What Now: Crossroads

Erik Charlson is Oklahoma Today's spring intern. Each week, in What Now, he'll take us on his journey learning about Oklahoma and navigating an uncertain future.

Everyone is trying to establish their own normalcy at this time of uncertainty. As a college student preparing to leave my semester-by-semester blueprint of life and enter the professional world, I am facing the unknown on two fronts. Despite the lack of security or a solid five-year plan, I intend to tackle my obstacles with a smile.

I’ll halt my rambling for a brief second. My name is Erik Charlson. This May I will be graduating from Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at University of Oklahoma, and recently I was hired as the spring intern for Oklahoma Today. I am eager to gain experience at the magazine and connect to my passion for writing. In my academic endeavors I have always preferred the dreaded research essay over a test. I have been in Oklahoma since I was just three years old, yet I sense there is still much more to this state than what I already know. I must be in the right place.

With a degree so close I can feel it in my hands and a new internship teaching me things every day, still I am left with the looming reality of my unknown future. There are so many unanswered questions. I am prepared to leave school, but not completely ready to enter the next phase of my life.

That leaves me at a crossroads. Decisions I make now will have a large effect on what direction my life will ultimately take. Not that my choices have just begun to matter, but perhaps the gravity of them has shifted to the more serious, adult, side of things.

While some of my questions will remain, I plan to embrace the ambiguous nature of my life. Six months from now I could be in a different state or working somewhere I have never even heard of. Fortunately, I see nothing wrong with that, and I am enthused by the opportunity to be utterly confused.

While all of this is occurring in my life, I will also be updating this new blog: What Now. I hope to learn from it in several ways, and I hope that whoever may be reading can share in my new discoveries about the state and my life.

Email me at erik.charlson@TravelOK.com with questions, story ideas, or anything else. I am thrilled to be here, and I cannot wait to see all of the opportunities and relationships that will arise.

Written By

Erik Charlson