepted my fate to attend UT and I’m glad I did.

This fall, I started as a Freshman here and it’s nothing like I expected it to be. I had expected a college experience that never happened. In short, I was wrong.

I have found a place here at UT that I didn’t expect. I made new friends, attended my first college classes, received my first grades, wrote my first articles for The Daily Beacon, and found that even though “the Hill” is terrible, I rather enjoy walking up those steps everyday. The struggles and stress I’ve encountered here at UT has allowed me to grow.

UT has impacted my life greatly. I’ve learned to be more confident and even though I do have a lot of fears about the a lot of different matters, I’ve learned it’s okay to make a mistake, to fail, because those are not what defines you. I was wrong to think that. What defines you is how you go about after the mistake is made. What you do afterwards is what defines you. In the first few months of being at the university, learning this wasn’t something I expected to learn.

Expectations can and will be broken, and sometimes you will be wrong. And it is okay to be wrong, because being wrong isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it leads you to uncover a new truth. It allows you to grow. Maybe I was wrong about what to expect my college experience would be, but I’m glad I was. Because my college experience would not have been the same and I may not have grown more confident and learned that it’s okay to sometimes not be a perfectionist.