We all graduate high school with big dreams for ourselves. Go to college, work hard, earn that degree, find our dream job, and just be happy in life. But here's a statistic. 81% of incoming community college students plan to eventually receive a Bachelor's degree, while only 33% complete an AA and go on to successfully transfer to a university and receive that “coveted” Bachelor's (Horn & Skomsvold, 2011; Jenkins & Fink, 2016). That's quite a big drop in the amount of us who actually go on and finish out our degrees.
What happens to everyone else?
I'm happy to have survived the somewhat terrifying transfer from the community college life to a university and I’m just so glad I chose this path for myself.
When I was nearing graduation at my community college, I didn't ever think I would reach that point, to be honest. It was a long journey of trials and frustration, stress and anger, happy moments and good memories. But the feeling of accomplishing that step in my academic career and earning my AA degree was so rewarding. I knew that was one step on my journey to earning my Bachelor's degree.
Then came the realization that I was about to embark on a new journey in my life and, oh man, was I scared. Going to school hours away from home and leaving where I was comfortable. Living on my own for the first time. Figuring out how to actually be an adult without my mom's help whenever needed. Not being able to see my parents at any time of day. How was I going to survive? I was about to find out. Scared and nervous couldn't describe what I was feeling.
When the day came for me to leave for school, my car was packed with all the essential items. I said my goodbyes, and as hard as those were, I knew that anyone was only a phone call away. I could do this!
Jump to the first day of school. I'm a college junior at a university that I've wanted to go to since the 11th grade. I was excited to see what this journey would bring for me and I was proud of myself for going out of my comfort zone and taking this step in my life.
Here I am now in my second quarter at Central and looking back at the last 4 months, I couldn't be happier with where I am or where I chose to spend the last 2 years of my college career. Here's to living it up, making the memories of a lifetime, and succeeding in all that I want to do for myself.
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