Sticking with it and staying positive

From time to time I get down and out about how long college is taking me to complete. My sister, four years younger than myself, is graduating from UC Irvine with a degree in nursing this June. I’m proud of her accomplishment – she’s definitely earned it. But in the same breath I’m disappointed with myself. In the four years it has taken her to start and finish her program, I am barely beginning my junior year.

Needless-to-say I didn’t get serious about college right out of high school.  I was interested in art and music and, at the time, I thought all I needed was a full-time job and my hobbies to be happy. Eventually one thing led to another and I learned how important a college degree is – the hard way.

Today, I was venting about the “forever feeling”, as I call it, to my math professor on the way out of class. To my surprise he told me it took him 11 years to get his masters degree due to having a family early in life. This came as a big shock to me because I had just assumed he had done it in six. And it took a huge weight off my shoulders. I don’t feel so bad any more.

Sometimes I think taking a long time to finish college is a bad thing, but I’m beginning to see it might be a good thing to take a little longer. After all, I’ve managed to keep my GPA above 3.0 and the world will still be here for me when I’m finished. Most importantly I think it’s about being optimistic. If you stick with what your doing you’ll get better at it and eventually you will succeed.