My USC Story: first-year student
Freshman Reeves Cameron has always been a thinker. The voracious reader grew up fascinated by human history and behavior, which turned to the pursuit of understanding human thought and philosophy that led to our society’s current legal and political framework. The passing of one of his parents drove the Houston, TX native to seek meaning and explore the more existential questions humans face through the study of philosophy. This fall, he joined the USC Class of 2023, fittingly, as a philosophy, politics and law major.
Why did you choose USC?
In short, the reason why I chose USC is that there isn’t anything I want out of a college that USC doesn’t check off. One specific reason is that I wanted to be in a big city with a lot of opportunities, so Los Angeles is undoubtedly one of the best cities that I could have ended up in. I also love the fact that USC has all of the resources of a large research institution but has class sizes that will allow most of the classes in my four years here to be in a small environment where I can really get to know my peers and professors.
What is one thing you will bring with you to college that means the most to you?
The thing I’m bringing with me to USC that means the most to me is a small collection of photos of my family to go in my room. My family has always been extremely important to me, so having those photos of them will make me feel a lot better about not living with them (for an extended period of time) for the first time in my life. I think the pictures of me and my brothers will remind me to relax and have fun, the picture of my mom and I will remind me to take care of myself, and the picture of my dad and I will remind me to keep pursuing my goals as best I can.
What piece of advice about starting college do you think you’ll follow?
Some advice that I’ve gotten from several people about college is to treat it like a nine to five job. At first, this sounds like a pretty joyless way to go through college, but the more I think about it the more I think I’ll end up trying to follow that advice. The way I see it I’ll have so much more free time on weekdays in college than in high school, so a lot of my experience in college will really depend on how I budget that free time. I feel like the easiest way to do that will be to take advantage of the long amounts of time between classes in college and use that time to study and get my work done, so that I’m always free in the evenings and on weekends. This way, I won’t be wasting time doing nothing during the school day when everyone else is busy, so I can really get to hang out with everyone when we’re all done with classes.
What do you think/hope you’ll be like four years from now?
Four years from now, I hope to have a base of knowledge that will allow me to grow and pursue a higher level of education. Two skills in particular that I really hope to develop are my writing and reading skills, and I’m confident that with the program I’m in and the major I picked out I’ll be able to improve greatly in these areas. As of right now, my career plan is to become a lawyer, so I also hope that I’ll be able to develop my logic and reading comprehension through my major Philosophy, Politics, and Law.
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