You Live and You Learn -Claudia

Hi, my name is Claudia Castro and I am currently enrolled in Miami Dade College. I graduated high school in 2016 and when I first started college, my first day there, I didn’t have the help or the information I needed, but I didn’t know then. Everyone says the same things and doesn’t give enough information as to what specific classes you need to take etc. I chose everything for myself as a freshman without any help. I took the hardest classes I could start with, without anyone telling me that I shouldn’t start that way. The first few weeks of my freshman year seemed easy until I had all these assignments aligned with other projects and homework’s I had to turn in. I forgot to say I’m majoring in Interior design, but if you don’t know what classes we take, they’re very hard and very time consuming. I had taken 4 classes that semester and I had such a hard time that I even failed my SLS class. The easiest class you can take in college. I failed my math, my architectural classes that I really needed to pass. It was very hard for me and stressful that I had no one to help me and at the end me fail very important classes. My gpa went down and financial aid only gives you certain chances. So as the next semester came I got some classes that I failed in the previous semester so that I can pass them and move on from that. I even transferred from Kendall to Wolfson. At Wolfson I was helped and the only thing they messed up in was that they wanted me to finish faster so they put me in a late class and in a class I was supposed to take 2 semesters from that one. Meaning I was not going to know anything from that class. It was CAD, which is a computer class where you build all kinds of things on a scale, I’m telling you, hardest thing ever! I dropped the class in time because I had a 0% grade. I took one of the classes that I took the previous semester that I had said I failed. I was doing so so well in that class, I was ahead because I had already taken most of the things and I felt confident and happy that I finally got to pass the class. Turns out that my teacher dropped me from that class because I had missed 4 days of class. The syllabus says I couldn’t miss more than 3, but it also said that I’d need to have an excuse proven to why I wasn’t there. I emailed my teacher I had to stay take my sister to school and stay with her when needed because my mom was in and out of the hospital for blood transfusions because of her anemia. He did not care if I had a doctors note, or anything, he didn’t take me back in. I was going to finish that class with a B or higher and of course I was dropped. I don’t know what I did wrong to deserve such bad karma with school but for my next semester I didn’t want to mess it up. So I tried online at my own pace and time. I did English and math because obviously I couldn’t take architectural through the computer. I finished it recently and I did pretty good. Worst part was that I had to pay my own classes this semester. Because with the failings of my first semester in college, to being dropped in the other, financial aid did not give me any money at all. Now I have to take 2 more semesters off because I have no money to pay for my own classes. It hurts me that I messed up such an important part of my life, my career. I don’t have a stable job that can even pay my bills, which means I cant even pay my education. My parents have paid enough for me and cant do it either. The one thing I had for free, my education, I screwed that up for myself. I advice any student out there to research everything if no one can help and to do the right thing even if you hate studying or showing up to class. Ever since this happened to me, I try to advice everyone I can and I tell them my story. It’s the worst feeling not giving my parents the only thing they wanted from me, a good student with excellent grades. Now I work to pay bills and save up for at least one class because each is like $400. Be smart about your decisions in school because one mistake and it’ll change everything for you and your future.