College is one of the best times of your life, but it’s also a very testing time of your life. You figure out your career path, shape yourself for your future and make or break friendships.
I couldn’t stand school when I was younger. I liked learning, but not for eight hours a day. I definitely prefer college and the freedom that comes with it, like choosing what you want to learn about and when.
Once I started college, I soon got burnt out from the amount of work that came with it, like a lot of college students. Although I’m self-motivated and hardly procrastinate, it’s never easy to get through the mound of homework and studying that comes with college.
I started community college and then transferred to a four-year college to study journalism. Growing up in a county just outside of the city of Richmond, I loved the city and knew I always wanted to go to VCU.
Transferring from community college was easy and great because I got a lot of those tough courses over with and came in with a bunch of credits. I transferred in as a junior and was ready to spend my last two years of undergrad at my dream school. I went to orientation and got everything straight for starting in the fall 2015 semester. The semester started and everything was going smoothly until I went to my advisor’s office.
I went to my advisor’s office to talk about my classes for the next semester and she told me something that they had forgot to mention at orientation. She told me that even though I transferred from a two-year community college, it would take me two and a half years to complete my mass communications degree because of the way the curriculum was set up.
I wondered why no one had told me this throughout my whole transfer process and questioned if my major was worth an extra semester in college. After thinking on it, I decided that I really loved journalism and that it was worth it.
It sucks to be seeing people who I was supposed to graduate with graduate. I was supposed to graduate in spring 2017, now I will be graduating in fall 2017 and only taking two classes my last semester.
It took a while, but I’ve always been the type of person to find the positives in situations. I started looking at the positives and accepting that I will be graduating a semester late. A few of the positives that come with graduating a semester late are less competition for jobs, more time to enjoy college before the real world and more time to prepare for after graduation. Besides thinking of those positives, I also ponder on this quote:
I also learned a bunch of other people in my major who didn’t transfer are graduating a semester late with me thanks to the way the curriculum set up. So, it also helps that I’m not alone.
If you’re graduating late, take a step back, focus on the positives and your overall goal. It may be tough, but it will be worth it.
Photo credit: cover photo, gif 1, gif 2, photo 1, gif 3.