I graduated high school in 2010 and didn't graduate from the University of Central Florida with a bachelor's degree in journalism until 2018. Apart from one semester between transferring from a junior college to a university, and a few summer break,s I was enrolled in classes the entire time.
I turned 26 a few weeks ago, meaning that I have spent approximately a third of my life as a college student. Before I go any further I want to make it clear that I never failed a class and my grades were not the reason it took me so long to finish. I attribute my delay to two different factors – not knowing what I wanted to do after school and not taking many classes at a time.
I have two associate degrees from Valencia College here in Orlando, one in arts and anther in business. I was also only a few classes away from getting one in design. When I started my college education I took classes that interested me. I took drawing because I thought I wanted to be a graphic designer around the same time I took economics because I thought I might want to own a business.
By the time I transferred to UCF I had an abundance of electives and from there I decided I would also get a minor in political science with my journalism degree. Why not? I took classes that I actually wanted to take, classes that interested me. I wanted to learn. College is most peoples' last chance to sit in a classroom and learn at an academic level. I took everything in and even though I didn't always love dragging my ass to class every damn day, I wanted to learn what these experts at the front of the room were teaching!
The second reason it took me so long was because for my first four years of school I would only take three classes at a time. Even at my busiest, I never took more than four. I never wanted to be so committed to learning in school that I didn't have time to experience life and learn from it as well.
Until I was 24 I was competing in the Professional Wakeboard Tour. I had sponsors and was traveling the world. Often times I was doing homework on the plane, but I was never so bogged down with school that I had to give wakeboarding up. I was living in the moment, knowing that if I was taking a full load of school I couldn't have those experiences. Competing at that level was something that I could only do while I was young and if I didn't do it then, then I could never do it in my life. School would always be there to finish.
In my final semesters of school, I was usually the oldest in my class. I would sometimes shock classmates when I would tell them my age, but it never bothered me. I had lived once-in-a-lifetime experiences and I regret none of it. If I had to do it over again, I don't think I'd change a thing.
Go ahead and take that class that tickles your fancy or take a lighter load to chase your passion. It doesn't matter that it too you longer to finish, as long as you push through and make it out alive.
