Why It Took So Long For Me to Graduate from College

My post-secondary educational trek was anything but “ordinary”

When most people think of the college experience, they envision a high school graduate heading off to a dorm, studying hard, attending several parties throughout the year, and then receiving a diploma within 4–5 calendar years.

My path was very different from that.

I began college in August of 2000…but I didn’t complete my Bachelor’s Degree until December of 2008. In-between, there was a lot that happened.

Let’s back up to my pre-collegiate delusions of grandeur.

“Dreaming Big” as a Teenager

As a young kid, I wanted to be a sitcom actor…and later, a Fourth Grade teacher. It wasn’t until I reached middle school when I finally realized I wanted to be a television writer.

The problem: my school district’s Guidance Departments had no clue as to what sort of academic path could get me there. My parents, meanwhile, wanted me to pick a more “practical” field of study. But then, they didn’t want me living out in Los Angeles to begin with!

We should also keep in mind that my official diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome wasn’t made until I was 14. Not only that: my parents spent two years avoiding any discussion about it with me. I didn’t fully realize what Asperger’s (or even autism in general) was until my junior year in high school.

By that point, I’d already decided I wanted to spend my first year or two attending the University of Wisconsin — Eau Claire, which was 45 minutes northwest of my hometown. I wanted to live off-campus, preferably with my aunt and uncle who resided right across the street from the university (my uncle was the head librarian at UWEC’s McIntyre Library).

I got it stuck in my head that I had to go to film school at the University of Southern California. This myopia began after a onetime DVR (Department of Vocational Rehabilitation) counselor of mine recommended USC’s filmic writing program given how her nephew (who was a couple years older than me) absolutely loved it! (as I would later find out, her nephew was also the son of a Minnesota state legislator — so he clearly had resources he could tap into that I myself couldn’t)

The reasons why I didn’t want to live in a dorm while attending UWEC were twofold. First, I was so shaken by years of K-12 bullying that I feared the prospect of having to literally reside in the same building as a bunch of new bullies. And, secondly, I was self-conscious of my high school weight gain as well as my severe bodily acne — plus the scarring and stretch marks that accompanied these conditions. I had this fanciful delusion that I could slim down, treat my remaining acne (and residual scarring) — and then waltz into dorm living once I got to California with a rockin’ bod and tons of confidence.

Ha!

Eventually, I would relent to staying in a UWEC dorm after my aunt and uncle wouldn’t let me stay with them. That led to a whole host of positive and negative experiences that could probably fill several novels.

Not “Making the Grade”

Along with my single-minded mania over wanting to attend USC, people around me probably thought I was wacky for declining to get a Driver’s License. This was due to my autism — but they couldn’t seem to understand how I was going to be able to transport myself around Los Angeles without a car.

In hindsight, I was very lucky that I actually got in when I applied to UWEC; as an Eleventh Grader, I had no backup school (not even USC, since I’d planned to transfer there rather than starting my freshman year of college 2,000 miles away from my family). I really shouldn’t have been surprised that I got in to UWEC. My high school grades were decent enough; I had a GPA of 3.75, and my college application essay must have knocked their socks off.

But if I hadn’t gotten in to UWEC, for some reason, then I might have fallen into a depression. I probably would have needed to take some basic courses at my hometown’s local WWTC (Western Wisconsin Technical College) branch, with the intent that they’d transfer over for my future attendance at a university.

When I was contemplating what to major in at UWEC, I made the mistake of listening to my dad. Because I was really good on the computer, he recommended Computer Science. In my dad’s words:

“You’d breeze right through that.”

Little did I realize: in order to get decent grades as a Computer Science major, you have to have prior programming experience. Otherwise, you’re likely to earn Cs, Ds, or fail your classes altogether. The Computer Science Department Chair neglected to tell me this, when I’d met with him during a September 1999 college tour visit.

During my first semester as a college freshman (Fall 2000), I took general courses outside of my intended major. Academically, I exceled. During that first semester of my freshman year, I earned an A in Freshman English, an A- in Philosophy, an A- in College Algebra, and a B+ in World Religions.

But once I began my second semester as a freshman (Spring 2001), I finally began to take courses directly linked to my declared Computer Science major. I ended up selecting the worst-possible combination of a course load for myself: Intro to Computer Science, Pre-Calculus, Astronomy, and Beginning German 101. The first two were requirements for their Computer Science major. The third was a general education natural science elective. And the latter I only took because USC required three semesters of a foreign language from its transfer students (intended UWEC graduates had the option of taking a cultural diversity course in lieu of a foreign language).

I ended up with a D- in Computer Science, a C in Pre-Calculus, and a B+ in Beginning German. I had to drop the Astronomy course altogether, since it was causing me so much stress (and I was on track to receive a D in it).

By the end of my freshman year, my college GPA had plummeted from a 3.63 (which included AP History credits that had carried over from high school) down to a dismal 2.85 average.

All because of that damn choice I’d gullibly made to major in Computer Science!

Trying to Reclaim What I’d Lost

It was clear, by now, that my journey to apply to USC was going to be delayed. Prior to the summer between my freshman and sophomore years, I made the decision to switch my major to Broadcast Journalism. Once the Fall 2001 Semester began, I switched it again; my new advisor, Judy Sims, recommended the Electronic Media major since it came the closest out of all UWEC’s majors to my film school plans.

During the 2001–02 academic year, I began to gradually inch my GPA back up. However, because my grades had taken such a hit during the Spring 2001 Semester, it was a heavy lift earning grades high enough to put me back in the 3.5–3.7 range (which I never did manage to achieve).

It was like trying to climb up a greased wall!

