The Long Path to Graduation

It has been a long time coming but I’m happy I can finally say, “I have my Bachelors in Criminal Justice.”

Since my freshman year in high school, I wanted to be in the Criminal Justice field. It all started with the famous Law and Order Special Victims Unit. I use to watch that show faithfully and act as if I was also the detective trying to solve the cases along with them. My favorite character is Olivia Benson, she is the only female investigator and was a respected one at that. Yes, I know it’s just a t.v. show, but I sort of looked up to her. In a male dominated field, she solved crimes, caught the suspect and wasn’t looked at as less than her colleges.

My freshman year at Groveport Madison High School, students were told that our junior-senior year could be spent at the career center if selected once we applied. My mom told me either I would have to transfer schools to Bishop Hartley or attend Eastland Career Center because she wanted me to attend a school with a more advance curriculum. At this time, I have been cheering at Groveport for 5 years with the same group of girls since 7th grade so I didn’t want to stop cheering with them. For that reason I decided to apply to the career center. Another great thing about the career center was that it was next door to my high school, it would be considered my home school, and where I would still be able to cheer. The career center had programs such as Culinary Arts, Welding, Auto Mechanics, Business Management, Dental Assistance, Cosmetology and Criminal Justice. I was torn between Cosmetology and Criminal Justice because I knew with the Criminal Justice program it would require a lot of physical activity which I was not interested in. Another comparison between to the two fields is with CJ I would need additional school to actually be able to be in the law enforcement field I wanted, while for Cosmetology I would not. So I decided to apply to the Cosmetology program. I made up in my mind that after completing that program I would further my education with a major in Criminal Justice and use my Cosmetology Licenses as a backup. I graduated from Groveport Madison High School and the Eastland Career Center May 2012.

I wanted to go straight to college after graduating however, I wanted to start by experiencing living on a college campus. At that time my father had just been incarcerated so my home life was pretty chaotic, so I waited one semester before enrolling in school. January 2013, I applied to Clark Atlanta University and was accepted with the major of Criminal Justice. Although, this was my first time living away from home, hours away at that, I loved it and did well academically. Unfortunately, I had to leave due to not being able to afford the cost of tuition. I moved back home and continued schooling at Columbus State Community College in August 2013. I didn’t give up the hope of living the campus life, everyone boasts, about so I continued searching for schools with a lower tuition cost and closer to home.

Next stop, Bowling Green State University January 2014. I chose to attend BGSU because it was close to home and the tuition cost wasn’t outrageous. One thing I wish I didn’t do was stayed to myself, I did not make any effort or attempt to enjoy BGSU until close to the end of the semester. Not only was it extremely cold, even colder than Columbus, but it wasn’t CAU either. Once I realized I was self-sabotaging my experience at BGSU I begin searching for organizations to join. I did find an organization and enjoyed but I still knew I wasn’t really enjoying the campus. So after a while, I said to myself, “Why rack up all this debt just to say you experienced living on campus when you didn’t enjoy it?” Therefore, I decided to move back home and finish at CSCC. The second thing, that helped me make that decision was what my mom told me, “Jobs don’t really care where you get your degree, they just care if have one or not.” That was one of the reasons I ended up not making “living on campus” top priority. So I decided to finish my Associates degree in Criminal Justice at Columbus State Community College, and which I graduated there in December 2015.

Then, I applied to attend Ohio University online January 2016. After living on campus at BGSU and CAU, I was over the idea of living on campus so I decided to stick to online school so it wouldn’t interfere with my work life. It was only supposed to take me 2-3 years to obtain my Bachelors but life happened and it took me 5. One year, two semesters I wasn’t passing all of my courses due to some family situations. In result I was placed on an academic probation for a year, so that alone explains why it took so long and graduated. Ironically, I took my “Leap of Faith” during the year I was on academic probation. As soon as that ended, I enrolled back and stuck with it and fought through. August 2020, is when I finished my last semester of my courses for my Bachelors degree.

Yes, it was a long time coming. Yes, I had to change schools a few times. Yes, I had two years that basically didn’t count. BUT YES, I FINISHED.