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msalishagayle-blog · 7 years

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I graduated high school in 2009. That is almost 10 years ago. I remember my teachers drilling it into our heads, “You’ve got to go to college if you want to make something of yourself! Get those ACT’s done. Study, study, study. Start building your resume now!” I was an overachiever. I didn’t make straight A’s, but I did make A’s and B’s with the occasional C. I only got a D once, which was in Geometry. We won’t go there, bad memories! (My Mom wasn’t even mad because she knew how hard I tried. So we cut our losses on that one!)

I was a dreamer. I dreamed of all these things that I could see myself doing. I remember wanting to be a Pediatrician in Elementary School. Then I wanted to be a Veterinarian. I did one month at Barnes Mill Animal Hospital and realized that although I absolutely LOVE animals, I could not do that job. Plus, I didn’t want to have to move out of state away from my family. So that dream went up in smoke. I felt pressured to hurry and declare a major. So I decided to be a P.E. Teacher. Yeah! That is what I will do. I always played sports growing up and P.E. was my absolute favorite class. I was pumped. Ready to get started. And then I went to EKU orientation…

I’m not going to lie. It overwhelmed me. I have to do what now? All of these general education courses? Classes were huge with so many students. My advisor signed me up for classes that held no interest to me whatsoever. Yes, I mentioned I’m an overachiever, but if I lost interest in something, it was hard to get me back. I don’t know if it has something to do with me not having a thyroid gland or what, but even now, it has to interest me or you’ve lost me completely.

I truly believe that at age 18, you are not mentally capable of choosing what you want to do with the rest of your life. Maybe some can, but maybe others need more time on figuring out who they are as person before signing their life away to a bunch of debt. Even though I thought I had it figured out, I totally didn’t. My first year at EKU from 2009-2010 was a train wreck. I do not blame the school, I blame the lack of maturity I had at the time. Even though at 18 you are supposed to be transitioning into an adult, you truly aren’t a complete adult. There are many life lessons you have yet to learn.

My breaking point? I flipped my car that I worked hard for at my part-time job at Wendy’s. Luckily, I was not injured and only walked away with severe whiplash, but my car was totaled. I was staying on campus at the time and having no car made life awful. Even though I wasn’t injured, I had days that I was sore and couldn’t bring myself to get out of the bed. I kept having nightmares of the wreck over and over. It haunted me. I stopped going to my classes because I had lost my focus all together. The next thing you know, I ended up on academic probation. So I dropped out. I made a rash decision out of pure ignorance, I realize that now, but then, I was too naive. All I knew is my grades were horrible and I was embarrassed at myself.

The next week, I enrolled at National College, now called American National University. I figured if I started brand new, it would be a fresh start and I could move forward with my life. I decided to go into Business Administration. During that time, I met my now husband Johnathan when I started working at Lee’s Famous Recipe. He was a graduate of EKU with a Bachelor’s degree in English. He has always been supportive of my education which was one of the things that drew me to him.

While attending National College, I became pregnant with my daughter after moving in with my husband. My family thought I would drop out of school, but I didn’t. It made me more determined to finish my degree. In April 2013, I walked across the stage and accepted my Associate’s degree in Business Administration while 6 months pregnant. I graduated with honors. My family was proud of me.

Fast forward to June, I went into labor 6 weeks early. Scariest moment of my life. Instead of being out of work for 6 weeks, I was out for 2 months because I wanted to make sure my baby was okay enough for me to go back to work. She had a 2 week NICU stay. I was very lucky and blessed to have a healthy baby despite her being born early. Whilst on maternity leave, the bills from my first year at EKU and the bills from National College started rolling in. $8.50 an hour was definitely not going to take care of a baby and pay back this college debt. I got on social media asking for advice on what to do. Someone said, go back to school and continue to get your Bachelor’s. At this point I was 22 years old.

