My college graduation was last week Thursday and I did not walk. I was supposed to. Everything was set for me to walk at graduation and you know, graduate with my Bachelor’s degree. That was the plan.

This is how my story goes. I came to New York from Florida at the end of 2013. Since the age of 16 I knew that I wanted to come back to study journalism and I wanted New York to be my playing field (I was born and lived in New York until I was nine years old). There is nowhere better than the city that never sleeps to experience the culture as a journalist.

Coming to New York I thought that I was going to have to wait an entire year before I started school but as fate would have it I was able to start school sooner than expected and boy was I glad. I wanted to get my hands dirty. I wanted to start the next chapter in my life. So when I was able to attend school I had a plan. That plan consisted of graduating spring 2016.

It’s frustrating to think that every college student in the world, it seems, has suffered from the “not so good at their job” counseling dilemma. It was the counselors fault MORE than it was my fault the fact that I did not graduate at my expected time.

I was in school for two whole years and when do they decide to tell me that I was 12 credit shorts? Right before I am about to apply for graduation at the beginning of the fall semester. Needless to say, I was a wreck.

However, I didn’t have a choice. I had come too far to give it all up. The word “quitter” is not in my vocabulary. So after I cried it out and blamed myself for not double checking for the past two years!!! I moved on. I was not going to sit and wallow. I thought “surely, God has something better for me planned.”

That’s the thing about faith you have to hold on even if you don’t see anything happening yet. It turned out that having to take an extra semester was a good thing.

I started writing for The Odyssey Online and I am really happy about that. Because of that opportunity I went from writer to editor-in-chief for the Lehman site. It’s been an experience that I am excited that I get to be a part of.

What I learned from getting an extended time is that I have extended time to still be a student at 26 years old. Perhaps before it would have bothered me that I am still a student at 26 but at least I am doing something productive in my life. Now I have six months to year to find a job within my career, hopefully, and one that I love. So I don’t feel like I have to rush.

Yes, I cried at graduation after seeing all of my friends walking and I was stuck working (on my graduation! I worked my graduation. I was literally telling parents to step back from the bars so that students can walk). After I cried it out I realized, so what? That will be me next year.