When you first graduate high school you expect to be just like your friends and by that I mean you should be going off to college and living the dorm life. I was so excited but sadly that did not happen for me. Instead, I was handed a different plan and to be honest I did not like it at all at least at first.

I was supposed to be attending Hofstra University with a major in Communication but instead, I ended up in community college with no idea where my life was going and how it would turn out. I was so depressed about not following in the footsteps of my friends. I really did feel like a failure. Looking back I realize that was not the case at all.

In fact, going to community college the first two years of my college career not only saved me money but it allowed me to look at the world differently. When you attend community college you essentially attend college with people from all walks of life. Everyone at a community college is going through something different whether they have mouths to feed at home, a husband who is away at sea, or they are simply figuring out how to restart their life at the young age of forty-seven.

They all have one common goal and that is to truly better not only themselves but their living situations. They are driven, motivated and extremely focused. Those that attend community college not only want the best for themselves but the best for those around them.

I met amazing people while at community college and these were people that truly wanted to see me succeed. I was cared for and cared about not only by my peers who would happily give me rides to class but also by my teachers who spent hours helping me review work that I did not understand. Being cared for and cared about helped to lift me out of my depression. It also allowed me to look at myself from within and decide that I was going to live my life for myself.

The funny thing about how our minds work is that when you think positively about a situation it just so happens to work out in your favor. The most inspiring thing that I took away from my experience is that it doesn't matter who you are, where you have been, and what you have been through, there is always an open opportunity to better yourself and those around you. When you feel better about yourself you inspire those that pretend to not even see you.

At the end of my two years at community college I was able to graduate with my associates degree in general studies while I was in my first semester at Southern.

Who cared if I wasn't following in the footsteps of my peers? I was living my life for myself and at the end of the day that was more important than what other people had to say.