Experiences of a soon to be graduate

Graduation not always easy, but a big achievement

in the end

By Catherine Ragsdale
The Collegian

ON A FRIDAY night, I find myself realizing that in less than three weeks (as long as I pass all my classes) I become a college graduate and not just a student.

My mind isn’t focused on the papers I must write or tests I must take in these next three weeks.

Instead, I find myself thinking about the long and winding journey I have taken to get to this point.

My undergraduate career equals a total of seven years.

I’ll be 25 years old when I graduate and I really don’t feel bad for having taken this long.

I’ve had classes where 27 out of 30 students are under the age of 21 and I felt like a grandma.

It never discouraged me though.

I am not a minority age group on this campus and I have come to realize that a four-year college career is quickly becoming non-existent.

Many students who have to support themselves find it easier to start their college career at the junior college level, just as I did.

Instead of taking two years, my time at the junior college level lasted three years, split between two schools.

Initially, I went to College of the Sequoias to run on their track team. I had a great time there.

The coach was the best I ever had and my team was phenomenal.

The school was great, too.

I found myself moving to Los Angeles the next year, where I enrolled at Los Angeles Harbor College.

My boyfriend was recruited to play basketball down there and I didn’t see anything wrong with moving as long as I stayed in school.

I spent two years in Los Angeles before I transferred to Fresno State.

My boyfriend was playing for a university in Tulsa, Okla., and Tulsa was just not a town for me.

Once I started going to school at Fresno State at the age of 21, I figured I would be focused and done within the next two years.

I was wrong.

I cut the amount of hours I worked to dedicate myself to school, but the nightlife was calling me.
I had never been to a club before and, as I’m sure many Fresno State students have done, I went out a lot.

It didn’t help that my roommate, who was four years older than me, was a bartender at one of the busier clubs.

I worked less, partied more and school suffered.

That type of life consumed a couple of years (which were the couple of years I planned on finishing up school), but I don’t regret anything.

I met a lot of interesting people and had great times. I was still in school, just moving at the pace of a turtle instead of a rabbit.

So this turtle is about to graduate this fall and has enjoyed the many life experiences she’s had in the past seven years of her college career.

Look around. Half of Fresno State’s population is 25 or older.

No one should be ashamed for taking longer than the allotted four years to graduate.

College and life are to be experienced and enjoyed, not spent with your nose stuck in books.

Comment on this story in the Opinion forum >>