Looking Back: January - May 2007
Looking back now, it would have been impossible to know that 2007 was going to be a major turning point in my life. In the last few months of 2006 I was taking a full load at my local community college and looking down a lighted path paved to my future. I was a few months away from graduating from college with two Associates degrees and was planning on applying to university. In November of '06 I applied to California State University Channel Islands and started a six month relationship with this grand idea that would change a lot of things in my life for me.
In December of 2006 I applied for my school's scholarship program and received two very rewarding letters of recommendation from my boss (who later got a hefty promotion and a much bigger title) and my former biology instructor. I just barely made the GPA requirements. Just barely.
I don't actually remember a lot of what happened in January of 2007. Other than the fact that I couldn't believe how far into the 00 years we were getting, I had no real comprehension of what was about to happen.
I started my final spring semester at community college and, at one point, was enrolled in about 20 units. For anyone that's been in college you know this is a very tough load. Technically full-time is 12 units and I was way in over my head. However, there was a goal I was trying to accomplish and I was dead set on making sure it came to fruition.
The ironic part is that I've always had somewhat prophetic thoughts about my life. I was aware that the acceptance and rejection letters from universities started to filter through starting in February and I made a joke that I would probably get a rejection letter on my birthday, which is February 15th.
February 15th came and I turned 24 years old. Around this time I found out that both my academic and transfer counselors made a mistake in calculating how many units I had completed and was in the process of completing, and that I did not, in fact, have the 60 necessary units to successfully transfer from a community college to a university. To say the absolute very least, I was heartbroken. I was mad. I was pissed off. I remember crying hysterically and calling my grandma, who was also upset. Sure enough my letter from the school came and it was, in fact, a rejection; I did not have enough units to transfer. The letter was dated February 15, 2007.
I signed up for more classes (hence the 20 unit load) and went through even more drama with the unit completion. What I did next was basically revise my application to the school and was hoping to be accepted under the condition of completing the rest of the units I needed during the summer semester.
In April I went on a school-sponsored tour of Cal State Channel Islands. The school is located in the former Camarillo State (Mental) Hospital, way out in the middle of nowhere. In fact when you drive out there you literally drive through agricultural fields and near-dirt roads. I was elated to visit the school, which was actually the first university I ever visited in such a capacity, and yet was - admittedly - disappointed when I saw it. The architecture of the compound is in a Spanish mission style, a style that I don't care for too much despite living where I do and being around similar buildings for half my life. But there was something about it that still spoke to me.
During the tour we walked up to the front doors of the gym and turned around to see Anacapa Village, the dormitories, towering above us. I looked up at the building in front of me and decided I wanted to live there. We even got to tour a demo dorm room and, despite it's size, I was completely infatuated. For a long time I dreamed of living in a college dorm and what it would be like, and to actually be standing in one was almost like a dream come true itself, as cheesy as that sounds. The most important aspect of this trip was that something clicked inside of me.... I belong here.
I was persistent in finding out if I had been accepted or not. Every Friday I called to see if my application had been re-reviewed yet and each Friday I kept hoping I would hear the good news. And one Friday I did. "Congratulations," the woman on the told me. I had been accepted to California State University Channel Islands.
The news spread really fast and I had people congratulating me left and right. The people I worked with at the school had been through every up and down with me and the school since the previous November and it was like an absolute miracle when it finally settled in. I was transferring to an actual university!
Around the same time I received notice in the mail that I would be receiving a scholarship from the (community college) scholarship foundation. There was to be a banquet held in honor of all of the scholarship recipients the night before graduation. Everything was in place. I had my black gown with the funny square hat, my tassel and the gold medallion reserved for students transferring to universities. I went to the banquet with my mom and my grandma and it was spectacular. I was awarded a $1,000 scholarship from the Lompoc Valley Arts Association. They picked me. I was, once again, elated.
After the banquet as we were walking back to the car we saw the chairs and stage set up on the lawn for the next day. It hit me: I was graduating college. !!!! I called my grandpa and he was so excited for me and everyone was so cheery and excited on the drive back home.
The next day I got my hair done, put on my special outfit and later that afternoon I graduated from that community college with two Associates, one in Liberal Arts, one in Transfer Studies (an accredited degree). Our family friends Nancy and John drove up from Panorama City for the ceremony and for dinner afterwards at one of the nicest restaurants in town. I got flowers and gifts and, most specially, I got this laptop.
Graduation was at the end of May and up until that moment I had done a lot of growing up. At first everything was going horribly wrong, with the whole debacle with units and being rejected from the only school I applied to. It seemed that everything that could go wrong did go wrong and it came to the point where something good had to happen because there was nothing left to go wrong. And that's when everything did start going well. In fact, everything that followed was better than the last.
I actually ended up transferring 62 units. :)
In five months I experienced the best and the worst that my life had to offer, and it was five months that absolutely needed to happen in order to prepare me for everything that would follow. Now, as I'm reflecting on all of this and dusting off the cobwebs of my mind, all of these events seem to have happened so very long ago. A year and two months ago I applied to a university I am now attending and it's absolutely surreal. But like I said, it was all meant to prepare me for the rest of the seven months of 2007.
