Back in the fall of 1999, I was a college senior. I was going to graduate in May 2000 with a Bachelor’s in Telecommunications. However, that September, once it was too late to drop our courses, the company that was sponsoring our degree program went belly up, and we were all informed that we would not have jobs once we graduated in May. We had two choices: Continue and get graduate with associate’s degrees or change majors. Crushed, I looked through the other majors offered by the University, determined to get something higher than an Associate’s. I settled on Nursing. The school had a 100% NCLEX rate, and the degree in Nursing was a Master’s Degree. Looking back, I should have gone to a different University. The road through that nursing program was an easy one, and it was then that I decided that taking the easy road was not worth it to me. We were allowed to have notes and text books during exams, our instructors simply corrected us during skills check offs. We literally had nothing to learn. Two and a half years after I graduated from nursing school, I was bored with nursing, and tried to pursue a career in the chemistry field. Unfortunately, I needed a PhD to work in that field, and that is when I found out that going into the chemistry field was not the easy road.

I worked hard to get where I am now, and I am happy with who I have become. Not just academically, but spiritually and emotionally. I like me. I like me very well.

There are many people who will take the easy road in life. Whether it’s with their academic life, or with their own life. They are not doing themselves any favours. It’s easier to send out negativity in the world. It’s not so easy to be the positive light in someone’s life. That is how I want to see myself. The ray of sunshine in someone’s bleak life. The positive that makes up for all the negative that comes their way. For me, this makes everything better. The world is a better place because I am a better person. It’s worked more for me than any pill, drink, ever could. Being a good person: It’s the ultimate high.