In the fall of 2017, I started attending Brookdale Community College. I remember feeling all kinds of emotions and having all kinds of thoughts in my mind. I knew I was going to major in computer science. I also knew that I would have to work very hard and be very focused academically to achieve all my goals.
When I was growing up, I didn’t know I had a learning disability, but it became very evident that I was better at spelling, reading and writing than I was in math and science. It bothered me to a great extent that I didn’t meet all the expectations when it came to my math classes. I wanted to be good at math, but I didn’t know how to reach that goal.
Once I entered high school, I had high expectations for myself, but again, I couldn’t meet that goal of being good at math. I just stopped caring about school and decided that if I wasn’t good at math, I wouldn’t be good at any other subject. I started to act impulsively, trying to seek attention, I wanted to be liked and accepted. I knew I wasn’t getting that kind of validation from my academics. Let’s just say my high school experience was far from magical.
Once I started Brookdale, I realized that there was an immense amount of support for every kind of student. Although I didn’t realize this at the time, I was emotionally moved by the amount of support I received from my professors and all the resources Brookdale had to offer. I made sure to utilize the Writing Center whenever I had doubts about my writing, and when I needed help with solving equations, I was heading to the math lab. For the first time in a long time, I gained my desire to do well in academics again.
I plan to graduate after the fall 2020 semester. I’m so proud to be a Brookdale student!