How am I only a junior in college 11 years after high school?
It requires a special skill set and dedication to indecision that few people possess. If the majority of my educational career were a relationship, it would have been an open one.
I graduated high school in 2001 with a 3.0 GPA, a few college credits and a Bright Future’s Scholarship. I had always been a “B” student (who was content to make “C’s”) without ever really applying myself. I attended the University of North Florida after high school, which, to my surprise, wasn’t like the 13th grade. That relationship did not end well.
Then I joined a cult. OK, an over-priced career institute isn’t exactly a cult, but it’s a costly and embarrassing detour, nonetheless. Thankfully, I left after only two mods (whatever those are).
Since then I’ve married, traveled, had a few fun and fulfilling jobs, lived in different cities, attended a couple of state colleges and, most importantly, had a baby.
Parenthood makes student life much more challenging but much more important. Before my daughter was born, I treated my educational career as a sort of hobby. I dropped classes when they got too strenuous for my taste – or, worse, I just stopped going. Instead of challenging myself to improve my writing or diversify my skills, I changed my major multiple times; I bought into the belief that journalism, my original track, was impractical. Then my daughter was born, and I thought a lot about the opportunities that I wanted (and still want) her to have. Before my husband and I ever purchased a bottle or a diaper for our daughter, we put money aside for her college. How could I encourage her to pursue her dreams if I never did? When I finally graduate, I will be the first in my entire known family to obtain a bachelor’s degree. Statistically, anyway, this will put my daughter in a better position to do the same. And it won’t make me a hypocrite when I encourage her to pursue her goals.
This is my first semester at UF. With my record, I am shocked and incredibly grateful that I was accepted to a university and a program with such a great reputation. I’m not usually an overly positive person who does all sorts of crafty things with life’s lemons, but when I hear people complain about homework or an eccentric professor, I want to tell them that they too should be grateful. Not everyone gets this opportunity and even fewer fully capitalize on it.
So far I have discovered my love of Krishna Lunch, a disdain for the way students can be treated here, an appreciation for the array of events and services that UF provides, and an eagerness to explore everything that student life here in The Swamp has to offer. And I survived my first midterm.
After all these years, I should be ready to finish, but, on the contrary, I am finding inspiration everywhere, and the love of learning that I try to instill in my 2-year-old is growing inside of me as well.
I hope this honeymoon phase lasts.
