Lily Forbes is a junior at West Texas A&M University (WT) pursuing a bachelor’s degree in history. Forbes is from Mobeetie, TX, where she lived for 15 years before moving to Amarillo.
In seventh grade, Forbes joined a homeschool group called Classical Conversations, where she would graduate from high school in 2023. After high school, Forbes studied at Amarillo College for two years to receive an Associate of Arts in General Studies.
She explained the journey of choosing to attend WT and history as her major.
“I’ve always loved the humanities and history for the longest time,” Forbes said. “But it wasn’t really until this year that I decided what I wanted to study. My dad has always loved history, so it’s been something that I’ve always loved. And I definitely did have some really great professors at Amarillo College, but it’s actually an art history professor at Amarillo College that helped me decide what I wanted to do.”
Forbes shared what she hopes to do with a history degree.
“It’s kind of up in the air,” Forbes said. “But my plan is to either teach high school, but a dream of mine would be to teach in college, whether it’s just a two-year or a four-year college, or the other side of it would be museum work. So either education or archives.”
Though the ultimate goal for Forbes is teaching or working in historical archives, she said that continuing her education beyond a bachelor’s degree is a possible route to reach that point.
“I’m definitely considering it [master’s],” Forbes said. “It really just depends on money, to be honest. I would definitely love to get my master’s, and they have a great master’s program here at WT. But there’s still other colleges that have specializations and cooler opportunities, so yeah, I definitely am considering it.”
Whether a master’s is in the picture or not, Forbes shared how her family has encouraged her through the good and bad times during her educational journey.
“Part of it is definitely my family,” Forbes said. “That’s just kind of how I was raised. No matter what I do in life, whether it’s going to college or working, because I do come from a working family, very blue collar, just to give it everything I have. And, obviously, even if it gets hard, put my entire effort and to keep going. I just feel like that’s something my parents have always told me throughout my whole life.”
In addition to the support from her family, Forbes shared that her free time helps her live a balanced lifestyle.
“Realistically, my life is very much revolved around schoolwork,” Forbes said. “But I think that things that bring me joy, that I do, is that I’m really involved with my church. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Sundays, I’m at church. And just being surrounded with my friends and my church family and just doing leadership things, just really brings me joy. I enjoy, like anyone, going to coffee shops and reading and just being a girl and buying clothes, those type of things.”
Forbes added that no matter what her future looks like, she wants to be remembered as an encouraging and kind person to those around her.
“The other day, I had a girl in my class who was saying how she changed her major and basically that [her] class is pointless,” Forbes said. “And I was like, ‘Well, it’s not technically pointless, because you’re still getting knowledge and education.’ And so that’s definitely something I want to be known for, to be an encourager, when students are struggling. I want to be there for them, and to lift them up and help them get through whatever they’re struggling with.”
She continued by sharing advice for any student who finds themselves struggling this semester.
“I struggle with motivation and getting burned out,” Forbes said. “I feel like everyone struggles with that because we’re human. Honestly, the advice that I would give is to just surround themselves with important people that will encourage them. If you feel like you’re alone, I would just suggest building those relationships and reaching out to someone, so you have that person to go to whenever you’re struggling with those things. And [whenever] it’s towards the end of the semester, [and] we’re all struggling to finish our schoolwork, look at the bigger picture, what you want to achieve.”
