I've reached a bit of a milestone that I never really thought about. January would've represented 10 years ago since I started attending classes at Morehouse College. That year - as it turned out - that semester was my last for one year and a half at that time.
Money was an issue back then. I had a mother who insisted on not finding herself in the black with loans and she was already flatlining about the costs. These days it's certainly understandable but I wanted to go.
I had gotten accepted the year before in June of 2001 and well I wasn't able to do new student orientation. I had heard so much about it but never had the chance to experience it. That's one of my disappointments with this process but as life goes on there were/will be more!
Anyway it was a rough semester as it was a shock both culturally and academically. I didn't finish that term out very well at all! But it wasn't the grades that kept me out it was money although hey they grades should've kept me out anyway. If one doesn't do that great why spend a lot of money to continue struggle, but I only consider that now.
Well anyway that year and a half out was a bit rough. My mother decided that I'd have to be on my own for this, which meant I had to find a job. She hounded me and unfortunately that was a tough year to be hounded. There were jobs out there but as is the case now (since we're in a recession) , there were probably more applicants than jobs.
In her willingness to see me graduate with something, she decided that I needed to go back to the community college I had attended and get my associate's. Consider this a youthful decision, I had left Harold Washington College to get a baccalaureate degree and didn't really see the point of an associate's. Perhaps this was a case of putting all eggs in one basket but the goal for me was always a bachelor's degree. Still she didn't see that happening soon and she was eager to see something happen NOW!!!!
Still to this day even after that disappointment, I still have at least one credit to go before I got an associate's degree. And my mom did see me get a degree from Morehouse although it didn't happen too soon as we both hoped it would. I'm still very grateful for that event even after heading towards three years since graduating!
