There is no feeling comparable to that of walking across a stage and graduating while hearing your peers and family members clapping and yelling out your name. Or even better than that, the proud look that they give you afterward when they tell you, "Congratulations, you did it. You. I am so proud of you." There is not yet another moment in my 20 years of life that I have experienced that felt as perfect as when I finally finished high school and felt the pride emanating around me from those that I love most in this world. Ever since that moment, I have craved to feel that feeling again.

The once unclear goals that I had written down in a spiral notebook my senior year of high school were finally clear. I always knew that I wanted to take my education further and complete my Bachelor's degree, but after experiencing that feeling, I knew that I had to take it farther. My plans now include obtaining my Master's and my Ph.d.

Ambitious, I know. Trust me, I think about how I am going to accomplish this all the time. I have nightmares about failing classes and missed deadlines. Graduating from a doctoral program always seemed so intimidating to me because I'm just a regular person. I'm no extraordinary genius; I'm not the next Einstein or Nikola Tesla. I'm just a regular person with big dreams that she's unsure about. All I am sure of, is that I have to try. I have to work hard and let my determination and passion shine through.

A lot has changed in my life since I graduated high school. One of my grandparents has passed away and will never get the chance to see me, his first grandchild, graduate from college. Sickness, drama, and turmoil have repeatedly struck my family over the course of the last few years, but I had to keep going. I had to do what I had to do: get back to class and work, and continue to strive to be better.

After graduating, I settled for community college. It was not a choice I expected to have to make. I was not accepted into my long dreamed-about program in my dream school. Not only that, but I could barely afford that school in the first place. So, my first semester at college was at the community college just 10 minutes away from my house.

I made no great adventure or move, I didn't live in a dorm and experience the college life as my friends got too. I was stuck in the same old place, doing pretty much the same thing as I had always done. I was devastated that I was missing out on all of those fundamentally basic rights of passage that you experience in college such as moving into a dorm, making new friends and rushing a sorority. I was stuck going to a school that I didn't want to be at and watching from the sidelines as other people moved on. I did my two years at community college and the entire time I had one goal in mind:

I had to graduate on time.

I had to do this. It was the only thing that I could control. I only took the classes that I needed to take. I focused. I had many successes--and many failures--during my time at community college, but I wouldn't trade that experience for the world.

Having to settle for what I thought was less taught me one of the most important lessons that I still value to this day. That lesson is this:

It's not about where you are or where you thought you would be, it's about making the most out of the situation that you're dealt.

I was less than thrilled to not be joining my peers at a university, but I did what I could. I pushed my courseload every semester and tried to challenge myself. Now, at a regular university, I am trying to do the same thing. According to my advisor, in order to graduate on time, I will need to take not only more than a full course load every semester, but also complete a winter course and two courses in the span of one summer. I am currently less than 2 years away from graduating from college and receiving my Bachelor's degree on the stage at Towson University.

I haven't been able to control much where college was concerned. It was expensive, so I couldn't go to an out-of-state university or I would put myself in debt with loans for the rest of my life. The only thing that I was able to cling to was the fact that I can control when I graduate.

So to all of you who have ever struggled with deadlines, failing classes and falling behind, we will get through this. Right now, we control what happens to us. We control our own fates now.