Saint Leo University Top Questions

If I could go back in time and relay some advice to myself; I would calmly say to myself, be open and soak up all knowledge, opinions, and advice given from the professors and students. To give yourself proper time management in order to effectively complete all assignments, essays, quizes and tests; to not stress yourself and to try and enjoy this experience as much as possible!

I would give myself the advice of never giving up and doing everything I can to make it a smooth transtion for when I come into college. Never slack because that is just starting the lazy procedures and you dont want that to become a rotuine with you! I would also tell myself to listen to my teachers and mothers when they were always telling me what's best for me.

Going back to my senior year in highschool, there are definitely some things that i would have done differently knowing what i know now. My senior year, I decided to take it easy and just relax the entire time. During this time, I could have been doing some things that would make the process of applying and choosing schools easier for me. I would have told myself to be more aggresive in my search scholarships, as I'm doing now. I also would have told myself to be ready to be on my own. There are no parents in college coming to wake you up and remind you to go to class or to finish your assignment. College is where you become an adult and all the responsibilty is on yourself. This advice would have been helpful to me in the transition.

Listen to EVERYONE when they tell you to not take a break. Just suck it up, focus, and stay in school. Taking a break will only prolong your happiness and your future. Save up lots of money. Your financial aid will not always be there. Try your best not to take out loans. They stack up quicker than you expect. Most of all learn all you can and enjoy the experience. It really is worth all the hard work you are putting in. You will see one day that all the struggles are to work towards a big goal that makes you happy and helps others.

There are so many things I would say to myself if I was able to go back in time and talk to myself as a senior in high school. I would go back and motivate myself to finish all of those endless scholarship applications I printed, because college is not easy to pay for. I would tell myself to work harder and more often, because money is easier to spend than to make. Convince myself that maybe moving 1,600 miles away from my home was not going to be as easy as I told myself. Although, learning and experiencing all of this first hand was tough and hard to handle at times, I don't think I would personally take the chance and take to myself as a senior in high school.

The amount of times that I have wanted to kick myself for my foolish decisions is more than I care to count, or care to remember, honestly. Though college thus far has helped to shape me into the person I am truly supposed to be, there are quite a few scenarios I wish could have gone differently if I had known better. If there was a possibility that I would be able to visit my seventeen year old self about to graduate from high school, I would not give anything away, but I would simply tell myself that attitude and appreciation are everything. I feel that those two aspects make life worthwhile and if there was a way to realize them sooner, so many situations would happened dissimilarily. Not necessarily better or worse, but I feel it would have helped me get to the point in my life that I am in now much sooner. Being able to appreciate all that there is around me and happening in my life is such a surreal and wonderful feeling and appreciation and attitude are such forgotten aspects that unequivocally alter the way I view my life and my purpose in the world.

Now that I have learned a lot about college and the process of getting into college, I know exactly what to say if I could talk to myself in the past. I would tell myself to take school seriously and to start learning how to take better notes in class and focusing on the teacher's lectures. I would also tell myself that I need to start working really hard on scholarship applications, which even though they may seem hard work and time consuming, that scholarships are the only way I can stay studying in my university. That without them it would be really hard to maintain good grades in that school because I would end up having to get a job while also keeping up with my studies at the same time and it's not easy. I would also tell myself to immediately go to the learning center in my school and start taking advantage of all of the help there. Because without it I would have ended up working much harder than I needed to be. Lastly, I'd say have fun in high school, you're going to miss it when you're gone!

Never give up! Be positive and go out of your comfort zone. College is your time to explore yourself and your desires and your passion. It is your time to make mistakes and go on huge adventures because you will never be this young and free again. College is your time to know everbody and help people. College is your time to explore other culutures. College is your time to make a fool of yourself, but still have friends standing by your side at the end of the day. College is about living, taking advantage of all of the possibilities, taking that summer internship that is thousands of miles away from home, going on a roadtrip with only $10 to your names, college is the time to discover who you really are!

I would tell myself as a highschool senior to remember that there will be a lot of things that you will not like about college but remember that there are a lot of tangible and intangible benefits. The first being that this is just one step towards your career goal. It may seem like an obstacle but it is well worth climbing over. The friends and connections that are made during college will be valuable resources for the rest of your life. The most important thing is getting that diploma. That diploma is not just a really exspensive piece of paper but is says something. It says that for four years you can stick it out and overcome challenges. It says that you can get tasks done to achieve a goal. It says that you can manage time, stay organized, and produce quality work. That is what the rest of life is about; facing challenges and completing then so you can achieve your goals.

First, I did things a little backwards by not going to college right after high school. I graduated high school in 1994 and attended college for one year and then dropped out because I was unsure of what I really wanted to do in life. I begin working and started a family. In 2007 I decided to return to college but because of my family and work, I could only go part time. Obviously this is taking a longer time to reach my goal but I am certainly proud of myself. Now I am working towards my bachelors in Computer Information Systems, I am setting a good example for my kids in hopes that they do not make the same mistakes I did with waiting to go to college. Being a single mother of two small children, it makes it very hard to balance family, work, and school, but I am doing it. I would certainly give myself the advise to stay in college and finish it before starting a career and family.