As we enter into the second month of the spring semester, we draw one month closer to spring graduation. That glorious celebration that means you have finished your degree where you will receive the document that you have worked so hard for. When you come to college, you assume that you will be spending four years in this place and you'll be done, moving forward into your career and the rest of your life. But what happens when your college track doesn't take a straight path like you had assumed but it curves and you've got a couple hills to climb over?
When I came to Marshall, I became a member of the Class of 2018. I had graduated from high school in the spring of 2014 and assumed I would be graduating in the spring of 2018 from college and all would go according to plan. However, I was sadly mistaken.
Freshman year I was a biology major who swore she would be a doctor one day. Ever since I was a child, I thought medical school was my destiny. However when classes started, my world was flipped upside down. I had went from a straight A high school student to a straight C college student in the blink of an eye. I was looking at sophomore year with the possibility of losing my scholarships due to GPA inadequacy. I had to change something and I had to change something soon.
The summer before sophomore year I made the decision to switch my major to English and Science education. A drastic change from the path to medical school right? I knew that I could teach and this was a path that was meant for me however I had all of 4 course credits towards this new major, setting me behind a whole semester. I wouldn't be graduating with my classmates from high school but would have to sit aside and wait for my turn to graduate.
This is something that happens to many of us in college. We come to school, career in mind and assume it'll be where we end up. However, that's not the case for a lot of us. We change our majors, we fail, and we screw up and get screwed over. This is the story of college. We don't often get it right on the first try but usually we can find our niche later on.
Being in the position where you aren't graduating on time, it stings at first. That's time that you had meant to spend in your career but now you're still going to be in school. I want to tell you though, don't lose heart. Not graduating on time means that it just took you a little longer to find that career path that makes you excited to go to work. Not graduating on time means that you're still preparing yourself for the workforce. Not graduating on time isn't the end of the world, it's just a test of patience. You'll get there. Stay strong and know, you're not alone.
