I'm already back in college! Only two weeks ago, I made the last minute decision to return to Simon's Rock College for a final semester to get my A.A. I'm now faced with the obvious challenge of balancing both academics and business.

I can't help but to think, how would things be different if I decided to stay in high school? Would I be working on another startup? Would I be interested in the tech scene in San Francisco? Would I be blogging? And if I think long and hard about it, the answer is I probably would not. If I decided not to go to Simon's Rock College, I'd be going to the Putney school in Vermont. Just try imagining me milking cows and playing piano in the middle of nowhere. My life would be so different from what it is now! I love music and the arts, but now that I'm a college kid, I just haven't had the time to do much with that kind of stuff.

All of this brings up the concept of influence. How my school, my peers, and my professors have influenced my life interests and goals. I went to the Fashion Institute of Technology last summer, and never would have thought about regaining interest in business for another few years. I was taking a course in making caricatures, but decided to switch to the course in business. All of the students were asked to write up a business plan. I had no idea what I was going to do, so I whipped out the business mind I had back in the 9th grade. I immediately thought about tech related ideas. Myspace and youtube were incredibly popular web 2.0 properties I had just begun using that year. My idea and business plan were pathetic, but this was when I started regaining interest in entrepreneurship. Everybody else in my class had no business mind whatsoever. They were amazing fashion designers, but couldn't run a business if their life depended on it! As for me, I sucked at fashion and couldn't design clothing if my life depended on it, but my professor saw me as a teen with great entrepreneurial potential.

Now here's where my thoughts become even more abstract. If I hadn't taken that course in business at the Fashion Institute of Technology, I probably wouldn't have regained interest in business and entrepreneurship so soon. I wouldn't have taken that business course if it hadn't been for my friend Hayley. And I met my friend Hayley while I was taking a course in designing urbanwear at the Fashion Institute of Technology. So if we look at my situation that way, my temporary interest in fashion is what brought me back into business last summer.

It was really weird to think about all of this. Many people ask me how I got into entrepreneurship, and I'm unable to provide a straight-forward answer. After writing a blog post about my experiences and potential life paths for the past year, I'm still utterly confused. But what I do know is that my interests have been heavily influenced by my peers and professors.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She's currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com, SimonsRockers.com, and Jessicamah.com.