Misadventures part 4: "That" Teacher part 2 vs. The Two Greats

So, the last time I talked about teachers, it focused on my middle school years. I am skipping high school because I mostly didn't care about the bad teachers there, though I had some AMAZING life altering teachers there. However, I am going straight to college, where bad a teacher/educator helped me make a life altering choice. Hope you enjoy! (◕ ◡ ◕)

So, one common question I get asked is how did I end up where I did? This question usualy occurs at current profession or just one-on-one conversations with people I encounter. How did I end up leaving Biochemistry and becoming a Social Worker?  Or How did I end up wanting to do Community Arts Outreach? Well that answer comes from childhood. 

LaRhonda asks me this question all the time....

As a child I always loved science. I wanted to do it all. I remember I wanted to be an inventor of some sort. I went so far as to "invent" a present for my mom one Christmas when I was young. It was the crappiest invention I probably ever attempted, but it was from the heart and I loved that feeling. In elementary school I was introduced to more science in the "Science and Technology" club where we used science to take our minds even further. Making Mag-Lev cars, bottle rockets, motors, and so much more. In Middle school I was deeply introduced to chemistry and biology, and we are going to erase that earth science class for obvious reason (*￣m￣).....but, even from that class I remember fun things. I was even apart of their magnet program, which I pushed to continue in high school in their "bio-medical" magnet. I always loved doing science, I still do to this day. It's also important to know that I was always active in not only science things, but  I was an athlete, an artist, a musician, and other various things along the way.

Merry Christmas Mom, it's a coat rack

So Naturally when I went to college, I wanted to do Biochemistry. I was going to go and do Biochemistry so that I could do epidemiology (the study of the spread of diseases) and work with the CDC. In my free time, try to help out with the community with a center of some sort; since I would have made a career and had money. This was my reality at the time. And that's when I met her, my "adviser." So granted my first semester in college was a bust partly because I didn't study and I slacked off to do things with friends. However this adviser didn't help much either. 

The not study game: I usually played Smash Brothers or Mario Strikers with the same friend. 

So She was a general adviser,one was one of many, to help guide biochemistry majors until they progressed far enough in their majors to get a real adviser who was normally a professor in their field. However, I think her job apparently was to make my life hell She would overload me with classes and credits to make sure I was staying on "track." a normal freshman would generally take no more than 12 credits. She had me in the 14-16 credit range. And this was a constant thing. She would stockpile many hard classes into one semester, claiming it was necessary and that I needed to be finished in 5yrs as this was program that dictated this to be so. So to give you an idea of what I did, here's my first year:  

1st Semester

Chem 101-4 creds
English 100- 3 Creds
Human Geography- 3 Creds
Precalc- 4 Creds
Chem discovery (in conjunction with Chem)-3 hours of life wasted

Every living soul in Chem Discovery

2nd Semester: 
Chem 101 (again...)-4 Creds
Bio 101- 4 Creds
Bio lab- 2 cred
Calculus- 4 Creds
Chem group (Again)- The professor started to know my name very well
Bio group (useless space made mandatory by professor or you'd fail)

Again, but this time in EVERY CLASS

and so forth.

Every time I met with her, I would come with an idea of spreading out the courses so that I would die mentally and physically from stress, but she would only approve stockpiled schedules like that. So needless to say, I did a lot of class repeating and some of the easier classes I were able to take, I couldn't live up to my potential because I was brain dead from this full schedule. So at the start of my 3rd year, I went to meet with her and this is where the change happened.


On said faithful day, at the end of Spring semester of my 2nd year, I was getting ready to meet with my adviser once again. After failing Chemistry 102, the second tier up, for the second time, I knew I had to get special permission to go forth from here, so I was already uneasy. Not to mention that whole semester out of my 5 classes I only got 1 A and 1 B...all the others were...not so great. I got 1 C *yay*.  Anyway, I get to the meeting with this lady and she is looking up all my information, when she just stops and asks me, "why are you here. What do you expect to do." Well naturally I started to ramble about epidemiology and working with the CDC. But then she cut me off and said the most unsettling thing that an educator has ever said to me. She said, " No what I mean is why are you wasting your time doing this. With grades like these, you won't be able to do what you want to do in life....Grad school? Not with grades like these. You're just wasting your time and mine continuously doing this....not even trying...."

You know those moments where you hear someone talking and you're comprehending everything, but you're in your own little world. It was at this point in her speech that I came to that place. I never had an educator say something so terrible to me and needless to say I wasn't happy, but I wasn't angry either. I was just now lost... It was like my guiding star I called science just vanished from my night sky and I could no longer navigate my life. That day she cleared me to schedule for classes, but told me I was not cleared for ANY science classes. And I left....I never went back there again...

Yeap, Pretty much my face

The next semester, my 4th or 5th one at this point, I took a couple of art classes and only one social science class, because I knew I would need it further down the road if I continued biochemistry. It was a very long semester not knowing what I would do next. Everyday I enjoyed my art classes, but between walking to classes I was lost in an eternal drift of what will I do with my life now. 

Everyday....

This is when one of my good friends suggested Interdisciplinary Studies. They told me that I'd be able to create my own major and do a whole lot of fun things. Well, it took me a very long time to gather the courage to go to that department, but before the end of the semester, I stepped foot into their department and met with an amazing professor. To this day I still refer to him as Doctor, even though he doesn't have a PhD or is a doctor, but that's how much of an impact he had on me. 

The very first thing he did was look at my transcript and classes I had taken. Naturally I was just waiting for him to kill my dreams too, but this man did not. He looked at all the classes I did well in and formulated a game plan. He then asked me what my goal was. He was then the first to notice that deep down inside I wanted to help people, but I was an artistic soul. For the next 2 weeks I kept meeting with him. He showed me various departments such as the theater department, art department, etc. to make sure I didn't just want to major there. Then, he said the coolest thing. He said, "With all this talent you have, I might be able to help you get where you want to be in life. Don't worry about the science thing, I will show you how that has helped you when you take my class." He also informed me that to do this interdisciplinary (INDS) major I'd need a second, and since I wanted to help people, he escorted me over to the Social Work Department where he got me a meeting with the Dean, the DEAN!

We're meeting people....OKAY!

She was also another phenomenal lady. Though, most would probably mark her as a little cold and forward, that day after hearing my entire story and looking at my transcript, she said she saw potential in what I was doing. She then signed me up for Social work and instantaneously deleted my Biochem major status, denying that one "adviser" to never mess with me again.  

Best feeling in the world.

Needless to say, I fell in love with Social work and produced my own INDS major in Community Arts Outreach. Both advisers stuck with me to til the very end, helping me shape my majors and finding the right classes for me. They even believed in my dreams as much as I did, if not more. They both told me that they saw so much potential in me that they have not seen in a while, and they were expecting me to transcend their expectations, some of which they said I did by time I graduated. To this day, I still communicate with them and they still are very proud of me. I also made plenty of awesome social worker friends (SOWK4LYFE) and met some invaluable people and were placed in the right places at the right time. I now have a whole night sky of stars that will always guide me in the right direction (even my science one is back up there) .

To this day, I'm waiting to achieve my dream, even in the process of really getting it started now, so that way when I get my first official paycheck from MY OWN BUSINESS, I can go back to my university, find that crappy adviser and  just place my check on her desk with out saying a word....and walk out BALLIN' ヘ(◕。◕ヘ).

Where can I rent this choir?

Hope you enjoyed this story. And until next time stay awesome!

"If Tomorrow never comes, then I'll just have to chase after it."~Space Dandy