Episode 3: Community College Is Just The Beginning - From Rejected To Accepted By A Four Year University - Nerina Campos Berkeley Bound

00:00:00 - What is up, everybody? My name is Juan Perez, and welcome to the First View podcast. This podcast hopes to create a platform in which minorities can talk about their journeys and share their unique stories. These are individuals who have had to overcome obstacles and are achieving the improbable. Much like you and I, our guests are striving to reach their goals and to help others. Our hope is to be able to inspire and motivate the next generation of minority leaders. Thank you for listening and supporting minorities everywhere.

00:00:39 - Our guest this week is Norena Campos. She is a 20-year-old Latina who is currently finishing her second year at Harnell Community College. Her family, including herself, immigrated to the United States when she was young. As a senior in high school, she felt pressured to go to a four-year college. When she applied and only got into one, she felt disappointed in herself.

00:00:59 - She decided to go to community college and run for the school, a choice that didn't come easily. During this time, her mental well-being went downhill. After rebounding from this deep hole, she decided to look at the more positive side of things when attending community college.

00:01:13 - She began to focus on school and go out of her way to find opportunities that would help her get ahead. After two years of grinding, she was accepted to UC Berkeley, among other colleges she applied to as a transfer student. What's up, everyone? I'm super excited to be here with Norena

00:01:29 - Campos, who I actually went to high school with, and actually didn't really talk to a lot during high school. So it's really interesting to reconnect today. How are you doing? Hey, I'm doing really, really good. Just finals week and all, trying to get through this grind and get to my summer class and just do that and just keep grinding. How have you stayed sane in the coronavirus pandemic?

00:01:56 - I bullet journal a lot.

00:01:59 - So I'm just staying really organized and kind of keeping track of what I'm doing. For a while there at the beginning, I fell off a little bit and I wasn't really doing much. So now I'm really like paying for it because I'm turning in some stuff that I should have turned in a while ago.

00:02:19 - But yeah, I'm doing okay. Cool. So let's just like dive right into your story. Like I know today, like personally, from hearing what you've told me already, the story you're going, is something that a lot of people are going to go through or wanting to go through. So with that, just tell us a little bit more about yourself and your background. So I'm 20 years old. I was actually born in Mexico. I'm from Jalisco, Mexico. My parents are also from there. And so we immigrated here to the United States when I was around two. And my dad's been living here for a while. And he was going back and forth to Mexico for a while. And that's how he kind of met my mom. And then he moved over here when he met my mom. And he was working over here. My mom was over there with us. And then we got our names got on like a lottery or something. I don't really know the story that well behind it. But that's kind of what happened. And that's how we made it here to the United States. So I've been living here in Salinas since I was two, three.

00:03:29 - I've had my permanent residency since 2005, I believe. And yeah, I've been living here in

00:03:36 - Salinas for forever. Do you think that living in Mexico and then living here now like has changed you compared to just living here? So actually, I don't really remember much from my life in Mexico just because I was so young. But from the times that we did go back to Mexico, it felt very non inclusive, I guess. They kind of see you as you're more American than you're more Mexican. And it's really hard finding your identity here in the United States. As an immigrant, when you know, people over there in Mexico don't really embrace you or accept you as a real Mexicana. And so you're not really a real American here either, because you're from New Mexico.

00:04:29 - You're a resident or you're like a holder, you know, so that's, that's tough.

00:04:34 - Can you talk about any story that like, or any experience that can like support that in a way?

00:04:43 - So the first time that I remember being over there and just feeling like I was not Mexican was when I was maybe 13 or 14. I remember we went over there and just the, the lingo and the way that the language is just different from the way that we speak here, just like speaking Spanish still, but you know, like, we have slang in the English, and they have slang in Spanish over there. And it was really hard with my cousins to kind of make that connection and then like, really bond in and, you know, embrace that kind of identity. When I didn't really know lingo and stuff that was happening over there so it was really off-putting to go over there and you know not feel like I'm from Mexico and also like come here and not feel like I'm really American so that yeah that's good stuff yeah what was um your situation growing up after you moved here so that's quite a story um we immigrated here in 2002 or three I think and my dad at the time was living with one of my aunts his sister and um basically we lived with my aunt and we lived in one room so it was my dad my mom my older sister Monica and myself living in this tiny room and we lived in one room and we lived in one room and we lived in one room and my dad was the only one who was working and my mom kind of just stayed with us took my sister to school I was really young when we got here but that situation was really really hard for everybody because my aunt was is actually um diagnosed with schizophrenia so as a child I didn't really understand that you know that though it's kind of like a mental illness or a disability and um um

00:06:48 - I was always very scared of my aunt so that caused me a lot of anxiety growing up as a kid I would bite my nails a lot and yeah what about a little bit more like after that growing into like your teenage years so after we after we moved from my aunts because my mom was tired of living there was a really hard situation because she wouldn't let us really cook there or wash there so we had to go to um where do they call it like the lavanderias the washing places um and so my mom kind of gave my dad an ultimatum and told him that if we didn't move out of there she was going to find a way to move out herself and do it herself and I think my dad really something clicked and so we after there we lived on the east side um I don't know if you know where the Cesar Chavez

