You know the saying that you hit rock bottom before something good happens? Well, I’ve been close to that a couple times in my college career. What I’ve realized in college is that sometimes to be a better student and better version of yourself, you are going to have to hit the bottom before you can improve and succeed. This can be in your social life, personal life, and academic life. Success, to me, is a cycle that young people flux through during their college experiences. We will have periods where the motivation to study hard or add more sources to a paper is always flowing, while at other times we’d just prefer to drink wine and watch the Bachelor or Netflix. This can relate to some people’s experiences; however, everyone’s definition of success is different. For me, my academics is what I define as a big part of success in my college career.
My freshman year I drank a lot, partied, and didn’t study as much as I should have. I was so excited for the freedom from my parents and to get away from my small, isolated hometown that I focused way too much on my social life. To my luck, I still did better than the average freshman does with my grades, but the big blow was me losing my academic scholarship. I have never been more embarrassed or disappointed in myself. And then I found out that my GPA dropped below anything I was used to in my entire academic life. I had hit rock bottom.
Telling my parents about this wasn’t a pleasant experience, but they explained to me that sometimes to appreciate the opportunities we are given, we must lose them to do better. What they said really resonated with me, and I tried much harder my second semester of college. I had to work super hard to fix my GPA. Changing my study habits, friend group, and the academics I engaged in helped a lot. I realized my current University didn’t provide the type of academics that I was interested in. Thus, this incentivized my transfer to UWM – a school that had better academics. The classes here forced me to study more because they are challanging and created a meaningful learning experience.
My transfer here was very successful, and I did extremely well my last three semesters here, earning Dean’s List for the Lubar School of Business. However, this semester I am a senior and I am really feeling that edge to not care about my schoolwork. So far, this semester I have been extremely busy – an internship, 18 credits, and leadership positions on two student organizations. I have overextended myself. To say the least, my academics have been lacking compared to other aspects of my life. I am on the verge of hitting bottom again. Today, I got a bad exam score back and I am dreading receiving another one from the past week. I need to make a change in my study habits and personal habits. Instead of laying around because I am tired, I will work out instead and then go to the library. I can’t just watch the Bachelor after work on Monday’s (not that I care anymore since Corinne is gone), I need to go to the library to study so that I can be successful in my academic career and future. My new home away from home is the library. I am lucky since I have a roommate and friends who are willing to come with me to make the experience fun. The moral oif my story is that it is important to remember that bad exam grade will not define you, what you do after this experience is.