Not-So-Great Expectations
How starting at John Tyler Community College when I was 16 shattered my expectations and turned out to be, well, great.
Take Two - Heather Tobey
As a sixteen-year-old junior in high school, walking into John Tyler was pretty frightening, especially since I was home educated for my entire education. Not only was I scared about new teachers, a new campus, college class workloads, and being in a place where I knew practically no one, I was terrified of not succeeding. I anticipated awkward encounters, difficult professors, getting lost all of the time, and just passing by the skin of my teeth.
Let me tell you, the expectations I had for my John Tyler experience were not met. And, thankfully so! No awkward encounters, just friendly faces and welcoming discussions. My professors didn’t mind my many e-mails; in fact, they loved that I was trying so hard to do my best, and they were all more than encouraging. As for getting lost, I actually went to the campus a few days before classes started with a friend, and we walked the halls eagerly trying find our future classrooms. That was a great way to feel confident about myself walking in the first day of school. And well, the classes were not as difficult as I thought they were going to be. So long as you do the homework and constantly study, your grades will be a beautiful melody in your ear! Seriously though, I now know that there was nothing to be worried about.
Once I got the hang of John Tyler, I found that I enjoyed things I resented in high school. Things like writing for instance. I cannot tell you how many times I wanted to tear my paper in two in high school, trying to put words on the paper. At John Tyler, I quickly learned how to write and even came to enjoy it. The summer after my first year at JTCC, I actually missed writing…yeah, crazy, I know. Then, I received an e-mail asking me to apply for a social media internship at John Tyler! The internship has shown me a lot about myself and the real world. It is cool to see people doing the kind of work that I hope to be doing in the future. I even got to work on the Sketch magazine as a part of the internship.
John Tyler Community College has been a wonderful transition from high school to college. I plan on transferring to Virginia Commonwealth University for creative advertising, and I can honestly say that I feel well-equipped. I am ready to take on whatever a four-year university has to offer me.
See Annemarie’s take on the same thing.
While they were students at John Tyler Community College, Heather Tobey and Annemarie Young blogged all about it at jtccconnect.blogspot.com. Oh, and see something you love in the magazine version of Sketch? Annemarie and Heather were probably behind it.
