Everyone always seems to think they must have a plan for everything, but here’s the thing. Life doesn’t always work out for everyone, or at least not the way they want it to.

I’m 26 and I’ve been doing this college thing since I graduated from high school in 2010. If it wasn’t one thing that was popping up, it was another. I went to community college from there where my starter major was Office Systems & Administration, and for whatever reason when that wasn’t working for me, I switched to Graphic Design, not because it was my passion, because it’s not – that’s writing, why I’m here at Mass Media – but because people saw what I made in Photoshop and liked it and thought that was something I should do with my life. And then I graduated with an Associate’s Degree in that, but I still wanted to stay behind and do something else. Two years later, in 2015, I had another Associate’s, this time in English/Creative Writing. Finally.

The thing is, it took me longer to get there not just because I didn’t realize until then that I could do what I truly wanted to do, but because there were semesters when I was still in Graphic Design where I had to stay back and retake a class or two. That’s what stopped me. People at Mass Media now see me at my desk lost in my homework on days where I don’t mind the late commute back home being trampled by everyone else just as eager to get home, but I wasn’t nearly as diligent back then in myself or my studies by any means.

Then I woke up and realized what I really wanted to make something out of. Writing. Any way I could have it, I would take it.

Call me crazy. But if I could make a living writing the papers I write in class now, I’d take that in a heartbeat. Maybe it’s the change in school. Maybe it’s me as I am now. Whatever it is, I wouldn’t be here now at any rate if it wasn’t for me being stupid back then and slipping up in class with worse grades I ever had I never get now. Those credits and all the classes I took for those majors – and, gasp, a student loan — helped me get here more than I could have ever imagined.

I still remember one meeting with my Head of Graphic Design Department back then after which I spent a good amount of time crying while cuddling with my now ex in the hallway just because I thought that one bad mark was the be all end all. It never is, and if that’s you this semester while all your friends graduate and you must take a summer class or something just to graduate at all now, it’s not the end of the world. Any more than a bad breakup or whatever else have you that you thought you’d never get through and, hey, where are you now, huh?

If it’s any more of a consolation, I didn’t get my first job  – thank you, you know who you are – until this semester. I waited as many minutes before replying to that email as I could get away with, and then I answered after a fifth attempt at remembering what typing normal was.

So, whatever held you back from graduating this semester? It’s just life being life, as it always will no matter what you try and do to beat it back, and you will graduate and move on with making the most of the rest of your life however you wish. Time is on everybody’s side. You still got this.