My College Career – Part Five

For Part One. For Part Two. For Part Three. For Part Four.

I did not expect this to go so long!  So if you’ve been reading it all, have a cookie!  If not, you can still have a cookie!

So I had escaped from Florida back home.  I was also hit with the realization that what I thought had been my dream job, no longer was.  I had decided that I would finish up school with my degree and see where it took me.

Thank goodness for Mr. Soup.  He grounded me in a way that I desperately needed.  I was feeling supremely lost and confused, my future was so uncertain.  But I knew one thing for sure and that was that I loved him and was ready for that future.

I had promised my father that I would graduate before I got married, so back to school I went.  But not in the normal manner.  I would become a commuter student, living in my parent’s house and working at Office Depot but arrainging my schedule so I would only have to be on campus Tusedays and Thursdays and work the rest of the time.

Normally, this wouldn’t seem too bad.  Free rent, good job, etc.  Here’s the kicker: I lived 2 hours away from the University of Oregon.

Yup, 2 hours.

I would be driving 4 hours a day twice a week.

Mr. Soup, my family and I crunched the numbers and we crunched them hard.  We discovered that it would be cheaper for me to live up there, working at the job that I had, and driving down unless gas got about $3.  Which it didn’t.

That fall I went down to meet with my advisor and plan the last bit of my career.  After meeting with her, I was told something shocking.

I had taken “all the wrong classes”.  I was stunned.  Having done what they told me to, apparently it was all wrong.  I wouldn’t be able to graduate for another 3-4 years if I stuck with my Art major.

I was furious.

After a deep breath and several tears in the bathroom of the Art building, I squared my shoulders and walked down to the Administrative building.  I sat for 30 minutes to wait to speak with a general advisor.

Almost 2 hours later, I left.  I was now a Sociology major.  I would be able to graduate a year from then.

I wasn’t excited, but I was content.  I would be out of there sooner rather than later, I didn’t love Sociology but wasn’t bored by it.  I also understood it.  And it would be a B.S. so I wouldn’t have to take a language (which is why I didn’t change to Art History).

Driving home that day was rough.  I had officially given up my dream.  No longer would I be an animator, but that was okay.  I was going to graduate.  I had an amazing fiance.  My future, although it wouldn’t be anything like I thought it would be, would be wonderful.