I graduated high school in 2014 and it is 2017 now, meaning I have been a full-time college student for three years now, almost graduating In about 8-9 months. Like any other college senior, I have my fears about graduating college and not knowing what is going to happen. Will I get a job? Will I be able to handle all my responsibilities? Will I be able to budget appropriately? These types of questions run around in my head most of the time because we all know how scary the real world is. We’ve seen a gist of it while we interned or worked along with going to school and saw it through our parents, how they dealt with everything. But, the thing that keeps me going is that I made it through college, dealt with all the problems and obstacles. So, if I can get through that, then I can tackle the real world.

I started my freshmen year of college attending College of Staten Island, completely unaware of what I was going to see and who I was going to meet. I started off college with a friend of mine, which made the first year pretty good because we had almost all of our classes together and/or we would see each other on campus. But, I ended up transferring to a different college, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, to start my sophomore year. At my new college, which was in a different city, I was scared that I would not make any friends or I would be lost all the time. But, within a week I had gotten to know my campus, changed my major, added two minors and life felt pretty good. Within a few weeks, I had met different people from different areas of the city. It would be pretty amusing when I would tell them that I commute from Staten Island and their response would be “wow! You live so far” or just “why”.

I began commuting back and forth to my new college, even though sometimes it would get annoying due to traffic or the fact that I have to leave my house super early. But, there were a lot of things that I did, for example I attended workshops for students who had recently transferred and the organizer, Natasha Graf, helped us learn about the opportunities and clubs I could join. I ended up joining CUNY Service Corp, a program for students for a year. I was assigned to the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. Along, with that I got an opportunity to join an online magazine through one of my professors, who thought I would be interested in being a part of. Since, I was an English major and he saw my writing in class, he thought I should join and have been a part ever since.

Towards the end of sophomore year and beginning of junior year, I had fallen in love with my new school. I was receiving a great education and had several opportunities to help me graduate on time and pave a path toward my career goal. For example, just receiving emails from the Pre-Law Institute was a great way to apply for fellowships and internships. The office kept me and other students updated on new openings. I attended various workshops for the LSAT, law school and other law related careers. One of the interesting sessions was for the FBI, where the agents gave us valuable information on how to enter that field and the expectations. I find everything I have seen and been introduced to, eye opening because it is my chance to learn new things. I am a person who loves to learn and experience new things, which is why I transferred to John Jay. Now, I am in my last year and I do not at all regret my decision to switch colleges. My college experience might have not been going out of state and partying with other students but I did get the chance to meet all sorts of people and engage with them.