Michelle McGee

Professor Davis and Schrager

In Search of Lost Time

06 April 2015

My Turning point

When UC Merced first opened, my mother and father were ecstatic, as a young eight-year-old, I;however, did not bother to care. Ever since the UC opened up in my home town my parents knew that was the place for me, they would tell me everyday something new and fascinating about the new university and why it would be the perfect place for me. As time went on my determined parents continued to tell me about UC Merced and I continued to not listen, that was until my Senior year in college came around. I had done fairly well in High School, I graduated with a 3.9 GPA,1850 SAT Score, and passed all of my AP Exams all awhile maintaining a rank of number two in the Central California Tennis Conference.

When I started to apply to colleges, I picked only the top Universities I loved. These included UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, Long Beach State, Fresno State and San Francisco State; however there was always one my parents wanted me to apply to, UC Merced. Also because my parents were paying for my University I had to obey my their rules, and I was also only seventeen too. After working on my applications and redoing my personal statement hundreds of times, I finally sent all my applications in. The most difficult thing to do was wait, first it was a month, then two, then three, and finally almost four months past until I heard back from the first University, it was Long Beach State. Long Beach State accepted me and said that they would love if I would join their team and become a Prospector, the mascot for Long Beach State. That was one of the happiest moments in my life, I had just been accepted into my first university and I had done it through hard work and determination. The next day SF State accepted me along with Fresno State and then, silence. The UC system usually takes up to four months to send acceptance letters to students. I waited the long four months. The first UC that contact me was UC Davis. UC Davis had always been my dream school so when I discovered that I had gotten in, I was ecstatic. As that week went on I heard from UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine. I was accepted to Santa Barbara and wait listed for Irvine. The final UC to responded to me was UC Merced. When UC Merced congratulated me on acceptance I did not know how to feel, and let alone tell my parents. I told my parents about UC Merced a week later, scared of how they were going to respond. Of course they were ecstatic and insisted on me attending; however, I did not feel the same. I had no idea where to attend college, my parents were paying for my education but I still wanted to go where I wanted to go. I ended up going to UC Merced because of the cost, my parents were so happy and believed that I would gain success in every way.
I graduated high school and started UC Merced in the fall. I was okay but as the semester went on, I dreaded going to class everyday. I felt a disconnect from myself, my family, and my professors. This went on for about 4 months. When the semester ended, I had a choice, To stay at UC Merced and finish my Associates Degree or transfer to a completely different College and experience what I relived was ‘exceptional’ learning. I decided to go with the latter. This was my turning point. I left UC Merced with big eyes and an open heart, traveling twelve hours away from home and leaving California, I decided to attend The Evergreen State College. My parents were heart broken, they believed I had left because of them. I had left because they pushed my to stay in Merced and go to school where they could watch me. This was all false. I left because UC Merced was not the University for me.
When I arrived to Evergreen State, everything was different. The people, the environment, the learning. It was everything I was looking for. My parents did not understand much, they did not comprehend why I would leave UC Merced and move to Washington. My relationship with my parents has taken a harsh hit since then. They tell me every chance they have that I missed an amazing chance with UC Merced and I continue to tell them that they are missing the amazing chance I have here, at Evergreen. Our relationship has not been the same since I left, but my happiness seems to grow everyday.