I want to tell you a little story. It involves a young boy and his journey towards that mysterious stage of life known as adulthood. While many people might title it “How Not To Graduate,” I prefer to call it “Figuring Out Who I Am.” You might disagree with me, but I think it is perfectly fine for someone to spend five years in college, as long as they are trying their best and putting their best foot forward. However, if someone is taking a long time simply because they are having too much fun, it is time for a change.

Now, before I will provide some tips to help you have a five-year experience like mine.

The first step is to spend freshman year at a totally different school, especially a state school. I spent my freshman year at North Carolina State University, or NC State for short. I told myself that since I went to a public high school, I could tolerate a more extreme version of that environment for four years. I soon found out I was very wrong. I blocked a lot of it out of my memory. Anyway, going to a state school before coming to Harding is tip number one because a lot of your credits probably will not transfer.

Tip number two is to switch to a major in a completely different department in the middle of your second year at Harding. When I first started college, I decided I wanted to major in computer science. At first, I seemed to enjoy it, and I think I truly did to some degree. But, as the classes began to grow more complex, my interest slowly diminished, and after five semesters of it, I decided I wanted to do something different. So, I got some advice from career counseling and took some personality tests. After talking to a couple of different people about other interests I might have, I chose to switch to web design. Now, that may not sound like a giant change, but there are several communication classes that go along with it. The important thing is that I am a lot happier with web design.

My final tip is to retake a class. This is probably the worst one, and it is one I do not at all recommend. The other two are fine, but failing a class is something you need to do everything in your power to avoid. It is not fun.

So there you have it. You now know my journey through college and some ways to postpone the end of college. Use the first two wisely, but the third one is forbidden. Now, it is time to enter the real world.

I want to tell you a little story. It involves a young boy and his journey towards that mysterious stage of life known as adulthood. While many people might title it “How Not To Graduate,” I prefer to call it “Figuring Out Who I Am.” You might disagree with me, but I think it is perfectly fine for someone to spend five years in college, as long as they are trying their best and putting their best foot forward. However, if someone is taking a long time simply because they are having too much fun, it is time for a change.

Now, before I will provide some tips to help you have a five-year experience like mine.

The first step is to spend freshman year at a totally different school, especially a state school. I spent my freshman year at North Carolina State University, or NC State for short. I told myself that since I went to a public high school, I could tolerate a more extreme version of that environment for four years. I soon found out I was very wrong. I blocked a lot of it out of my memory. Anyway, going to a state school before coming to Harding is tip number one because a lot of your credits probably will not transfer.

Tip number two is to switch to a major in a completely different department in the middle of your second year at Harding. When I first started college, I decided I wanted to major in computer science. At first, I seemed to enjoy it, and I think I truly did to some degree. But, as the classes began to grow more complex, my interest slowly diminished, and after five semesters of it, I decided I wanted to do something different. So, I got some advice from career counseling and took some personality tests. After talking to a couple of different people about other interests I might have, I chose to switch to web design. Now, that may not sound like a giant change, but there are several communication classes that go along with it. The important thing is that I am a lot happier with web design.

My final tip is to retake a class. This is probably the worst one, and it is one I do not at all recommend. The other two are fine, but failing a class is something you need to do everything in your power to avoid. It is not fun.

So there you have it. You now know my journey through college and some ways to postpone the end of college. Use the first two wisely, but the third one is forbidden. Now, it is time to enter the real world.