Pirates Log

Issue date: 11/30/06 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Erika Langdon Outgoing Editor-In-Chief

Modesto Junior College becomes a safe haven for many students.

For me, I came in vigorously taking my classes, studying hard, and doing everything to leave the campus with my AA as soon as I possibly could.

But something changes.

You get older.

You get a decent job.

You get in a relationship.

You get comfortable in the life you've made.

Whatever the cause may be, something happens to many students in the Modesto area that keeps them at their Safe Haven.

However, taking the minimal amount of classes and dropping one or two each semester doesn't get you anywhere.

I've met too many students, including myself, who anticipated MJC to be a stepping stone in furthering their education, only to get stuck in the daily grind of the valley.

Maybe it's due to lack of confidence and fear of failing.

Maybe life really did take a turn and they had to put their education on hold.

Or maybe they just got lazy.

Over the past year or so I got lazy.

During the first term of 2005 I came down with Mononucleosis and was forced to drop all but one class, and I was only able to keep the one class due to the fact that the teacher suffered from Mono in college and sympathized with me.

[On a side-note, despite the fact that I presented the Yosemite Community College District with proof that I'd been sick and in and out of the hospital for almost three weeks and the semester had only been going on for a little over a month, they refused to refund me the nearly $500 I paid for the classes that there was no way I could continue after being sick for so long.]

Then in the Spring 2006 semester I was working full time and had to drop three classes because I just didn't have the time to concentrate on them.

Basically I'm a year behind in my schooling.

And because of that I was put into the mind-set that many MJC students share: that I'm stuck in Modesto, that I'm never getting out, that I'll have a mediocre job for the rest of my life, and never go beyond an AA degree.

But then, a few months ago, I finally realized that you can't think like that.

You can't let a little mistake made when you're barely 21 years old determine the rest of your life.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools