I’ve seen on social media how most people say that going to college is a big scam. College is not as bad as people say it is. Unless, they had a bad experience or that college wasn’t meant for them.
In a past blog post, I shared my life as a Southeastern Lion and college advice.
You all know I start college at 17 and graduated at 22. I’m going to be honest, I was scared, nervous, and excited about college. I was scared because I had so many doubts when I started.
For starters, I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. The first year of college was so challenging. I’m not just talking about the classes I had to take. It was the adjustment to college life. Waking up 6:00 am for 8:00 am class every single day and having one to three classes back to back four days a week. No break in between classes. It was rough.
Note that I said that my classes the first year was hard. Not all of my classes were hard. It was just my math classes I had. I will say this, the first year of taking basic course classes flew by so fast. I’ve seen people complain about taking these classes, but these classes prep you even more of what to expect when you take classes for your major. How does it prep you? My hardest class from my first year of college was math, but from taking those classes prepped me for when I took accounting, finance, economics, and operations in management systems. You won’t start taking classes for your major till about your second year of college. The first year of college, isn’t meant to be easy. From someone who started college in Fall 2016, that first year was when I had no idea was growing and what was ahead of me.
The second year of college, wasn’t too bad. I just began to take classes for my major. I was super excited about taking them. On top of that, I had joined a student organization. My eyes began to open even more that year. My professors taught me something that I use for my business life and everyday life. They taught me ethics. How dress, how to act, how to sit, how to present myself, etc. All of that to prep me for when I have an interview or when I’m in a meeting. Also the second year of college, was when the brand name Southern Life Of Jas was born. My second year of college, I’ve already adjusted to college life pretty good. I’m comfortable and not every day I had to get up at 6:00 am for class.
The third year of college was a emotional mental roller coaster. As far as life was going for me, I honestly felt that I really wanted to give up. Everything was too hard. I put my all into everything and it wasn’t enough. On top of that, I had a lot personal issues going on that took a huge toll on me that it affected my academic performance. Eventually, I forced myself to go to counseling on campus. It was 100% a need and it helped a great bit. Was I embarrassed about what was dealing with? Yes. I never said anything about what was going with me to anyone until I felt comfortable sharing it.
But there were good things that did happen my third year of college. I became member of the homecoming committee and I stopped doing YouTube and started blogging.
My fourth year of college was my “let’s get down to business” year. It was probably the best year ever next to my graduating semester of college. Before that year even began, I cleaned myself up and made a promise to myself to do better. I had gotten hired to be student manger of the volleyball team then hired for student worker with athletic ticketing, became homecoming committee member for the 2nd year in a row, and stayed involved in student organizations. While going to class, doing assignments, and managing a blog. I made that year look easy by balancing 7 things all at once. It honestly felt so good to be productive and it kept me motivated. I was 100% a workaholic. On top of that I was even given a scholarship for being a student worker. Then, the spring semester of when COVID hit that changed everything. Converting to doing all my classes 100% online was beyond stressful. Thankfully, the university gave us a pass/fail option for our classes. I still managed to pass all my classes for the spring semester.
Then, the grande finale. My final semester of college. My graduating semester. I honestly went in that semester super hype because it was about to be my time to shine. That semester was a chill/productive semester. I had another student job as Director of Activities for one of the organizations I was apart of and stayed apart of another organization too. Three out of my four classes were 100% online. I don’t even see how I made straight A’s that semester. I guess maybe because I ran on a schedule by planning my week ahead of time. I was able to knock everything I had to do out the park. I honestly felt I could do it in my sleep.
When graduation day came, I honestly couldn’t believe that I was graduating. Me. A girl from a very small town and went through so much graduated. In that moment, I remember how happy I was when I got my degree. All the hard work, late nights, early mornings, mental breakdowns, etc was all worth it.
Throughout those 4 1/2 years of college, I’ve gained a lot of knowledge, experience, and skills. So to answer the question coming from a college graduate, is going to college a scam? Minus the payments per semester and having student loan debt after graduating, it’s really not a scam. Why? It was a great experience and I got a degree that will take me further than I ever can imagine. College is totally a different world. A world worth going for.