There is nothing better than seeing a dream come true. When it happens you feel all the hard work, stress, sleepless nights, lost family time, fall off your shoulders and a sense of peace wash over you. It leaves your body making you feel lighter, stronger and accomplished!
When my school career started the dream was to complete a journalism degree. Over the years this dream has gone through many changes as you will read. I am proud to say that on February 24th, 2022 I turned in my last assignment to Southern New Hampshire University online portal, finishing my second bachelors degree.
This journey has been a long, grueling and rewarding process. It has taken me about 10 years to complete both bachelors degrees. The first one was completed in November of 2020 in Communications and the second bachelors is in Environmental Science. My diploma will say that I graduated on April 1st due to the schools process, but I completed all the work in February.
When I was in high school the plan was to go directly to college but I ended up taking a year off after high school. When I had graduated high school I wanted to go to school for journalism, then a year later it changed to nursing because I was working doing in home care and thought I could make the best money or that was what everyone was telling me. After doing some schooling at Laconia Community College I figured out that nursing was not where my passions lay. My heart was still on journalism so I stepped back on my own path and added to the dream. I was going to get two bachelors. The second being in Environmental Science.
I worked for about two years at the community college and was then accepted into Keene State. I sadly didn't even finish a full semester there due to problems with parking and housing that the school would not work with me on. I was driving four hours a day to and from classes and home. I did this with a full time school schedule. I ended up dropping out and headed back to Lakes Region Community College to continue taking classes until I figured out my next move. I was less tired and was more successful with this choice.
The next move ended up being moving to California. I took one last semester at the community college and then hopped on a Grey Hound Bus to San Diego, California, November of 2012. I was there for about six months getting situated. When I tried to enroll in San Diego Community College I was told I couldn't because I owed Keene State $1400. Having just moved I had no idea how I was going to do this, I cried out my frustrations. My Nana came to the rescue and helped me. I was finally able to attend San Diego City College. Originally the idea was to transfer into San Diego State but I was missing a statistics class. I had attempted four times to take statistics through a program that worked with the SDSU. It got to a point where this was to much and each time I "failed" it was more of I missed the grade I needed to technically pass the class by a few points.
It got to a point where I was so frustrated I was ready to quit. Instead I took a break and just lived life for awhile. I traveled and worked at music festivals, hung out with friends and family. Finally when I was ready to think about going back to school the lady I had moved in with in Simi Valley California told me about SNHU. I looked into it and saw that I could do both degrees online, on my own time with a small compromise. Instead of journalism I switched to communications. I applied and was accepted, it was only going to take three years to complete because I had already done so much work.
I did really well until life got a little haywire and I almost lost being able to go to school because I wasn't passing enough of my classes. I straightened out and did the work and fought to finish school. The last two years I have been able to focus on finishing my degrees due to the pandemic.
I wouldn't have been able to do this without the support of my family not only cheering me on, but at times with financial help too. It wasn't easy working full time and going to school. I have a solid set of friends who have also been there to cheer me on and listen to me vent when I was overwhelmed! I had an amazing academic advisor at SNHU that was always there to help me figure things out when I was struggling, or even to just be a neutral ear when life was happening. Without all this support especially through the trying times I wouldn't have been able to finish.
There are times where I wonder what it would have been like to do college in a traditional fashion but when I take a step back I see a life very well lived, many lessons learnt, and so much growth. There are times where I wanted to quit because I thought I would never finish college, or that I was too old and wasn't going to get anywhere. It wasn't always easy to choose to continue to move forward with this, but I did and I accomplished a dream. I stuck with it through thick and thin and I succeeded. Proof that if you really want it you can get it, even if it doesn't go as plan!
What I learnt from this. That I have a fire that will never go out. That anything I decide I am going to do, I will do no matter what. That a dream is worth it. To never give up!
Thank you to all the people in my life who have seen me through this! My love and gratitude can never be expressed enough!
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