Transferring takes careful time

Most young adults graduating high school are often faced with two ultimatums.

They either begin the path toward higher education or acquiring a full-time job.

Regardless of these two options, everyone ends up working — whether they’ve attended a college, a vocational school or gotten a job.

The goal for many people in the American culture is to work in a field that interests them and to enjoy what they are doing.

The unfortunate fact is that jobs we want usually require a degree. It brings an enormous pressure in our social and academic mindset of rushing to finish school without building too much debt.

Many of my peers and I experienced the need to complete the requirements to earn a degree within a short period of time.

After graduating high school, unlike most graduates, I knew what I wanted to do — to work in film.

I had planned to attend City College of San Francisco after taking advice from a professor stating CCSF offered more film courses than Diablo Valley College or Berkeley City College.

I had already taken classes at Contra Costa College, however, in high school through concurrent enrollment.

Those classes allowed me to make up and eventually surpass the number credits I needed in my high school subjects.

Because of my prior experiences with CCC, I was eager to branch away and see what other community colleges had to offer when I graduated.

Despite the knowledge I learned from one film class at CCSF, the hour-long commute to and from school felt unnecessary.

Spending $9 a trip twice per week, traveling during rush hour and failing to acquire necessary classes, was disappointing. The following semester, I ended up back at CCC.

After my poor CCSF experience, a pattern of dropping classes developed as well as a strong interest in working full time.

I focused more on what I wanted to do.

Between semesters when I was not enrolled, I made up for it by working multiple jobs and looked into possible vocational opportunities.

I finally learned my lesson after trying to work full time while attending multiple community colleges.

I decided for myself that the long road of transferring was finally worth doing.

Whether the courses were online or taken through an institution, investing into art schools for film are not worth the effort, time or money.

Despite attending CCC for roughly seven years now, I still decide to enroll here out of convenience. I surprisingly developed an interest in journalism, a field I thought I would not have acquired a liking toward.

2013 marks my fourth year out of high school. It reminds me that it doesn’t matter how long it takes to complete school if it is something that you feel will better help your chances of getting a job you love.

No pressure exists where you have to hurry up and work all the time, with the rest of society.

College should be a process of growing to one’s aspirations and desired profession and not as an obstacle to making money now.