Additionally, during the Spring 2002 Semester, I pledged (and was initiated into) a fraternity. The following several semesters being a part of UWEC’s Greek Life would further elevate my stress level and hinder my tenacity…at one point, even driving me to attempt suicide.

My fraternity (mis)adventures would almost require an entirely separate article series.

My 2002–03 academic year was spent struggling to fit in (and attain leadership skills) with my fraternity chapter, while continuing to repair my GPA. I was also continuously disheartened as I proceeded to witness my fellow Americans’ patriotism questioned in the aftermath of 9/11. If you weren’t *with* George W Bush and his foreign/domestic policies, you were apparently enabling the destruction of America. Oh, and that year, our Communication & Journalism Department eliminated the Electronic Media major to “save money”; those of us who were in that track were “grandfathered in” with the option to take substitutions for our coursework.

Throughout the 2003–04 academic year, I did moderately well at focusing on my studies. I had become detached from the fraternity. I was taking a third semester of German, despite the fact that I wouldn’t have needed it to graduate from UWEC (I was solely taking it as a necessity for my USC transfer application; I got a lowly C- in my Spring 2004 third-semester German course, even though I had a fantastic professor).

During the 2004–05 academic year, I finally applied to USC’s Cinema-Television Production program as a transfer student. In the meantime, I’d been grappling with even more suicidal thoughts for the past two years because of the Republican Party’s promotion of the Federal Marriage Amendment (to prohibit same-sex marriage, coast-to-coast).

I didn’t get in to USC. I should have anticipated it; their acceptance rate was less than 5%. I’d made the short-sighted mistake of failing to apply to other film schools throughout Southern California.

So I took the Fall 2005 Semester off, and returned to UWEC as an undergraduate in Spring 2006. While I’d theoretically completed more than enough courses to graduate from UWEC, I decided to extend my undergrad studies in order to “mark time” so I could get accepted into another film school (if not USC). I took one Fall 2005 online course in order to technically keep my “continuous student” status intact for transfer status.

Fall 2005: this time around, I applied to the University of Southern California — Los Angeles (UCLA), Cal State University — Northridge (CSUN), Cal State University — Long Beach (CSULB), and, again, USC. I simultaneously applied to both undergraduate and graduate film programs at USC — since, if I got accepted into their graduate program, I could quickly wrap up my service-learning requirements at UWEC over the Summer of 2006 in order to acquire my Bachelor’s Degree.

Once again, I got rejected from USC and UCLA. But I got accepted by both CSUN and CSULB. I went with CSUN due to its closer proximity to Hollywood, plus its reputation and credentials had been recommended to me by Dan Perkins, one of my UWEC journalism professors.

California, Here I Come!

At the beginning of Summer 2006, as I was getting ready to make my Big Move out to California, I received a phone call from USC’s admissions office. While my reapplication to their undergraduate Cinema-Television Production program remained denied, I’d been wait-listed for their graduate Cinema-Television Writing program earlier in the spring. On May 26 of that year, they informed me that someone to whom they’d initially offered admission ended up dropping out…and, with a new spot available, I could enter USC as a grad student if I finished up my degree requirements from UWEC.

But, by that point, my plans to move to Northridge, California were underway. CSUN was on my horizon.

This time, I had to reject USC.

CSUN’s Cinema-Television-Video-Arts Screenwriting program was approximately two years long, for transfer students. The 2006–07 academic year was one of the most scary, exciting, frustrating, and decadent transitions of my entire life.

I had great roommates and great classmates. But many of my professors were mediocre; plus, I was overworked in a toxic workplace for my work-study position.

The 2007–08 academic year saw a marked improvement in the quality of professors I had. After one year of hell working at CSUN’s Health Sciences departmental office, I quit my job (having saved up enough to live moderately comfortably for awhile) and spent the fall semester hanging out with CSUN Greeks (even though my fraternity chapter didn’t have a presence on CSUN’s campus).

That semester was also the beginning of the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, which caused me great consternation over my future. As my graduation date drew closer, I became emotionally volatile from anxiety about the prospect of living on my own once I had that diploma. If that wasn’t stressful enough — the Great Recession had just hit.

For the Fall 2008 Semester, I was enrolled in one lone course on “pitching” for the Entertainment Industry; it was taught by former Lifetime TV development executive Laura Grant. That same semester, I got a day job working as a playground aide at Darby Avenue Elementary in Northridge.

I officially graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Screenwriting from Cal State Northridge in December of 2008.

Full Circle?

As I wrote about in my series “Confessions of a Gen Y Kid” — Millennials were sold a fairy tale of work ethic, meritocracy, and false economic promises.

Was all of the inner (and outer!) turmoil worth it?

I ended up with more than $20,000 in student loan debt (which I finally paid off, a couple of years ago). Within a year of my graduation from CSUN, I ended up working for a miserable person as his personal assistant — which, after another seven years, eventually drove me from California back to Wisconsin.

On the plus side: I learned a lot about the Entertainment Industry. My lack of Driver’s License forced me to master the Los Angeles MTA bus system.

While I entered a lot of screenwriting competitions and dabbled in some networking events, I realize I could have done a lot more to try to advance in my desired career field. In hindsight, my loyalty to Lloyd — combined with my fears of economic destitution — created a situation where I torpedoed those possibilities for myself.

Three-and-a-half years after moving back to Wisconsin, the COVID-19 pandemic happened. As disconcerting as that global pandemic was for a majority of us: I felt a bit relieved not to be living in a high-risk metropolis such as Los Angeles during the pandemic’s first year of raging uncertainty.

Sure, there were tons of better choices I could have made, during that eight-year trek as a college undergraduate.

But, for all I know, the path that’s unfolded for me is perhaps the path I was meant to follow, all along?

To what end…I still have yet to find out.