Through every season of life, we meet people who are in the same place as us. When I first began my college journey, I met many people in the same season as me. Most of us were fresh out of high school and unsure about what exactly we wanted to do with our lives. Not only were we all of similar age, we were also going through similar experiences. Starting our first jobs, still driving our first cars, falling in love for the first time and making some of our first major life decisions.  

It was comforting to have people around me who were experiencing a similar college experience as I was. We had a lot in common, and a lot to talk about. We were all growing, dreaming and struggling, together.  

Of course we were not all exactly the same, we each had very different upbringings, different family dynamics and unique experiences all our own. A big struggle I was dealing with was staying in school long enough to finish. 

After a single year at a community college, I ended up taking a semester off to travel. I got an itch for it the first time I left and no matter how many times I traveled to a new place I couldn’t scratch it. I saw Brazil and immediately fell in love, not only with the people, but with the feeling of going somewhere unknown to me.  

After a few years of off-and-on school, then taking a break to work or to leave the country, I gave up. I was attending school and felt like I couldn’t hold my head above water. I was drowning in a sea of mathematics and speeches while trying to work to feed myself, and all I wanted was the freedom to see the world.  

So I left school and moved to Australia. I experienced things and met people that will forever change my life. After nearly a year of freedom in the land down under. I came home during the pandemic. I got a job and was satisfied with my life for a while.  

Fast forward four years and I decided to go back to school.  

Being 28, married and still an undergrad gave me few options of people in my classes with that same shared experience. Everyone was like me 10 years ago; they were all 18- to 22-year-olds who were starting their first jobs or were experiencing life away from home for the first time.  

So, when I found people similar to me, who had dropped out of school and decided to return years later, I was comforted. I wasn’t alone; I wasn’t the only one who had things in life that gotten in the way of school, or who thought that a degree would be useless until I decided I needed it after all.  

I realized that although we are all having vastly different experiences, we can always be comforted by the silent understanding of a neighbor.