I want to start this blog off with who I am and why I’m writing this. A blog is a personal journey: a journey through writing and storytelling to paint a picture. Think of this page a bit like speed dating. I’ll tell you who I am, and you can decide whether or not we click. Ready?
So, who am I?
My name’s Savanna, and I’m a community college student in Southern California. I enjoy math, books, computer science, biology, and music. Here’s my story:
For most of my life, I’ve defined worth through grades. If John had a higher GPA than me, he was automatically better. These mystical numbers, grades, claimed to rank our understanding of the material. However, most of us didn’t understand why we needed to even know the material. These feelings of inferiority and rankings overwhelmed me as a kid.
I did well enough in high school. I moved twice, seeing three different schools and two sides of the country. But, I continued to value my education.
The thing was, that’s all I did. All I had were eight AP scores and a 4.4 GPA, which isn’t enough to impress a college admissions committee without impressive extracurriculars.
So, community college enters the picture. Community college is the place where dreams come alive (or dreams go to die, but we’re glass half full around here). Community college is a place for you to find yourself and try as many things as you can with as little debt as possible.
It’s also a wonderful amalgamation of people. Here’s a rundown of some of the people I’ve met:
- Individuals with bachelors degrees trying to fulfill prerequisites for graduate programs
- New college students hoping to transfer to top tier schools
- Older folks hoping to make a career change
- Harvard educated professors who have worked for NASA
- A state school educated professor who worked for the US Postal Service for 15 years before getting into teaching
- A professor who chased an acting career for 8 years before settling down to teach introductory physics
These people have all made wonderful impacts on who I want to be in the future and what I want to do with my life.
Unfortunately, community college didn’t look that rosy in the beginning. After I decided to go to community college, I deleted all social media. I was haunted by an inferiority complex as my friends got accepted into Harvard, UCLA, Berkeley, Cornell, USC, Brown, and more. All I wanted was to trade places. Later, they’d post pictures clubbing, going to frats, and hanging out with their friends in cities like Prague, but at that point, it wouldn’t bother me as much.
I started community college fast. My start date was two weeks after high school graduation. I didn’t want to leave time for the summer to weigh on me. Mainly, I wanted an excuse not to hang out with friends who would say how excited they were to start at their far away paradises.
“College Experience”, everyone said.
“Debt”, I’d say back.
So, I would bike to school at 7 am, learn calculus, bike to my boyfriend’s house, and do homework until I had to go home.
Then, after he moved away to college, I would stay in the library with (and sometimes without) friends from class, working until I had to go home.
Soon though, opportunities began arising. I joined clubs I could find and landed a position as a board member. This opened doors for me because I had more opportunities to volunteer on campus in general decision making and creating campus events.
By becoming a part of my community through actively reaching out, I began to feel connected. My time with friends working as hard as we can to transfer and succeed feels invaluable. Community college has instilled a drive to succeed in me I don’t think I could’ve developed anywhere else.
As my time at community college progresses, I recognize how much of an opportunity community college is. I’ve been able to participate in research on neural networks, get an internship to go to FermiLab, become a certified EMT, and, most importantly, been able to meet wonderful people.
While grades matter, they do not define your worth. You are not inferior to Bobby or Johnny or Jimmy even if they get into MIT, get that big promotion, or make way more money. You are also not superior because of those things. What matters is that you’re on different paths, working on the same goal: to make the world a better place. And better can be anything. Better can be healthier, more innovative, more environmentally conscious, more lawful. It can be anything you can dream it to be.
So here’s my Why
I know I’m eighteen. I know that I don’t know anything. But I would like to learn. And I would like this to be a place where we can learn and grow together.
I’m creating this blog to document my journey through self growth and to show all the community college students out there that we can do this too.
Here are a few of my goals that hopefully I’ll be able to document in this blog:
- Publish research in a peer reviewed journal
- Run a marathon
- Complete 500 hours of volunteer work
- Fix my relationship with food
- Get better sleep
- Pitch a product to investors
- Participate in 5 hackathons
So let’s be happier people. Not only through grades, but through health, gratitude, and compassion.
Community and Beyond 