Central Community College Top Questions

The biggest struggle I had in college as I started right out of high school was not being able to accept that I needed a break and taking the time I needed to be sure of what I wanted to do next. I forced myself to jump right into classes and felt no motivation to succeed. I know now that I could have taken that time to serve with a volunteer organization such as Americorps or allowed myself the opportunity to go on mission trips and really explore what I wanted for my future. If I could speak to myself as a high school senior I would say, "There is more than one path to success. Really work to find and accept what path is right for you and be creative about how to follow that path succesfully and keep moving forward. College is a vital and important step into your future so make sure you are taking the time to know that what you are choosing is what moves you and motivates you. Seek out the support of advisors, counselors and professors. Be open to making your college experience as unique as you are."

If I could go back in time I would wish to go back even further to myself as a high school freshman, but as a high school senior I would tell myself to be frugal with all of the money that you make over the summer and the next few years. In college money it tight and sometimes you don't have any money to spend and every little bit helps. I would also tell myself to study even harder and get even better grades than I did. The biggest thing I think I would tell myself is if you are going to take online classes then you need to be more focus on then and work very hard at accomplishing then early and getting a better overall average on those grades.

If I could go back in time and talk to myself as a high school senior, knowing what I know now about college life and making the transition, the advice that I would give myself would be to develop good study habits. In high school I never studyied because I was able to get good grades without spending a large amount of time studying. Well, now that I'm in college I have more of a need to study, but I'm also finding it difficult to develop good study habits. But, if I could talk to myself as a high school senior and tell myself that even though I may not feel the need to study now, knowing good study habits in high school will be a huge benefit to me as a college student.

I would advise myself to acctually study the courses that I attended because college is about reading on your own and using your time wisely. You have to set goals for yourself to accomplish. In high school I wasn't the best at using time management on my assignments. I would always wait til the last minute to accomplish the assignment that was due the next day. I college you learn that you have to study on your own time because the teachers aaren't going to read it word for word for you out of the text books, and your going to have to have some sense of what your learning or your not going to pass the course or the semester and you'll end up taking it over again. Also everyone knows college is expensive ans your paying for your education. College is a privilage so take hold of the reins and sets goals to accomplish what you want to do in a career.

If I were fortunate enough to be able to go back in time to counsel myself, the first thing I would say is to "Grow Up" I waited until late in life to mature and want a career other than the food and beverage business. Many opportunities await you out there, so quite wasting your life, hiding your feelings under a bushel, quit acting tough, and start going to college to do something you enjoy. Otherwise you will not have the fulfillment of caring for people. You won't realize how much love and concern you have hidden, and deprived other people of your attributes. Listen to your mother when she tells you that you have a lot of love bottled up inside!

If I had the opportunity to visit myself in the year 2005 (which is when I became a high school senior); I would discuss the benefitial opportunity of taking time from school before applying oneself directly in any educational direction. Personally, having experience the "adult and real" world of taxes, bills, and family life - having the time to live through tough emotional situations allows me to reevaluate what I would like to do with my life (occupationally speaking). I would tell my seventeen year-old self to take time for myself; discover the world around me (whether that be through traveling the United States, or Globally) or simply taking a metaphysical breather from academia to discover who I am. This time is necessary because high school isn't always the be way of being prepared for adulthood; life is - these are the things that I would tell myself, if I had that opportunity to return to my senior year self.