This will probably be one of the most personal blog posts that I ever write but I wanted to share more about how I earned my degrees & this long enduring process. I started writing this in May towards the end of the Spring Semester and I have just kept adding to it because there is SO much that I can tell you all about “my story” & how I am about to complete my LAST semester of grad school because it’s been such a LONG journey & so much has happened. But, I’m going to start from the beginning.

I’ve been working since I was 15. It wasn’t until my Junior year that I realized that if I was going to go to college then I would have to find a way to go (& pay for it) myself. I was always in advanced courses, but I wasn’t serious about my grades until Junior year and by then it was “too late” for full ride scholarship options. I thought that everything would just work out when the time comes because I was always at the top of my class, always worked hard & I did so many extracurriculars throughout school. I spent my Freshman & Sophomore year focused on everything but my grades & by Junior year, I couldn’t compete with everyone who focused on their grades. I still graduated in the top quarter & accepted to every school I applied for but didn’t receive enough in scholarships to attend.

I took college-credit courses in high school (called dual-credit that was offered for free by the school) that REALLY helped me. I graduated high school with 24 college credit hours from the local community college. During my senior year, I worked with my counselor and advisor for the college I was going to attend. My parents made “too much” to qualify for grants but they also didn’t have enough to help me go to school. So if I wanted to go to college, I had to come up with the money. SO during my senior year of high school I had two jobs: one part time job at my high school working for the attendance office & one full time job at Starbucks. I would go to class at 7:45 AM every morning, have classes in the morning, work at the school after lunch until 4 or 5 then go to Starbucks at 430 or 5 and work until 11:30 at night. All of my paychecks from my part time job and more than half of my paychecks from Starbucks went to my savings account to save for my first year of college (& a car because that wasn’t an option either).

I worked at Starbucks my first year of college & was able to pay for my classes with everything that I saved in high school and what I was making in Starbucks throughout the summer. I was living at home with my parents so I didn’t have to worry about rent (which I MISS MORE THAN ANYTHING) & saved everything I could.

During my second year of college I started working at AT&T. They had a tuition reimbursement program that I took full advantage of & that helped me tremendously to get me through paying for the rest of my Associate’s & part of my Bachelor’s. The only issue was that AT&T does “schedule bidding” based on seniority & you NEVER had guaranteed off days. Meaning, they would pay for school, but they didn’t give me the option to go to school unless I went down part time. Which I couldn’t do because my health insurance would’ve almost tripled & I had a car paryment to worry about & eventually rent & other bills once I moved out.

I have always made good grades, the only problems that ever occurred with school was coming up with the money to pay for courses & the ability to attend courses on campus (due to work schedules). I mainly took online courses, but I couldn’t major in Marketing for my Bachelor’s Degree because I couldn’t attend the courses I needed on campus. There were semesters that I had to drop because I couldn’t pay for the classes. I didn’t qualify for financial aid because in Texas, it didn’t matter if my parents weren’t helping me pay for my courses. I had to go by their income until I was 24 unless I had a baby or got married. Both of which weren’t going to happen.

However, I just saved, put as much as I could on a credit card & got a loan for another seamster. I found every avenue I could. I earned my Associate’s Degree in 2014 and instantly enrolled at my current university, TAMUCT, to get my Bachelor’s Degree. I completed one semester but had to drop the following semester due to work. At that point, I was offered a new position with AT&T in Dallas. My focus was on moving, getting promoting, & completing a management program through them. Then not even six months later, I was promoted & moved to Austin. Once I was situated in Austin, I re-enrolled in classes and I earned my Bachelor’s Degree a year and a half later in 2017.

My focus has always been going to school & earning my degree. & if I ever lost sight of that for a moment or was discouraged, I remembered why I started. I remembered that I’m not doing what I want to do and I was not happy with where I was at & I had to do something about that.

Towards the end of my Bachelor’s Degree, I turned 24 & qualified for financial aid so I could finally focus on school. I earned my Bachelor’s in December 2017 & I applied for grad school. I have always wanted my MBA (I actually want my PhD but that’s another story) which is why I didn’t stop at my Bachelor’s. I was finally in a position where I could focus on school. I started grad school in January of 2018 then I started this blog in April 2018 to share how I manage all of this. I LOVE sharing home decor, sales, & about organization but my main goal for this blog has always been to inspire and to share how I manage all of this, because I know I’m not the only one who has struggled to get their degree or needs to find news way to manage their time to work toward their degree or career aspirations.

There has been SO much that has happened from when I started college to now. This is just the Executive Summary. The message of this story is something that I tell EVERYONE I know: do what makes you happy. Do what you have to do to get there & make choices that make you happy. Obviously writing a 15 page paper at 1 AM on a Friday night while my friends are out having fun or not going out because I need to study or not going somewhere because I have to save for school doesn’t make you happy, but its absolutely worth it. There is NOTHING like the feeling of accomplishing a goal. & NOTHING has compared to how it felt when I walked across the stage when I earned my Bachelor’s.

So, set your goals. Write the down & plan how you’re going to achieve your goals. I set time every week in my planner to study & to make sure that I get everything accomplished that I need to every week. Expect things to go wrong & prioritize when they do. School is my priority & my focus. There will always be reasons not to do something, but you have to prioritize your goals. A lot of planner pages recently like Julie from @julies_plans & Laken from @planwithlaken have shared a lot about how saying “No” to someone is saying “Yes” to yourself & it’s not a bad thing. & I couldn’t agree with that more. I have had to say no to my friends a lot to prioritize my goals. Real friends, get it & if they don’t, then you may need to reevaluate your friends. Most importantly, you need to make things happen for yourself. A lot of people think that I just get things or good things just happen. I MAKE THEM HAPPEN. I set my goals, I do what I have to do to get there & even if it doesn’t look like it, I’m making it happen. & you DON’T have to explain that to ANY one but yourself. You need to keep yourself in check, know what you’re doing, where you’re at, & what you’re doing to get where you want to go.

SO, to summarize: do what makes you happy, set your goals, create a plan, prioritize, execute your plan, & MAKE. IT. HAPPEN.