So, I went to National College in Lexington, KY and re-enrolled back into school which put my loans on deference. I knew it was going to hold challenges because not only was I working, but I had a baby to take care of and now I was going to have to factor in homework. My next realization is that the only experience I had was fast food. I needed office experience. My best friend Megan told me her Mother was needing a telephone operator through the STEPS program at UK. I put my application in and got hired. I put my two weeks in at Wendy’s.

At this point, Johnathan was working as a manager at the Athens Wendy’s, and now I was commuting to Lexington for work and school as well. The driving became way too much. So we started looking for apartments in Lexington and moved. The job at UK was great. I was able to gain the office experience I needed. The only issue it was considered a temporary position. I started to worry about benefits because once I turned 26, I would no longer be on my father’s health insurance which was very important due to my health problems. I started looking for a full-time position.

I was hired on by Pacific Pulmonary. It was a full-time position at call center for a durable medical equipment company based out of California and it was a pay raise. I hated putting my two weeks in at UK, but they understood. I learned a lot about oxygen and nebulizer and some aspects of how health insurance worked for those pieces of equipment while at PPS. It was a repetitive position. Eventually I became cross trained. Instead of just sending out oxygen supplies, I was trained to send out nebulizer medication.

After a year and a half, people were laid off, somehow I made the cut, but they weren’t able to promise it as a permanent position. So I started applying again so that I could find a job that was more stable. At this point I had quit going to National College and had started Bluegrass Community and Technical College because I wanted to improve my GPA and eventually try again at EKU. I was still unsure as to what direction I wanted to go, so I focused on completing my general education courses that I failed at EKU.

For awhile, I thought about going into Social Work. Then I thought about being a Preschool Teacher. A lot of people talked me out of Social Work. So, I decided to appy at different daycares. It took ONE day of shadowing at daycare to realize, NOPE. Not for me. I love children, but there is no way I can handle multiple children the same age as my daughter. I would end up in a nut house. So, I was back to square one when it came to deciding on what to do. I’m 24, getting ready to turn 25 at this point. I’m seriously kicking myself in the butt, saying, “Get it together, Alisha! 30 is just around the corner! You’re about to have a kid in school.”

I finally accepted a position at Patient Aids, which was another DME provider, but I would actually do the intake process which was obtaining the documents needed to get insurance to pay for equipment that was ordered by patients’ doctors. I had to learn the ins and outs of Medicare and Medicaid and other insurances. I had to learn what a prior authorization was and how to obtain one. I stumbled through the first couple of months and finally caught on. I finally got my groove on and learned how to get my charts completed in a timely fashion. The only problem with learning how to do well at your job, is you get to do other peoples jobs as well. It became overwhelming to the point of me not being able to handle it anymore. At this point I had already declared my major as Medical Billing and Coding. Despite me being overworked, I still wanted to complete the degree and I realized that just because it wasn’t going well at this job, didn’t mean I couldn’t find a job that would be better. At this point, I am 26.

I started looking for other DME positions so I could stay within the same field because part of my college program was having to complete an internship to graduate and I couldn’t afford to miss work. What better way to complete an internship while at work? A cool dude by the name of Dan messaged me on Indeed and had me come in for an interview. It was WeCare Medical. I thought, jackpot! It is still DME and it was for a Site Coordinator position which is also considered management. So not only would I get more coding experience, I could actually gain management and more administration experience for my associate degree I obtained previously.

The interview went smoothly. We laughed a lot and cut up. I thanked him and went on my way. Things were getting worse at my current job, but I kept my head held high. A few days later, he calls me and asks if I would like to take the position. Sometimes in life, it is hard to break away and take a leap of faith, but with the support of my husband and family, I said yes and put my two weeks in, but was let go the next day because I was going to work for a competitor. Thanks to my new boss, he got me on immediately.