To be continued...
In December of 2006 I applied for my school's scholarship program and received two very rewarding letters of recommendation from my boss (who later got a hefty promotion and a much bigger title) and my former biology instructor. I just barely made the GPA requirements. Just barely.
I don't actually remember a lot of what happened in January of 2007. Other than the fact that I couldn't believe how far into the 00 years we were getting, I had no real comprehension of what was about to happen.
I started my final spring semester at community college and, at one point, was enrolled in about 20 units. For anyone that's been in college you know this is a very tough load. Technically full-time is 12 units and I was way in over my head. However, there was a goal I was trying to accomplish and I was dead set on making sure it came to fruition.
The ironic part is that I've always had somewhat prophetic thoughts about my life. I was aware that the acceptance and rejection letters from universities started to filter through starting in February and I made a joke that I would probably get a rejection letter on my birthday, which is February 15th.
February 15th came and I turned 24 years old. Around this time I found out that both my academic and transfer counselors made a mistake in calculating how many units I had completed and was in the process of completing, and that I did not, in fact, have the 60 necessary units to successfully transfer from a community college to a university. To say the absolute very least, I was heartbroken. I was mad. I was pissed off. I remember crying hysterically and calling my grandma, who was also upset. Sure enough my letter from the school came and it was, in fact, a rejection; I did not have enough units to transfer. The letter was dated February 15, 2007.
I signed up for more classes (hence the 20 unit load) and went through even more drama with the unit completion. What I did next was basically revise my application to the school and was hoping to be accepted under the condition of completing the rest of the units I needed during the summer semester.
In April I went on a school-sponsored tour of Cal State Channel Islands. The school is located in the former Camarillo State (Mental) Hospital, way out in the middle of nowhere. In fact when you drive out there you literally drive through agricultural fields and near-dirt roads. I was elated to visit the school, which was actually the first university I ever visited in such a capacity, and yet was - admittedly - disappointed when I saw it. The architecture of the compound is in a Spanish mission style, a style that I don't care for too much despite living where I do and being around similar buildings for half my life. But there was something about it that still spoke to me.
During the tour we walked up to the front doors of the gym and turned around to see Anacapa Village, the dormitories, towering above us. I looked up at the building in front of me and decided I wanted to live there. We even got to tour a demo dorm room and, despite it's size, I was completely infatuated. For a long time I dreamed of living in a college dorm and what it would be like, and to actually be standing in one was almost like a dream come true itself, as cheesy as that sounds. The most important aspect of this trip was that something clicked inside of me.... I belong here.
I was persistent in finding out if I had been accepted or not. Every Friday I called to see if my application had been re-reviewed yet and each Friday I kept hoping I would hear the good news. And one Friday I did. "Congratulations," the woman on the told me. I had been accepted to California State University Channel Islands.
The news spread really fast and I had people congratulating me left and right. The people I worked with at the school had been through every up and down with me and the school since the previous November and it was like an absolute miracle when it finally settled in. I was transferring to an actual university!
Around the same time I received notice in the mail that I would be receiving a scholarship from the (community college) scholarship foundation. There was to be a banquet held in honor of all of the scholarship recipients the night before graduation. Everything was in place. I had my black gown with the funny square hat, my tassel and the gold medallion reserved for students transferring to universities. I went to the banquet with my mom and my grandma and it was spectacular. I was awarded a $1,000 scholarship from the Lompoc Valley Arts Association. They picked me. I was, once again, elated.
After the banquet as we were walking back to the car we saw the chairs and stage set up on the lawn for the next day. It hit me: I was graduating college. !!!! I called my grandpa and he was so excited for me and everyone was so cheery and excited on the drive back home.
The next day I got my hair done, put on my special outfit and later that afternoon I graduated from that community college with two Associates, one in Liberal Arts, one in Transfer Studies (an accredited degree). Our family friends Nancy and John drove up from Panorama City for the ceremony and for dinner afterwards at one of the nicest restaurants in town. I got flowers and gifts and, most specially, I got this laptop.
Graduation was at the end of May and up until that moment I had done a lot of growing up. At first everything was going horribly wrong, with the whole debacle with units and being rejected from the only school I applied to. It seemed that everything that could go wrong did go wrong and it came to the point where something good had to happen because there was nothing left to go wrong. And that's when everything did start going well. In fact, everything that followed was better than the last.
I actually ended up transferring 62 units. :)
In five months I experienced the best and the worst that my life had to offer, and it was five months that absolutely needed to happen in order to prepare me for everything that would follow. Now, as I'm reflecting on all of this and dusting off the cobwebs of my mind, all of these events seem to have happened so very long ago. A year and two months ago I applied to a university I am now attending and it's absolutely surreal. But like I said, it was all meant to prepare me for the rest of the seven months of 2007.
To be continued...