My first college experience

As a seventeen year old, I thought going to college was the coolest thing in the world. I decided to go to a two year community college. Most of my friends and my boyfriend at the time were all going to the same community college as me, so everything should be amazing right? WRONG!! I started college in August of 2005. I was going to all of my classes and doing all of my homework. I thought everything was going well, but things at home kept getting harder and harder. My mother and I disagreed on everything, we argued almost everyday. I always wanted to be out with my boyfriend and friends, but my mom wanted me to spend more time at home. She started putting more rules in place. I was not allowed to be out after 10pm on any given day, I was not able to ride in cars with my friends and I was not able to drive past 9pm. I thought it was the end of the world when all of this took place. I became very angry and I rebelled more than ever. My boyfriend at the time was looking into getting his own apartment and I thought "what a great idea, I will move out!". So needless to say, this guy and I moved in together in mid- October, a week after my 18th birthday.

A couple of months after moving into an apartment, I found myself struggling to make my half of the bills. After all, I was going to school full time and now I had to work full time to make sure the bills got paid. I was working at the Target near my apartment, and they did not pay very well. Before I knew it I was having a harder and harder time making the bills. I had a choice to make, keep going to school full time and move back home, or pick up more hours at work and still go to school full time. I did not choose either. I knew that I had to pay the bills or else I would have to move back to my mom's house (which was NOT an option in my mind). I soon found myself skipping classes, not doing homework and pretty much disregarding school all together. I withdrew from all of my classes and ended up having an overall incomplete for my first semester at college.

It was almost time for me to start my second semester, but this time my mom said she was not going to pay for it if I was not going to be 100% dedicated. I really wanted to go back to school so I promised I would put all of my effort into school. I tried really hard and did well in most of my classes, but those darn bills kept piling up. After I finished my second semester, my mom told me that I could get a job where she worked so I could make ends meet with my bills. I decided not to go back to school and I took a full time 9-5 job for the New York State Tax Department where my parents worked. Things were going really well for me, I had a much better time with getting the bills paid and I loved that I did not have the stress of school on my shoulders. My mom always said "some people choose to learn things the hard way", little did I know that was exactly what I had done.