Months prior, I had applied for a scholarship at BCTC and soon learned that I had won shortly after starting at WeCare. Then, I found out that I was expected to graduate Spring 2018. I was like, wow… I’m graduating again. At this point, my daughter is 4 years old and will get to witness me graduate which is pretty cool. One day, when I was scrolling through my personal email, I had one from EKU that said BCTC transfer students could apply for free. Out of curiosity, completely unsure of what I was going to pursue, applied just to see if they would accept me back despite the train wreck I left back in 2010.

Within two days, I received an acceptance letter. I made sure they had the right person because my named had changed from Flannery to Powers since I had last been there. They said they were able to locate my old account and change it to my updated name. She asked me when I wanted to start, and I said that I’m thinking about Fall 2018, but I will have to be a 100% online student and I am unsure as to what I want to do just yet.

For days I have racked my brain. Thinking, what have I signed myself up for? Why can’t I just stop and be happy with what I have and what I have already accomplished? I don’t know if it is because I want to make things right because I hate leaving things on a bad note. I don’t know if its just so I can say that in my lifetime, no matter what, I didn’t give up and still obtained a Bachelor’s. But, I guess we will see what journey this takes me on.

My sister has made fun of me for making a career out of going to college. Yes, it has almost been 10 years that I have continued going to school, but I told her, you do what you have to do when you have a family. I apologize for this long explanation of my schooling background, but it has a point, I promise!

The point that I am trying reiterate is, public/private schools should NOT drill college into young teenagers’ minds. They should offer many options besides just college. You have trade school, you could go straight into the workforce, etc. College isn’t the only route you can take. My father did not go to college and he had a pretty decent life with a job that helped pay the bills and take care of our family. A college degree does not always guarantee success. I have also learned that ir would have been okay if I had taken a break after high school before starting college. Instead, I felt this pressure of getting in and getting it done ASAP. 10 years later, and look at me. I’m not even remotely finished!

Sometimes, it takes real life experiences to point you in the direction of who you want to be. Sometimes the experiences can be wonderful such as me getting married to my husband and us having a beautiful baby girl. She is my drive to want to continue to be successful. She is my world. And sometimes the experiences can be gut wrenching and awful, which can lead you in a totally different direction. I’ve faced many obstacles in the past 10 years, I’ve watched people I love face tragedy. I’ve faced tragedy myself. I am 4 years shy of turning 30 years old. My perspective on many things in this world has been transformed. I no longer think the way I used to.

Although I wish that I would have waited a little longer before starting my journey, I also don’t regret what I’ve done. I’ve kept my head up despite many bumps a long the way and never gave up. And even though it has nearly taken me 10 years to discover myself and actually get a taste of how the real world really is. I have learned that life isn’t black and white. There are many different cultures that exist and many different ways of life. I have also learned that your raising has A LOT to do with what kind of adulthood you will have.

This leads me to say that I am thinking about pursuing Psychology once I start at EKU. Of course, that could possibly change as always, but after this past year and the life events I have experienced, I want to help people. I want to help people mentally and emotionally the best way I can. Life isn’t easy in the slightest. I have great sympathy and empathy for those of addiction and those who have been assaulted sexually or physically. I also would like to help children who have been abused in any way. I just want to help.

So please, wish me luck in my future endeavors. And if you are still in high school and you are about to graduate, think long and hard about your next move. There is nothing wrong with waiting or choosing a different path. Just pick or do something. Whether it be a first time job at a retail store or fast food restaurant. You can always move your way up in any company you start out working for. And most importantly, do what makes you happy. If you like to play sports, join an adult sports club. If you like helping, volunteer in local community events. If you love photography, start a photography business. If you love crafting, start making and selling crafts. Find what keeps your flame burning. And just because you end up in a career with your college degree doesn’t mean you should stop doing what makes you happy on the side. Do it all.

You only get 100 years to live.

Your Future is a Blank Canvas I graduated high school in 2009. That is almost 10 years ago. I remember my teachers drilling it into our heads, "You've got to go to college if you want to make something of yourself!

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