My first college experience. What a long ride.

There were many reasons why I picked STAC, the most important to me being:

1. I signed to a Division II Lacrosse Team
2. It had the major I wanted – Biochemistry
3. I was a part of the Honor’s Program. (As an added bonus, the head of the Honor’s Program was also Head of the Biochemistry Department.)
4. The size of the school was small

What I didn’t realize, is that some of the very reasons I picked the school were also reasons why I would want to leave. I started to find the size to be too confining, the general science classes didn’t peak my interest, and lacrosse was really taking a toll on me.

I was always in a toss up between wanting to stay due to the friends and the academic scholarships I had, and wanted to leave because I was truly unhappy.

This is the main reason that I believe the mental health of people is far more important than anything else. In order to have a happy life, you need to be the top priority. The best decision was leaving STAC, because it was unhealthy for me mentally. Everything else comes second.

This summer I experienced a very big personal growth. I focused on myself more than I have before, making decisions that made me happy before thinking about the rest, Of course, I still considered the consequences to these decisions…and whichever outweighed is the one I went with.