by Leslie RomanAlice falls into the Abyss, the depths of a deep world she never knew about. She awakens to find that everything is abnormal: the clock, the walls, the people, the animals etc. Alice is not in College though. We are. Education is just one of the many obstacles we have to overcome to get a better future—but some agree with the idea that it is not necessary to go to College. To me, College hit so hard, it got me thinking about questions like; “What have I been doing with my life? Why didn’t I do better in high school? All the time I wasted I could have used to prep myself on what major I wanted or even where to go to college, to decide whether to go out-of-state or to commute. This is my experience on my journey to College starting from high school to present. I was the girl who got along with everyone, literally. I had no problems with any of my classmates. I was the type of person that never interfered with other people’s business, nor did I want to know their business—unless with my best friend, which is something completely different. I always passed my classes with high grades, but math and science were not my favorite subjects. In parent-teacher conferences, I was always getting great comments like; “She does all her work”, “She does not give any trouble” etc. I became the good student who focused on all the assignments she needed to do. But then everything changed when the fire nation attacked [Avatar Joke]. When I became a senior, I was excited to leave. I didn’t have to take anymore regents. I thought about all the sleep I would get. What I wasn’t doing was going in-depth on my research for College. It was not that I did not want to go College. I felt like I was not ready. My idea of College was, “This is the most important decision of your life. What are you going to do? Where are you going to go? Do you really want to leave your family and friends behind?” Various questions raced through my mind. I was not thinking clearly. On top of this, there was more a rush to apply to TAP, PELL, FAFSA, and supplements so I could go to the College I wanted. I was so unfocused I was not even looking for my prom dress, until I literally bought it on the day of. Anyway, I only had one college advisor, who only came in to help the senior class apply to colleges. Through my eyes, I saw as my friends constantly came into her office during lunch, afterschool, and mornings getting applications done—but I felt like I was not doing enough. I had completed my own paperwork, my own applications, yet I was caught up with the idea that the college I chose is the final place where I can take my college experience. Everyone, and I mean everyone, during that spring time began to get receive letters from different schools. I saw the smiles and the frowns from people’s faces whether they got in or not. Then there was me, the “good student”, who has not received any answer except one from the 10 different colleges I applied for. But what I guess you can say that what finally damaged my hopes of going to College was that my supplement forms never got completed due to a miscommunication of the advisor. I was able to get an appeal though, and I arrived to the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Great I thought, another school for law after I just graduated a high school of Law and Government and Justice. Needless to say, I was a lazy-ass freshman. I thought I was going to get away without doing all my work, and participation? LIES! At this point, I was like “Why did I treat high school like it was so important?” I ended up having all C’s except one A for my freshman year of College. And I bore the consequences of it. With a GPA of less than 3.0 I could not apply for anything I would have wanted to do. I kicked ass though next semester but I realized something. Your life, who you want to be or what you want to do with it, lies in your own hands. I had a wake-up-call in my first ever Anthropology class. This is not to hype my professor or to make it seem like everyone should take him—unless you are ready for a challenge. He gave me an awakening about how life is, how college is, and made me think about what I want to do. I can get all my assignments done, and be on time, but he made the class engaging. Through his lessons and charisma, I will put it simply, “Time is of the essence”. Life is too short not to see what is in front of you. You can die an instant, but would you be happy with the life you have created for yourself? The courses I have taken were not easy. But who said that life was easy? We have to deal with that professor, who is sarcastic, the students who think that everything someone else says is funny and the load of work that we need to do to pass the class. We have those moments where, we say, “I’m a broke college student,” when we do not have money for food or things we need. But I wanted to involve myself with the John Jay community, so I went and volunteered for community service and currently for this Zine. I took the steps, and got the motivation. I even changed my major to Anthropology. To put it bluntly, College is not a Wonderland. But there’s exciting stuff out there if we look.
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