As the end of the semester draws near, many people are getting everything set in stone for their upcoming graduation, ready to move on to “full-fledged adulthood.” The past four or five years have been a wonderful taste of what it means to "be an adult," and they are ready to get out and change the world, or at least their lives, for the better.

Traditionally, these college students are graduating when they are 22 or 23 years old. But what about those students who have already been out in the cliched “real world” and are now graduating? Traditional universities focus so much on giving the full college experience to those students coming fresh out of high school, but sometimes a forgotten demographic are the ones who may have been in the military, gotten married and had kids, or in my case just wanted to experience “the real world" before I decided what I actually wanted to do for the rest of my life.

When I originally came to Miami, it was the fall of 2007, and I was fresh off a stellar senior year of high school. I thought I had everything figured out, and I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I wanted to hit the ground running, and by the time I reached the age I am now, I wanted to already have a house, a solid career and maybe even the idea of starting a family.

But life happened, and I for one couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunities I have had to learn and grow before deciding what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It is generally very daunting for a 17 or 18-year-old high school kid to decide what they want to do for the rest of their life. There is so much pressure on them to make a decision RIGHT NOW and to make the decision that leads them right into adulthood with both guns blazing.

The only downside is that many of them have not really experienced LIFE. They have gone right from having their parents plan their entire day and meals to becoming an adult and making decisions that will affect the rest of their lives for good. I understand that some kids do have their plan of what they want to do, and they have been dashing towards that goal and plan since they were barely able to walk.

But I, and I believe many others, weren’t. I didn’t have any sort of well-developed plan of where I wanted to be in 30 years; I don’t think very many 17 or 18-year-old kids do. I knew that I wanted to live comfortably in a career that I had an undying passion for, but I had no idea what that passion was at that time.

Not to get caught up on too many of the minute details of what happened my freshman and sophomore year, but I started to struggle because the plan that I originally thought was concrete turned out to be something I felt was draining me. On top of this uncertainty and discontent over my goals, life events (particularly the tanking economy with job loss, housing crash and our family home foreclosure) happened that left me with a lack of resources at home and even for a short time partial homelessness as I stayed at a variety of family and friends’ houses.

I decided that it was best to drop out of my classes, get a “real world” job and truly live my life exploring exactly what I wanted to do. I knew the day I dropped out of college that I was going to be back. Even with the life circumstances that were going on at the time, I knew that I wanted to finish college and live out my career passion, I just had no idea what that passion was yet.

So as I left school, I moved down to Clarksville, Tennessee to live with my aunt and uncle in search of something new, an adventure that would stick with me. I got a job working on the military base in the nearby Fort Campbell army base and started to search for myself and experience LIFE.

I learned a lot about myself when I left my comfort zone of Cincinnati. I learned how much I love Cincinnati and how much I didn’t fit into a culture of Americans that live 30 minutes away from the country music capital of the world, Nashville. I learned how to navigate a new town and solve my own problems without the aid of a parent right behind me instructing me on what to do step by step.

But more than any of the smaller details, I learned how to live, and I grew a confidence in myself that even if life circumstances do happen, which they do, I have the ability to rise up through adversity and change the situation and myself for the better. I started to become more independent, and I started wanting more for myself. I wanted to live in my own apartment, pay my own bills, have my own job and transportation, make all of my own decisions, I wanted to live for me.

The first decision that I made after about seven months was to come back to where I was happiest: home in Cincinnati. As I drove over the bridge and crossed into Ohio from Kentucky, I felt tears roll down my face as I finally had the independence and confidence in myself that I knew I was going to make it through. I had no idea where life would take me six months down the road, but I knew that no matter where I ended up, I would be okay. I had truly become a man at that moment.

I got a fairly well paying job in Ohio. I got an apartment of my own. I pushed myself out of the comfort zone and tried to meet as many new people as I could, going everywhere from bars and cafes to parks and city events. I finally decided that my true passion is giving others the opportunity to develop that same confidence in themselves that I did, even if life circumstances may not be working in your favor at the present time. I decide to major in middle childhood education and specifically target the students living in urban school districts that may not see that light at the end of the tunnel.

I enrolled back in college and am now less than two years away from truly realizing that potential to live out my passion. When a lot of people look at someone 29 years old and still in college, they see a “slacker” or someone who may be irresponsible or made bad decisions early in life. But that isn’t what I see when I look in the mirror.

When I look in the mirror, I see someone who experienced “the real world” and experienced life before I decided where I wanted my life to go. It’s always puzzled me that someone could make a decision on where they want their life to go before ever seeing the different routes available.

I don’t look at being a 29-year-old college student or a former “college drop-out” as a bad thing. Honestly, it’s the best thing that ever happened to me. It’s what made me the man that I have become, and it is truly what has assured me that the route I am on currently is the one that I want to take.