A Transient Dream

A Transient Dream

Four years ago I took a very uncalculated risk and dropped out of the friendly confines of the University of Toledo and went on a journey in search of money. I was tired of being the struggling, strapped for cash typical college student, so I did what every broke twenty-something year old does: I moved back in with my parents and got a job as a line cook at a fancy restaurant.

I was a journalism major and, after four years at Toledo, I had about a year worth of credits to take before I graduated. But I grew anxious of being in the classroom and I thought I knew everything about writing and I could take an easy job and write in my free time.

If you don’t already know, taking a job as a cook does not put you on the fast track to financial success. And free time? You have little free time when you get off work around one in the morning and sleep in until noon the next day just to turn around and do it all over again that afternoon. I needed discipline. I needed to get back in the classroom.

This song and dance went on for nearly three years until I decided last January that I wanted to finish school, and that the classroom I once loathed was exactly the structure I was lacking in my life. But how was I going to do this? I had a handful of credits left at Toledo; do I try and transfer them somewhere? But then I might lose them. Do I try and move back to Toledo? But how will I support myself working full-time? The market was terrible and I had little job experience.

I decided to give my old academic advisor at UT a call and see what routes were available for me. Much to my surprise, the remaining classes I needed to graduate, mostly Communication and Writing classes were available for me to take online via Toledo’s Distance Learning program, all of them that is, except for one – drum-roll please -  Spanish.

My weakness. My downfall. One of the reasons I decided to leave Toledo in the first place because I struggled so mightily with learning the language. And now it appeared it was going to keep me from graduating. My advisor, much more calm in the face of adversity than I, suggested that I look at community colleges in my area that may offer the remaining Spanish courses I needed and we could then look at transfering them up to UT.

Let me just tell you I had already taken Spanish 103 a whopping four times at Toledo (I’m sure that’s some kind of record), and I wasn’t looking forward to registering for that class for a fifth time regardless of where I’d be taking it. But in doing research I found that the class was offered at night at the Columbus State’s Westerville branch. That was convenient for me.

I decided to go with it and, when I walked into the class for the first time, I realized there were only ten other students in the class. Perfect, I could mess up all I wanted to and only ten other people would laugh; I was overjoyed. Plus the smaller classroom allowed easier access to the professor and an overall sense of understanding of the material.

I went on to pass the class, pfheww! And this past summer registered for the final installment in the Spanish marathon, Spanish 104. It was only offered at the main campus, but it was still a small classroom with a great professor and I took my last foreign language exam of my academic career in August.

The convenience and comfort that came along with taking the course at Columbus State allowed me to relax and strictly focus on the subject matter. I felt little pressure in the classroom, just a sense of drive and an opportunity to succeed. I can literally say, graduating would not be possible for me had these courses not been offered at Columbus State. I have two more classes that I’ll be taking online at UT this January and then I’m done. Finishing up a goal that once seemed impossible, but made possible again through dedication and hard work is very rewarding.

I know that I’m not the only one that’s passing through the hallways of CSCC on their way to higher education from another school. A lot of you are taking advantage of the programs and convenience this school has to offer and I wish all of you the best of luck on your journey to receiving your diploma wherever it may be from.

Take care and Buenos Dias! (I’m pretty sure that means good day).

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