00:07:46 - Library is on the east side but it's a really cool place to live and I think my mom was really but uh there are these apartments called the laurel apartments they're blue and we lived um opposite to those apartments in in this little house and so my so we moved into that little house and that house was like like a shack it was moldy it was it was really gross it was not definitely not a good living situation still but it was better than living in a one room you know and so my and so basically what happened is that so we moved into that little house and the people who actually were renting us that house were these elder people and my mom um as i told you she wasn't really working at the time she was just kind of taking care of us she started being really good friends with those people and at some point um lady that was leasing the place where we uh she couldn't really do much on her own and so my mom kind of would go over over there and like kind of help her do a little bit of stuff and then eventually i don't know how it happened but she started working for her actually like helping her out and my mom like got a job through that and she started working with them and then um a couple years after i think it was maybe like four or five years later um that lady passed away and before she died she was like like she passed away my parents had this was around 2008 2009 in the middle of the recession um my parents had been saving up for a while to put a down payment on a house and when the recession hit my parents were ready to invest and so they did put a down payment on a house and then the lady who um my mom was taken care of actually passed away and so my mom didn't have a job and it was only my dad working and that's situation was really tough because they didn't know if they should give back the keys they didn't know like what to do they were just kind of stuck and so my parents were kind of like well we're just gonna do it and see what happens and then about a month later uh the lady that my mom was taking care of had a husband he told my mom that he needed help and so she started working with him and then she worked with him for about 10 to 12 years i think after that so she worked for them for a really long time like 15 years or so he passed away uh in 2018 when we were seniors in high school and so yeah that's kind of how i ended up uh living over here next to alvaro's well my mom also works with elderly people so like i could understand like the emotions that come through it like just really like there's a lot that comes from working with elderly like there's stories there's emotion there's feeling there's there's everything that you want to do and there's a lot that you want to do and there's a lot that you wouldn't think is there so it's it's i i think for me like it's really cool to hear someone else also have that story um so now moving on to like your actual main story can you just start us off where the beginning point of the end point which is getting into berkeley yeah so it started i guess my freshman year of high school um i had a friend eileen and carina their siblings had been in this program called puente that we had at alvarez and so in middle school they were like oh we're gonna do this program and so i was like okay like i'm gonna do this program too and so i joined i got in i did the interview and everything they got into the class and then you know i was filled i was in this class filled with these kids who were all just really smart and i just didn't really feel that smart in comparison to them and when we got to like sophomore junior year everybody was like i'm gonna take like three or four five classes and so i felt really obligated to also take a bunch of ap classes even though i didn't feel anywhere ready to take the load that i did and so uh my freshman sophomore year i had not done so well because um i didn't do so well because coming in from middle school i didn't really have like a set group of friends and so that was what i was really focusing on my first school even though i should have really focused on my academics so it wasn't until my junior year even though i was in this you know college accelerated program that i was kind of like you know i should really get my you know stuff together and take all these ap classes and so i did and i was literally dying my junior year it was not a good situation or a good i you know i only enjoyed one of those ap classes and i was really miserable my junior year and so then going into my senior year i was just kind of really over it i didn't i i honestly really didn't care too much even though you know all of my friends were getting ready to apply for college and so i was like okay like i'm gonna put time in to write my personal insight questions because they had told us in this program that if you know we had really good personal insight questions that the grades wouldn't you know it would be like a mix of everything and we would okay and we would end up somewhere that uh was meant for us so i applied to all of these schools and you know when colleges college acceptances came out all of my friends were getting into these amazing schools and i was getting rejected left and right from everywhere the only school that i got into my senior year was san francisco state so telling us like that in itself is amazing i think like not amazing in a sense that like you got rejected but amazing that like you even tried um there's a lot of people that i think don't even try to go to a four-year or don't even try to like apply for those opportunities so what were some of the emotions tied up when you weren't getting in and what was going through your mind when you only got into one and you essentially didn't get into the other ones so basically what happened when i was left with this one choice i had actually been running cross country and track for you know most of the majority of high school so my coach at the time had gone to hartnell the community college here in salinas and he i told him about everything that i was going through and i wasn't really sure what i should do i had one friend who was also in a similar position and she got into san francisco state as well and she actually ended up choosing to go there instead of community college so she had been kind of i don't know kind of encouraging me to also maybe just go to san francisco state and everything will be okay but i had all of these things that i needed to think about uh you know it's not cheap living in in the bay area and so i really needed to think about what i wanted to do and so you know i talked to different people and my coach was somebody that i really confided in so i let him know about my situation and he was kind of like maybe you should get in contact with the coach at the cross country coach at the community college here in salinas and just talk to him about you know what your next step should be like if hartnell could be a good fit for you and so at the time i was really really going through it because i don't know if it was different the year that we graduated but i just felt like the the school the kids everybody was just like they just wanted everybody to know where they