College. Four years that can determine your future. Four years that hold the best years and memories of your life. Four years that have to be done right and on track. Four years of focusing on the one thing that you want to do for the rest of your life. Let me just start off by saying that all these statements are false. College so far has not been the best 3 (almost four years) of my life. If anything it has been the most stressful three years of my life. With attending three different colleges, changing my major ten thousand times, and three years of still not knowing what I want to do with my life.
This has been my college experience…so far.
Throughout high school I was nailed by my parents to study hard for the ACTs and SATs. I had to study just like my older sister did in order to get into a great school and scholarships. But to be honest academics had never been my thing, athletics were, so when it came to studying for these two “big” exams…well it never happened. I had plans on getting a scholarship for running and focused on training hard. Running is what I was passionate about at the time and really wanted to do it for the rest of my life. When it came time to meet with prospective schools and coaches I had my eyes set on Belmont Abbey, a small private school in North Carolina. I ended up signing with them and was super excited. Until I realized it was going to still cost me $20, 000 A YEAR. So like any logical person I changed my mind, which is perfectly fine, and decided to attend a 2-year college to get my A.A. Since my mom taught at the local college it was free for me to get the A.A. degree, which was great way to save money on tuition and housing. Going to a local state college has probably been the best idea I have had throughout my college experience, partly because it cost me no money and I still got a quality education. Once I got my AA I wanted to go to a big college and get the “big” state university experience. I also wanted to go to the same school my bf, at the time, was attending. So FSU it was and I was moving to Tallanasty. While I could talk about FSU (positives and negatives) in its own article, I’ll sum it up in a sentence: FSU was way too big for me, a sorority was the wrong move, college professors are no better than the ones at a community college, and it did not feel like home. Don’t get me wrong a big college could totally be for you, but for me I went there for the wrong reasons. So I transferred back to my home town and now I am at the local university…still not knowing what I want to do with my life. Hopefully I will figure it out sometime soon, but until then I will continue this “adventure” of college.
To sum it all up. College is an individual adventure, there is no right or wrong way to do it. It is a time and place that you have to make decisions for yourself and answer the questions, what do you want to do and who do you want to be? College is the time and place to take the classes that interest you and inspire you. It is a time to follow your own vibe and not the vibe of others. I hope that reading my story and knowing that I still have no clue with what I want to do eases any anxiety or worry.
xoxo,
Haley G.
Haley's life & adventures 