Story time.
Ok, I was a pretty good student in high school. I took all the AP classes and had a great GPA. Then something happened to me in college that I'm sure we can all relate to: I just stopped caring. Only I took it a little too far.
I went to San Diego Miramar community college out of high school, and I'll admit it—I hadn't had a damn clue what I wanted to do or who I wanted to be. I had a million of things in my head and all the opportunity in the world at 18-years-old. So then the typical arguments had made their way into my reasoning.
A degree is only a piece of paper, it means nothing. College degrees don't even guarantee jobs. Look at the statistics.
Paired with my colossal ego at the time, I thought I was above everything, that I didn't need school, that I was too smart for a "traditional" educational path. I thought I could figure everything out myself, without the help of all the communities available to me, as well as my friends and family.
Naturally, that much arrogance comes from a place of ignorance. I was looking at the world with poop-stained glasses and as such, that was the approach I took with everything. I justified my ignorance with even more ignorance. I looked for the negatives and guess what I got?
It didn't help that I was working full-time and making good money throughout my time at Miramar. From being a manager at McDonald's when I was 19 to working in an office that shipped pet food from Asia (exciting I know), I thought I could just save up and magically work something out. So I put grades way in the back of my mind and started flunking out of my classes. And then came Bitcoin and trading cryptocurrencies.
That's a whole other story, but to put it in a nutshell, I invested all of my savings at the time and made a killing. Like enough to make me straight up quit my office job on the spot and think I would never have to work again. I was riding a pretty massive high for a while and started making poor choices and hanging out with the wrong people, people who didn't really care for me.
As they say, what goes up…
I got pretty greedy and made a mistake that gets a lot of people in trouble, and I am no exception. I didn't pull out. I left all in as the crypto market began to crash and basically lost everything. Go figure.
This all happened over the course of two months. So come February 2018, I was pretty much at the low point of my life. I had managed to cut down my GPA to an impressive 2.4. I was broke, unemployed and back to square one. I hadn't a damn clue what I wanted to do next.
Come application deadline on February 24, I had nothing to lose. So I took my 2.4 GPA and applied to SDSU's Audio Engineer program. So I just went for it and made it in. Got another email for the Lavin entrepreneurship program at the school. I applied for it made it in and am working on several business pursuits. I see opportunity everywhere now and it's the best thing.
I tried something different. I cut out all the negative influences in my life. Got another day job. I started taking things as they came. I started meditating and that really helped me to get a better perspective on things.
Yeah, I could look at college as a waste of time. But I was honest with myself. What the hell else was I going to do? Not go to this place that supports young people for literally existing and trying to do something worthwhile? Not take advantage of this community that gave you everything you needed if you reached out? Not surround myself with people trying to do the same? I changed the way I saw the world. It's working out for me.
