My crazy path to the College of B and E

It all started in the spring of 2015, I was a sophomore in high school still struggling to decide on what I wanted to do with my life. One day, in school I went to our principles office where I saw flyers and decided to pick a few of them up. That night my family and I started sitting down and going through everyone of them. It was tedious, as I could see myself doing a lot of what the flyers had been advertising at the time. But it was all about how much I could maximize in the financial side of things the quickest way possible. After going through about 15 flyers we decided to do Advanced Engineering Training (AET). So there it began, that semester I decided to do that and when I was setting up my classes I told my advisor and I signed paper work and that was it. I was a student at AET.

That first semester of my junior year of college I was very nervous, as this would be the first time ever for me to be in a college class. It was nerve racking to say the least and the two years I did it I learned a lot, but I also struggled a lot as well. I've never been good with math, like it is my achilles hill in academics and always has been. My spring semester of my senior year of college is when it was the worst, that was when they put you in the math stuff and actually had you design stuff. That semester I learned CAD, C++, and how to 3D print things. Those three things were like mandarin to me and through that first half of the semester my grade was not looking hot. Thats when I first started having doubts, I was struggling and if it wasn't for my assistant teacher to take me aside when my main teacher was teaching the same material, my assistant professor taught it to me at a slower pace. It was frustrating because everyone else was doing good and then there was me. But, I still passed with a C and that is why I tried it in college.

When I first got to WVU I had to register as undecided as I had to take the Alex test and had to see what math class I was going to get placed in. Here is when I had my second set of doubts. I had to take the Alex test 3 times just to get in the lowest math class possible to begin my engineering career. I still stuck through it as I was living in the mind set of "you can do anything you put your mind through" and still continued on. Believe it or not that first semester was not that bad as I finished with all A's and B's, then second semester happened.

I had to take chemistry 110 and took an even harder math class. Chemistry was split up into six weeks and then another six weeks. If you got through the first six weeks and passed you would advance into the second six weeks. Well let me tell you, from the minute I started that class I was behind. I remember for those six weeks I would go to my professors office hours everyday and go study with him everyday. I couldn't get it, I did not get through the first six weeks no matter how much effort I put into it. That was the straw that broke the camels back.

I called my parents, and simply said "engineering is not for me". So there I was back to phase one of college; picking a major. I had to do a lot of soul searching during that time and then one day I saw the head dean of the college of B and E and him and I hit it off nice. After about a 5-10 minute conversation with him he asked what my major was? I told him I was undecided and since then my life has never been the same.

His eyes lit up, as he took me into his office looked at my degree works and told me I was a direct admin. That even though my first year I was not a B and E student I would still graduate on time if I passed all my classes after dropping chem 110. He ended with he would strongly recommend this college for me, especially the marketing program. After he said that the rest is history, I have never looked back since and if it wasn't for him I do not know where or what I would be doing as that is perhaps the most lost I have ever been in my life.

Now, do not get me wrong it was not easy after I signed to be apart of the college of B and E. I still got knocked down and had to brush myself off a few times as I had to take math 150 two times and barely got by accounting 201 and 202 with C's. I never gave up.

That is why I know marketing is for me as (knock on wood) I have never felt more comfortable inside a particular field then marketing in my life. As, every marketer I have ever meet in my life I have always felt connected with. Not to mention, my father and grandfather were marketers. So, I guess it runs in the family. No matter, when I look back three years ago till now, all I can say is "what a ride". And if I had to do it again, I no doubt would say yes.