Advice: Challenges
Featured: Not free to be herself in high school
“I thought I loved high school. I would have told anyone that I was incredibly happy and that every day of high school was the greatest day of my life. I didn’t realize until I went to college that I hated high school. This surprised me, realizing that I had been really unhappy. I had been unhappy because I had created this persona for myself and had become so locked in to being the way people saw me instead of being who I was.”
Transferring colleges was a challenge
“Transferring schools isn’t impossible, but by no means is it easy. A teacher in high school once told me that 80% of kids don’t go through four years at one college, but I didn’t think I’d be one of those kids; I thought I’d be four years in and out at UMO. Then, at the end of my junior year, I realized I had the option of moving back to Southern Maine and going to USM, rather than staying in Orono. So I moved back home. I was also in the process of starting up my own restaurant, and I didn’t want to miss that opportunity. The transferal process itself was pretty simple: I applied to USM, got accepted, spoke to an adviser about transferring my credits, and then it was just a matter of getting all the details worked out. It was on my end that things faltered.”
Our Picks in Challenges
Editor’s Pick: Not having as much money as her classmates
“My family was blue-collar in a white-collar town. My parents worked really hard and did their best, but they had four kids and neither of them had advanced degrees. They did what they could. Even though we were always taken care of and I never wanted for food or clothing or shelter, most of the kids at my very small high school – there were about 60 people in my class – had so much more than I did, and I felt that difference everyday.”
Editor’s Pick: Losing her father and leaving school
“My dad died in 2008 and I dropped out of high school my junior year for about three or four months. I just went to work full-time to keep my thoughts away from school and my dad’s death. I didn’t want to go to school because I didn’t want to be faced with the questions about why I hadn’t been in school. It was embarrassing to me. I let my teachers down, I let my mom down; I let a lot of people down. Finally during my senior year I realized that this is not a game; this is real life and I have to support myself. What could I do without an education?”
