Before You Move It… Move Yourself

A year ago, I made a decision that, at the time, felt like a small earthquake: I changed my major. It wasn’t an impulsive decision, but it wasn’t an easy one either. I had built an idea of myself around that first path: I knew which courses were coming next, I had friends, and I had connected with professors. Changing majors meant letting go of all of that and starting over, once again, without that map.

What I learned from that year was not so much about engineering as it was about the future. We grow up thinking that our destination; or at least our plan; should be set in stone: you choose a major, a path, a version of yourself, and that’s it. But stone cracks more often than we think. A year, a semester, sometimes even a single class can completely change the direction you thought you were headed in. And that doesn’t mean the original plan failed. It is simply how growing works.

That’s why, when I think about what it means to “move the world,” I don’t think of anything grand. I don’t think of inventions that change history or make headlines. I think of something much smaller and, I believe, much more real: moving the world begins with being willing to move yourself first. It means not holding on so tightly to a plan that you stop listening to the signs telling you there may be another path. It means allowing yourself to change your mind without feeling that doing so makes you any less capable or any less serious.

That small, personal movement has a ripple effect. When someone sees you make a decision like that; leaving something familiar for something uncertain but more honest; it gives them permission. It shows the person next to you that they, too, can reconsider their path without the world coming to an end. That is how I believe the world truly moves: not through one enormous gesture, but through a chain of people who dare to move first within their own lives.

So, if there is one thing I want to leave you with, it is simple: don’t let your world get stuck. Don’t remain fixed on one idea of yourself simply because you chose it once. Move when you need to, even if it’s scary, even if it means starting over. And when you move, become part of the movement; the kind that inspires others to dare to change direction when their own path no longer fits.

The world isn’t moved only by those who have everything figured out. It is moved by those who are willing not to, and move forward anyway.

By: John P. Nieves Hernández
Third-Year Student, Mechanical Engineering in Robotics and Industrial Automation