That time I Flunked out of College.

When I was 17 years old, I graduated from high school. This is the typical age to prepare to transition from being a child to a teen and, finally, an adult in the Western world, especially in the United States and Canada. I cannot speak for other Western countries.

Several things happen when you are graduating if you are able. First, you need at least a 2.0 GPA to graduate in 1982 when I graduated. I was right on the line because as a student in Junior (now called middle school) and senior high school, I liked to goof around as much as I could and still be able to graduate from Independence High School in Columbus, Ohio. The only way I was able to do that was to pick up some extracurricular activities. So, since I liked singing so much, I joined the choir, took Music Theory 1 and 2, and helped in the Guidance Office. If this did not happen, I would have looked at a GPA lower than 2.0. Oh, and I was in the drama club. I had already met my math, science, and English requirements in the 8th grade.

Once you meet the requirements, which according to the district’s website, you will need:

Earn the minimum of 22 credits in core/elective subject areas

Complete any additional local/district subject requirements

Take all required Ohio State Tests.

They forgot to say, “and pass these tests.”

You get to walk across your school’s stage in a cap and gown, receive your diploma, and be prepared to enter into the world of work (self-employed or corporate) or prepare to go to college or “university,” as the people across the big pond would say. By then, you are an adult by the United States’ requirements, BUT not old enough to legally drink. Sorry kids who are reading this, you have to wait until you are 21 for that rite of passage.

Ohio State University or bust.

This was my school of choice. Why? Other than I love The Ohio State University Buckeyes, my parents told me that they were not paying for me to go to UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) with my grades. Even those I loved the school, I did not like my dormmates, except for one. What happens when you mix two Greek students (one was only half Greek), an Italian Student, and an African American student (me)? Jealousy, mean girlishness, and a whole lot of bossiness. And that was from the Greek students. To me, the girls were immature and stubborn, and if they wanted to talk about you, they would speak in Greek only. Folks, I have never seen so much craziness in all my life. Let me give you an example:

On the weekend of homecoming, I was supposed to go home (which was a 30-minute drive for me), but I decided to wait until Saturday night. I wanted to experience college homecoming, which is a different ballgame from high school homecoming. Dana (I will call her that in case she happens to read this), who was an Italian student, decided to stay at the dorm of a friend. She had already had it with these two, and I was about there myself. Anyway, I went to sleep. These two bumbleheads came into the room with two guys, making love and all that stuff. Here I am, an 18-year-old virgin, who had never experienced anything as I had felt before. I was sleeping on the top bunk when I felt the bed move. I started crying. I thought it was an earthquake. But in Ohio? With glasses off, I looked down to blurrily see one of the girls and the guys having sex. They stopped because they heard me crying. It seemed as though I had leaped off the top bunk, grabbed my glasses, and told them that I wanted to go home. Joan and Selma (not their names) begged me not to go to the RA (Room Advisor), but I went anyway. Down the hall I went, crying every step of the way, and banged on the RA’s door. Rhonda was very nice, and I called Mom and Dad to come to get me in the middle of the night. This part is why I wrote a tribute to my mom. Mom talked to me, then to the two girls, and finally to Rhonda. She gave them all the riot act.

Mommy then asked to speak to me again, and she asked me if I was sure that I wanted to come home now instead of a few hours from that point. I had calmed down at that point, and I told her that I would stay for the day.

A couple of weeks later, I got into an argument with Dana. At that time, I had really bad eczema and used an ointment called Aquaphor. It was petroleum-like jelly for the skin. Dana had this beautiful music box that her grandfather made for her, and she had it since she was a small child. The music box was very ornate on the top. I was asleep when all of a sudden, we all heard a scream. Dana had come out of the room to find my Aquaphor all over the top of her music box. She came in and yelled at me, wondering why I would do such a thing to her, and she thought that we were friends. She then further explained how hard her grandfather worked to get every detail just right for her. Joan and Selma just sat there, not saying a word. This was a couple of weeks after the “sex” incident. I guess those two wanted to get me back for telling on them. Dana decided to move out at that point to her friend’s dorm.

Two weeks had gone by, and Dana came to gather the rest of her things. We talked, and she knew that it was Joan and Selma who had done it the whole time. I wanted her to move back into the dorm so I could have an ally. Next thing you know, I was alone in my fight to stay in that dorm.

At the end of the quarter (Ohio State is now semester based), I left with a probationary grade point average (GPA). I flunked all of my classes because of my situation, and in January 1983, I started going to CTI (Columbus Technical Institution, now Columbus State Community College). I ended up not doing so well at Columbus State either, and I finally graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing at Franklin University in 2003. Because of my low GPA at the beginning of my college career, I barely made a high enough GPA to graduate from Franklin (despite constantly making “As” and “Bs.” It was not a 4.0 GPA, but I am proud of myself that I was able to climb out of the mess that happened in my 20s.

No matter what, you can come out of this.

Flunking out of a college that you had high hopes of graduating from is not the end of the world. Yes, I could have redeemed myself at that moment, but as a naive person who has never experienced life outside of my parent’s little bubble world, which was made of Christian values, Staying in a dorm quad with 15 people (4 to a room) was an eye-opening experience. You deal with many different personalities. Another person and I was going to switch rooms had I stayed. She got along with Joan and Selma a lot better than I did, and I got along with the two African American women who she was staying with. If I had stayed, the second quarter probably would have been much better.

As I said, I eventually got my degree, although it was not in the theater, which I grew up wanting to go into. When I started at CTI, I was a social worker major, which led to Early Childhood Education. From there, I was in Business Administration when I left Columbus State, started out at Franklin University in Business Administration with a minor in Marketing, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing, and I ended up being a writer and a graphic designer.

Although I may never win an Academy for Best Actress in a Major Adaptation Film, I am satisfied with my career choices.

As this year’s high school seniors (or whatever your country’s equivalent to that status) graduate, I wish you the best of luck and well wishes as you become an adult. It does not matter if you decide to take the college/university route, run the family business, decide that working is your calling, or even own a business, do the best that you can and make it count. Your college career may not end up like mine, and I hope that it doesn’t. There are other ways to earn a degree that I never had. When I was in college, I never had the option to take online classes. I took my one and only online class towards the end of earning my degree in marketing. I loved it. Had this been a choice when I was at Ohio State, I would do great in my classes. I had two experiences while I was at Franklin University.

The first one, and the only one I mentioned, was with a study group. We had a group assignment together, and everyone in the group claimed to the instructor that I had not contributed to the assignment at all when I did most of the work. We were to visit the people who we were creating the marketing portfolio for. I was the only one who showed up. I wrote my part of the assignment, and they claimed that I had not. I did not flunk the class because it was a group grade, but I was not happy with them at all.

On the other hand, my best experience was my last group assignment for a car company, and I loved looking up all the data that was provided to us for this assignment. The people who I worked with were wonderful. Both experiences gave me a sense of what it was like to work in a real marketing department. Too bad I never got a chance to work in a real marketing department.

My conclusion is this: do the best you can to navigate this adult world. It is hard, and people are becoming harder to work with, especially since we are dealing with the “Great Resignation.” If you have a great job with people you want to work with, keep this job. I know graduating from high school is scary, but again, do your best

Again, good luck in your life.