Success, Changes and Degrees.

I just realized that you had a post under the "Conyo" video.

To be honest, you're not the only one who isn't in a rush to finish college and yes, people are all different and have different paths but I believe that as long as you still keep it in mind that you'll graduate with a degree you like, then take as much time as you want. My parents are just the same way...

After high school, I wanted to leave the Philippines so during the first semester of senior year, I was looking up colleges in the US and they were mostly outside of California because I didn't want to go to California for college even though my mother said that tuition would have been taken care of by the military and I would have a place to stay and all that but I still didn't want to go to California. My main goal was to go to the University of Maryland-College Park or The University of Massachusetts-Amherst so those were the colleges that I was working so hard to get into, I was working on my grades and getting good recommendations... I wanted it to be squeaky clean and perfect. But the one thing that was in my way was getting my father to accept my decision and pay for the fee for me to send it.

I spoke to my father about it and he said he'll send it off for me. I thought that was going to be a turning point~ After two months, I was wondering when I was going to get a response... And then one day, I was driving around with my mother and I was looking for gum, so I looked around the car and looked in the arm rest of our truck and what do I find? My application for both colleges. Sitting there. In the arm rest. With no fee. It was just the way I left it... I took it with me, gave it to my father and asked why he hasn't sent it off. And you know what he said? He said, "It's because I didn't feel that you were ready to be on your own, in the States, at barely seventeen and you're just too young to be on your own so I think that it's best for you to stay here in the Philippines, graduate here and we will talk about you moving out."

I was already late to turn in the application and I highly doubt that there was any space for me left and I argued with my parents for months because I wanted out. My mother wanted me to go to Ateneo or La Salle and my father wanted me to go to Ateneo and as much as I wanted to say "no", I couldn't. They forced me to try and take the entrance exams... And I went. And I purposely failed it because I just didn't want to get in. So I randomly filled in every bubble even though we weren't on the page yet and the essay's were all in Tagalog and I didn't know how to answer it in Tagalog so I just wrote down, "I don't understand the question. :(" - Yes, I really did put a sad face.

Then my mother thought that the last straw for me was to go to Thames/ESA and I didn't want to go there because I thought it was lame but since it was really no choice, I went there and my father wanted me to take up business when I had no interest in it and my mother wanted me to take up Information Technology and I thought it was not my thing.

You know what I wanted to take up? Aerospace and then branch off to be an astronaut or Animal Science and go Pre-Veterinary Sciences. But my mother thought it was "stupid" to dedicate my life to taking care of animals when I could just take care of people but I knew a lot of people were already becoming doctors, nurses and such. There were more than enough people who were dedicating their lives to taking care of other humans but I believed that there needed to be more people who needs to take care of animals. And my father thought it was stupid for me to take aerospace because "only the smartest of the smartest can enter that field" and he said that if I wanted to study and practice for 20 years and then die in a spaceship, I might as well jump off a bridge. Ouch, right? Hearing that from my parents was like they had no hope for me.

When I was in Thames/ESA, I would take a lot of LOA's because of my parents financial problems and I had no problem with that because I wasn't in a rush to graduate but one day, my father came up to me and said that I won't be enrolling the next planned term because he didn't feel like I was taking school seriously enough. He also told me that he will no longer fund my tuition... Hearing that was a stab in the heart. Not the back. But the heart. Because my father was my only source of money to pay for tuition... And then we started fighting more often about money and a lot of times, our fights got physical.

So I took a stand and decided to take over my life and do what I wanted to do. Since I wanted to join the military in the beginning, I decided to go forward with that, bring in whatever college credits I have and go with that. And then rank up a little bit, do the job that I choose, get a degree with that and then when I have a degree, I'll sign up for the Officers Program and then go through night classes for another degree that I choose and work my way up. And then I'll show my parents reasons for them to be proud of me since they said that I've done nothing so far for them to be proud of me and that's kind of motivating me right now. I may not be the smartest, but at least I know what I want.

There is always a way. I do believe that a college degree is a good solid way to secure yourself. In this world, it's a sign of commitment and a sign of brains and sometimes, that's not the case. Because the riches people in the world are mostly college drop-outs and were poor from the get-go. But what makes them better? Richer? "Smarter"? It's because they decided to look outside the box and find a new way of thinking. They found a new way to success. So everyone's different but I always encourage people to get at least a college degree.

That's like Emily. She wants to finish college to get the degree and do whatever she wants but it doesn't end there. In this life, especially in the US, this is how life is: A high school diploma is better than a GED, but a college degree is better than a high school diploma, but a masters degree is better than a college degree. And two degrees/masters degree is better than one. That's how life is here in the US. Sadly.

But I believe that as long as you do what you want and what you love, it's all worth it.

So I know what you're going through, Turtle. And it's okay. Parents are old school and right now, we're living in the age where we need to constantly adjust ourselves as the world rapidly changes. And it's only going to grow faster so we need to think better and think more outside the box and yet, still achieve success.

I'm with you,
Otter