Post Classifieds
College drop outs drop back in
By Jasmine A. Willis
On March 6, 2013
There are times when life doesn't go as you planned. Sometimes the obstacles are just too
much to handle. Many of us understand this, and have been there.
According to Travis Waldon of thinkpiece.org, a Harvard study shows that nearly half of
America's college students drop out before they graduate. That is more than any other country.
According to the study, we drop out because the cost of tuition keeps getting higher and that
those of us who do manage to graduate take longer than expected.
Money certainly is a rut in the college experience. We drown in student loans, and we
get discouraged by the time it takes to get to our goals. We surrender to the pressure.
What about the students who come back after a long break? What about the ones who
refuse to give up? Why is it that some come back?
It is a brave thing to take that initiative to come back. It is not easy to do. People often
think unkindly of you and make rude comments. Sometimes the road less traveled is the one to
take, and sometimes you need to keep up with the masses.
According to gradtx.org, some students do come back, and they have one hell of a
success story. There are several students listed, along with their success stories.
One that sticks out to me is Annabel Marquez. She said that she now has nine years of
college experience under her belt and a college degree that shows what she can do.
I tend to agree with Marquez's amazing outlook. She finally received that bachelor's
degree, and it took her a long time to do, but she went back.
I met someone in my first semester of college (back in 2005) who really stuck out to me.
He was older than all of us. We were 18-years-old, or in my case 19-years-old. He was 26.
I did not fully appreciate what that must have been like for him, until it happened to me. I
now really understand and appreciate how brave he was to come back. He was already in his late
20s, and here he was in a community college with a bunch of eager fresh-out-of-high school
students.
When my time came to join the fallen, it was at the end of 2006. I had successfully made
it through three semesters, but found myself hitting a brick wall. I could not go any further. At
that time in my life I was working three jobs, taking care of an apartment, and trying to go to
college full time. I thought I was superwoman and I could handle piling all of this on.
The time came when I just got so physically and mentally drained, and I got really
depressed. I just could not go on. I saw too big of an obstacle in my path, and I didn't see
anyway around it.
I spent the next two years or so regretting my decision. Every time I turned on the news I
would comment on how I would've done that story, or how they are not doing something right.
It killed me to not be in that world. It destroyed me that I was not on the path to my dreams. I
was so angry with myself for giving up. I didn't see a way back until 2008.
After a very long break it is hard to get back into the college-working mind. You are not
as on top of your game as you once were. You wasted all that time, and you are more depressed
about that than anything else.
Students can be brutal. It is too hard for them to fathom that you wouldn't just finish.
They cannot understand why you are so much older than them. I hope it never happens to them,
but if it did they would soon understand.
As someone who came back, I have my own unique success story to tell. I am getting my
bachelor's in 2013, and not in 2009 like I should have, but I have all these years of college under
my belt. I did the right thing. I came back. All you can really expect out of a person is that they
cared enough about their dreams to come back and finish them.
Jasmine Willis can be reached by email at willis.record@live.com.
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