The South African society I lived in was a very divisive society. Women were not encouraged to achieve beyond profession, such as nursing or teaching. Being a non-white South African exacerbated the situation even further. The past regime had a policy such that they would only offer scholarships to those non-white students who were studying education. This resulted in many students getting an education degree, merely as a spring board, and then going back to school to do what they really wanted to do, while teaching at the same time, thereby financing their own studies. Others however got trapped in a profession that they did not want to be in, which played itself out by generally lowering the quality of education in the country among persons called non-whites.
My parents were going through a messy divorce, while I was in college, and although I thought I was handling it all quite well then, I can now look back and see the devastating effect it had on me. This all resulted in me boxing in my potential, I knew what I wanted form life, and what I wanted to give to life, but did not believe that what I wanted was possible, in fact I did not believe I had the ability to achieve my goals, of becoming a clinical psychologist and teaching.
I was the first female in my family to pursue a college career, and only the second person in my family to do this. Because of this there was no family support to help me. Although I had the general support of my family, when it came to the nuts and bolts of when and where I could study, and what I needed to do to achieve, there were no role models. Even though my grades left a lot to be desired I did manage to graduate in my home country with a Bachelors degree.
Four years later I came to the United States of America, and here for the first time in my life I learned that everything is possible, if you put your mind to it. I decided to enter college as a transfer student, and used the lessons from the past to spur me on to a different future than the one I envisioned in South Africa. Now I also had the support of a husband, who had similar goals to mine, and together we support and encourage each other.
An important lesson that I learned, is that nothing was going to be handed to me on a platter; that I had to be an active participant in it all. College now was not a facet of my life that I left behind at the end of the day but something that became part and parcel of my life. I actively sought out ways to be involved in my area of study, such as joining student organizations and becoming involved in research. My professors were now revered as role models instead of unapproachable beings, as I viewed them before. All of the above enhanced my college experience and a by-product is that my grades are much better now, than they were before. I now view my whole experience as a time for me to absorb as much as I can in preparation for my
future. Learning has now become exciting and the thought of expanding my world through knowledge propels me to want to learn more. I now look at my whole college experience as preparation for my profession, it can be compared to putting money in a savings account, that will pay high dividends in the future, in other words I am investing in myself.
Even though my experience in college is a positive one overall, I have had some difficulties. Studying full time resulted in my income taking a plunge; this meant that my standard of living took a dive as well. This took time to get used to, but also taught me valuable lessons in managing my finances. A second problem that I experienced was that of time management. As an English Second Language Student, it took me longer to read articles and prescribed readings, and I often found myself in trouble for not appropriating enough time for particular tasks. I was often plagued by procrastination as well, which did not make time management any easier. These are still problems that I often struggle with, but I have learned to not be too hard on myself when I fail in these, and to find strength in the times that I have successfully negotiated my way through them.
To be successful in college involves more than just studying, even though that is an integral part of it. Surround yourself with the right role models or mentors, and taking an active part in your college experience, are important factors that can add to the success experienced in college. Something that proved to be extremely helpful was viewing college as a place to get a degree, view it as a haven where you can successfully develop every part of yourself in order to achieve your full potential, this makes it an exciting and vibrant place.
