One of the best things about college is that it helps you learn what you are truly passionate about in life through exploring various opportunities, making it easy to define a path into a rewarding career post-college. Yet, the decision about what and where one wants to be after attaining a college degree remains a difficult one. This past winter break, I was fortunate to be part of a three-day externship at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign where I shadowed a Lafayette alum graduate student at the university. Through my experience, I also got the opportunity to speak with other graduate students, some professors and staff members. The main goal of the externship was to explore both the academic and everyday life of graduate students through first-hand experience. This allowed me to gain insights from both the students and their professors, who all provided well-rounded answers to my inquiries about graduate school. From everyone that I got the chance to meet or talk with, I learned the value of pursuing a career that one is passionate about and its impact on academic and personal success.