Community College

When I tell people that I went to community college the most general response I would recieve was: "But I thought you were smart?". Well yahhh, I'm smart... but what does that have to do with going to community college? A lot of people have different perceptions about community college and I'd like to take some time to clear the air.
I'm not gonna lie community college was definitely not my first choice, but was most certainly my wisest. It's true that when kids mess around in high school, community college may be their only option, therefore it may be seen as a place for slackers. I've never been the type to slack especially when it comes to my education, so I wasn't thrilled to go to a school where I just assumed I'd be surrounded by them. It definitely took some time for me to warm up to OCC, but I feel like almost everything I assumed about it wasn't true.
Community college has a lot of diversity. I've met so many different kinds of people with completely different stories. Men and women from the army, mothers and fathers going back to school to get better jobs, kids who skipped grades, transfer students, the list goes on. It was weird to me that the only reason I had come there was because I couldn't make up my mind about what I wanted to do with my future.
Although I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, I ended up switching majors 3 times... One of the greatest things about OCC is that it helped me save SO much money. What a lot of people don't know is that most of the professors at OCC don't just work at OCC, they double time at colleges like Syracuse University which means I'm getting the same education as an SU student for 75% cheaper. As I've finally made my transition from community college to a four year college there are a few things that I'd like to clear up.

1. Just because it's community college doesn't mean it's easier.
- There are some courses that you might consider easier than others, but all together the majority of the courses I took at cc are easily comparable to the courses I'm taking at a 4year.

2. There's MAD baby mama drama.
-Yeah, lotsa mamas. And you won't hear the end of it. No, I don't know what it's like to have a kid, but damn I've got a pretty good idea. No point in watching teen mom when you've got the real life version in every single one of your classes.

3. There's no escaping the ghetto-sphere
- Yeah, I said it. Community college can get ghetto. You may wonder what I mean when I use the word "ghetto-sphere". Similar to the term atmosphere (the envelope of gasses surrounding the earth or another planet), ghetto-sphere is a constant surroundance of all things ghetto. As a girl that's been educated in the city for a good amount of my life I can tell the difference between walking through SU campus -where girls just look you up and down because they know you're greek meat- and OCC, where the guys look you up and down cause they wanna holla. Every other week someone is trying to convince you to buy their new mixtape out of a ziplock bag which unfortunately I couldn't handle to afford. And even though I have made it more than clear that I am not interested in talking to boys, I wish I had a nickle for every time someone said "Can I get yo numba tho?".

I'm not gonna lie there were a lot odd happenings, and sometimes things just got crazy. I almost feel like there wasn't a day that I wasn't constantly say to myself "Only at OCC...".


My first communications class we were all required to bring in something meaningful to us. While most people brought in pictures of loved ones and little family trinkets, this one kid insisted on bringing in a full suit of body armor. And I'm not talkin under armor. Straight up this kid had a 6ft tall metal mannequin figure of medieval armor. He only showed up for 2 more classes after that...

As an older sister it was necessary for me to take the responsibility to guide my little brother into cc and show him what to expect. Driving to school on his first day as I begin to warn him that he shouldn't fear odd behavior, some fool is driving the opposite way up the one way entrance to the college. This was just another typical moment.

In my journalism class we would research articles in the local newspapers and share our findings. While doing my so, I found an article based on two girls who were arrested on charges that they had robbed several houses just days before. When it was my turn to share my findings, I noticed that the girl in front of me was the same girl in the mugshot I had been staring at in my article. I decided to come "unprepared" to class that day...Fml.

I once had the opportunity to see a man pushing a blowup doll in a wheelchair across campus, as well as a man half naked casually strolling down the streets with soap suds seeping out of his pits. But nothing compared to working as an office assistant in the Career and Applied Learning Center. It was always a thrill. A bunch of different people would come in regularly to do work, or line up their career goals. Every week I got to look forward to the 60yr old Hispanic man who would come in just to try to pick me up, although I continuously reminded him that I was not only NOT Hispanic and didn't understand what he was saying, but the man seemed to misunderstand the concept of denial. 

Looking back on Community College It's taught me a lot, and also allowed me to see a lot of sh*t I didn't need to. But it benefited me in ways that no other four year school could. Which is why I will forever cherish the time I spent at Community College.