Everyone needs help when they’re at their lowest point in life, right? I was once at this point as well. When you’re a student, it’s hard not to compare yourself to others.You begin to minimize your successes and put yourself down for every small thing you’re unable to accomplish. I struggled with this for the longest time as well. However, at a certain point, you have to come to a realisation that everyone moves at their own pace and even if you move at a slower pace than others, it’s completely fine! I never really took this concept to heart, until my friends and family helped me realize this. They reminded me that as long as you reach your goals, it doesn’t matter how long you take to achieve them. I’m thankful for my support system who still supported me when I was struggling with school, put me back on the right track and helped me achieve and follow my goals.
I remember being very anxious but excited on the first day of my college experience. I used to attend Stony Brook University and commuted to campus through the LIRR. It was a daily two hour struggle commuting to Stony Brook and I honestly hated it. On top of this, my classes also began to become increasingly more difficult as the semesters went by, and my grades reflected my performances in these classes. My grades were at their all time lows and I was pretty shaken up by them. However, instead of my low grades boosting my morale and causing me to want to do better, I began to lose motivation for school and do even worse in all my classes. Not only was this lack of motivation hurting my performance in my studies, but it also took a negative hit in my interactions with my friends and family as well.
It was my family that first noticed that I had begun to grow more distant towards them. They took the initiative and reached out to ask if anything was wrong. I explained everything to them. I told them that my academics were bringing me down and that I was struggling in general. I lost sight of my original goals and ambitions. To my surprise, they were very supportive and stated that it’s okay to struggle and that if I needed to take a break to restructure myself, that I would be allowed to. I’m so grateful for my parents for being so supportive and understanding of my struggles back then. This talk I had with my parents was the turning point of my college career. After I finished my sophomore year, I took a gap year to try to refresh my mind, and thankfully, the break I took helped immensely. During the break, I asked many people around me for advice, which they graciously provided. My friends reminded me that everyone is in school for different reasons and is attending for different goals. Everyone also achieves said goal at their own different pace and that it’s okay to take it easy and slow. I was told not to compare myself to others and that I’m writing my own story for my future. Through all the helpful words of encouragement, I began to see myself as less of a failure, but rather more of someone who was just lost and just needed a little push in the right direction. Without all this advice and encouragement from my family and friends, I would probably not be the same student I am today.
During my break, I took some time to look up different majors I could swap into and I decided to choose dental hygiene. All my friends and family that knew my situation said that they were extremely proud of me for finding a path that I’m interested in and committing to it. I always knew I had wanted to do something related to the sciencey-anatomy field and when a friend of mine mentioned that he had a sister working in that field, I knew it was the path I wanted to go follow. He gave me a bunch of resources to help me get basic information about the field and told me bits and pieces of the ins and the outs of the job. His help, along with the motivation instilled in me by watching my other friends being passionate about their fields of studies, pushed me to get back on my feet motivated and ready to have a fresh start with my transfer to City Tech. However, with my classes being online, it was slightly difficult to keep my spark of motivation since it was so easy to get disconnected from your studies, as everything was remote learning. But to counter this, my friends and I set up online study sessions with each other to keep each other focused and on top of all our studies. My friends played such an important role in helping me refocus on my studies and get back on the right track.
Through my friends and family, I was able to get back on the right path when I was down, and not lose sight of my goals once I got back on this path. Without my support system, I wouldn’t be where I am today and I am forever grateful for all my friends and family who helped push me to be a student I’m proud to have become. I’ve once again found my passion for school and finally have a goal to reach out and seek for, and I know that if I ever lose this spark again, I know that I’ll have the means to get back on track.
