**Free Write**

“Turning point in education/life”

The biggest turning point in my education life was when I went away for college to SUNY Oswego after the summer of 2016. Ever since I moved to New York from Bangladesh in 2012, I have dreamt of going away to college and live an independent life where I can become my own person. When time came, I literally got up and left NYC, my friends and my family and took a bus 8 hours away to college. Once  I got there, it occurred to me that I did not know anybody there. I was excited and terrified at the same time. Unfortunately, my anxiety got the best of me and it dramatically impacted my performance in school. Soon I fell into this phase of depression feeling homesick to the point where I locked myself in my room and did not attend any class. As expected, I was dismissed from the school for failing ALL my classes and basically had a zero GPA.

The summer after my first year of college, I got ahold of myself and gave another shot at college. This time I applied to another college in Oswego, where I focused on repairing my GPA. A few semesters in, my GPA went from 0 to a 3.6 and then I transferred to an even better college in Syracuse, NY. I would say at this point in my college life, I finally understood why I wanted to be in college. I think that really gave me a purpose and motivation to finish school. Looking back to it, even though I wish things happened differently for me because I was so excited for college, I don’t have any regrets because maybe things happened the way it did for me to really understand my purpose in college.