On the day this column runs, I will be a fresh UWF graduate! There has been a lot of work put in to get to this point, and next year I will graduate from my same university with my master’s degree, so there is still a lot of work to come. I want to take this time to give you all the inside scoop on how I have made it to this point. The main factor that kept me on track is something that is both a strength and weakness at times: my stubbornness. If you ask my family, they would agree that I can be one stubborn individual, but they will also agree that my stubbornness has been a strength in my academics because of my inability to do anything different than the plan that I had put in place for myself. Now you can see how this can be a struggle at times because life happens and plans don’t always go as you want them to, however, I’ve learned to adapt as the years went on and somehow find a way to stick with or stick close to the plan that I had in my mind when I was in high school. In all reality, I wanted to graduate last year with my bachelor’s degree because I thought that was the only way that I could be on track to finish my masters by the time I’m done with softball. Obviously, that did not happen, but I did start my master’s this year, so I will be on track to graduate next year with it and essentially have the same outcome that I wanted in the first place. The journey may have looked a little different than I planned, but the outcome remained the same.
I still believe it is good to plan things out that you want in your life. But also know that these plans will most likely change in some way, shape or form. What matters the most is that you accomplish your goals and that can happen no matter the circumstance as long as you have a little stubbornness and a lot of faith.