"I'm on my grind, guess I'm workin' out:" Junior year of college in review

From left: My father, WGN Meteorologist Tom Skilling, and myself at a climate change panel at North Central College on May, 6, 2017.

"People hollarin', Gates, you need to start workin' out. Sellin' work, I'm on my grind, guess I'm workin' out!" - Kevin Gates, "Weight."

Being that I treated you to a fairly long-winded blog regarding my decision to leave my current job and develop a novel on my four-year stint there, I think I'll keep this reflection blog on junior year fairly brief - for my standards.

It's as if the speed at which you complete your education as a young person is reminiscent of learning to drive a vehicle. When everything starts out, things move slowly and with great reservation, like when you get the feel of driving for the first time. You actually abide by the speed limit and you try all the gears, gadgets, and buttons in a manner that makes you comfortable. This is grade school, from 1st to 8th grade, all eight to nine years of it.

Naturally, once you get more comfortable driving, you tend to go a little faster, take a few more risks (maybe an unrestricted left turn when that gap is just barely open for you to make a move). This is high school. By then, you've grown accustomed to an institution of which you've been a part more years of your life than you haven't. Years start to move a bit quicker.

Then there's college, where you blink and you're a senior, aghast at your progress, humbled by your ability to complete everything in such a short amount of time, and softly panicked thinking you're not going to be able to have it all done by the time allotted for your graduation in four years - let alone about what comes after. By then, life is going 50 in a 35 with more led settling atop the gas-pedal.

Junior year, for me, found a delicate balance of social stimulation and academic success, even if the one, at times, outweighed the other. This was a year about trying to see what I could effectively manage, and it came in the form of becoming an active party at WONC 89.1FM, North Central College's award-winning radio station. Something like that right there will not only take you places where you've never been before, but show you how worthy something is of your time when you find yourself really falling in love with it.

WONC not only gave me another platform on which to expound upon my thoughts and opinions with film, but opportunities at hands-on experience that could optimistically lead to a potential career. I've had a longtime fascination with radio, right down to the mechanics, reach, and intimacy of it, and WONC offers a romantic, laissez-faire-style approach to facilitate a student-run environment.

For once, I feel like I'm doing more than sitting in a classroom, remaining passive as everything moves around me.

The challenges this year came in, yet again, striking a coordinated balance between academics, radio, movies, reviews, XCritic, and my music, and I'm proud to say I did it in a way I'd deem mostly successful. Despite zero appearances on the Dean's List this year, I found friendships growing closer, bonds becoming stronger, and more support for what I do. You find in a community of people with similar interests a desire to see one another succeed and one another to prosper, and WONC has that en masse. It's what led me and two others to interview Tia Carrere from Wayne's World and attend a 25th anniversary screening of the cult comedy.

Even though I've done it in person quite a bit now, I must take time to also thank three individuals - Blane, Lizzie, and Sam - for allowing my concept of a late-night movie talk-show, known as "Sleepless with Steve," to become an official program on WONC every Wednesday from 12-3am (CST). They've beared with my nonsense and have been nothing but enthusiastic supporters about my plan and vision from the get-go, and I'm privileged to say, that in less than a year, I have my own, exclusive show on the air.

This year may not have been the year for the kind of academic success I had last year (10 A's in 11 classes), and maybe the first time I got a C+ in any class (it could've been worse if the class - Biology - wasn't aided and made much more tolerable by the assistance of Amber, one of my closest friends). It might've also been the year where I had to drop a class because of stress and overload early in the year and resort to taking it in the summer and hinder my total amount of time of summer relaxation.

The trade-off, however, was finally a sense of belonging and something tangible that I can put an immense amount of time into as I try my best to become someone with on-air skill and prowess. Not to mention, a tight circle of friends and confidants coupled with another newfound passion that works germane with several others. This summer, as I work anywhere from 11 to 30 hours a week at WONC, I will continue to put work in with hopes to excel and continue to maintain this balance, even if it does result in days with little sleep.

Finally, one last note - only two more of these term-reflection blogs before the final, post-College blog. As tempting as it is, you can't get caught up in romantics. There's still work to be done.