were going and so when people kept asking me like where i was going like where i was planning because these these kids who were in these ap classes like if you were in these ap classes like you knew who was going where like everybody was kind of just oh you know i'm one out of 10 into the schools and they would like brag about it on social media and so i felt really really really disappointed in myself because i couldn't participate in that experience and so i was kind of like i don't really know what to do and so i was like i'm gonna go to school and i'm gonna do what i want to do but then i talked to the cross-country coach and my partner at the time was also at that community college running cross-country and track and field and so it just felt like a better option for me to go to a community college but of course like the feelings associated with going to community college was it was rough because teachers and counselors and everybody would say oh community college is just a waste of time like you shouldn't even waste the your time going there my actually my spanish lit teacher my senior year was like well if you go to community college like you're not going to end up finishing school i mean i feel like it's hard to rebound from that you know um how how did you rebound and what were your next steps so i was lucky enough that i was building a really good relationship with my parents my senior year because of everything that i was doing and i was able to do a lot of things that i wanted to do and i was able to do a lot of things that i was going through and i'm gonna disclose this here because i feel like it's very important um for people to know that it's okay to have mental breakdowns and to um feel like your existence isn't worth much and so i talked to my parents about what i was feeling with myself and i was just really not in a good place and so my parents found um found me help and so i started going to therapy for a while because i just felt really really lost and confused and i went to therapy for a while and you know i sorted out these feelings of feeling like i wasn't worth much and so i know that i'm really lucky because a lot of kids like our age then who are going through the same things like they don't have access to you know sometimes people don't have access to insurance they don't have access to you know these like these places that are like you know like you know like you know places where you could go for help and so my parents were really really a big help in getting me help um so i guess that's kind of how i started rebounding and so i was going to therapy um throughout the first semester of my first of my first semester at community college and so when i realized that i i met the team that i was going to be teammates with these girls were just as motivated as i was and so it was just so weird to see that these people were just as motivated to get to four-year colleges as i was but everybody in high school my counselors my teachers people were just saying that everybody who goes to community college is just lazy and they're going to drop out but it was very eye-opening to see that these you know girls were working towards the same goals that i was and so that's kind of how i overcame it i i was very lucky because you know i did therapy and i had a group and kind of like a home base at the community college that i was at i want to dive deep into for sure the mental well like um mental health portion of this just because i do agree with you that there's a lot of people especially minorities who have issues that simply don't have the resources time or just even thought and knowledge to go to to get therapy so can you talk a little bit more about how therapy helped you and maybe like maybe even give some like things that you got from therapy that others can use um listening to this podcast so i think for me i did one-on-one therapy with my therapist and sometimes my parents would come in and talk about how they saw that i was doing and stuff um i think just being able to talk to somebody that doesn't really know who you are is very helpful um i like i said i'm very lucky because my my dad um works for this company where he has a really good health insurance plan and so my therapy wasn't as expensive as i know it was um but i was able to talk to somebody that doesn't really know who that it could have been and well i would just kind of go to my therapy appointments i would go twice a month and we would just talk about what was happening in my life at the time we would talk about what i was feeling and then we would sort how i felt through these emotions and just really kind of work through getting past these feelings together and so that was really comforting because if a stranger was helping me get through you know the most what i felt like it was then the most difficult time of my life why couldn't i do it with my family members or you know my friends around me and so i've never really been very like expressive when it comes to mental health and stuff like that and um i've never really been very like expressive when it comes to when i said that i was the one who like seeked for help it really wasn't me so i had actually like i told you kind of had like a little nervous breakdown and my sister was there for that and she was kind of the one who told my parents that like i needed to see somebody for help so i didn't really reach out directly for help but like i'm telling you i've been very lucky and fortunate to have support systems since day one to get through like these really really hard times and i think my mental health is in a better place now just because i realized that i do have people supporting me even though i don't feel like it like like i do have people there a lot of the time but when i do like when i am reminded that i do have support it's just it's easier to continue with you know really rough times and so that's kind of what i've taken with me from therapy into my life now i'm not going to therapy anymore i haven't gone since my second semester of community college but um i've used everything that i learned while i was doing it now if you can kind of like single out someone who's listening to this podcast right now and tell them one thing and pretend like you're talking to like an individual what would you tell them about going to get help or just mental health in general i know that sometimes it feels like nobody cares and nobody has your back and nobody believes in you but for me i think the drive has always been that my parents are not going to be there for me and that i'm not going to be there for them i'm an immigrant myself and no matter what the fight is always going to continue for us to do and be better and so i think if you know this podcast is for minorities and for other people to understand minorities um i think a really important thing to understand is that we want to make it and we want to make it so bad that sometimes like we can't breathe or you know sleep or dream or think of anything else and so if anybody who is going through the same situation that i was is listening to this just know that once you find that support system whether it be tutoring services like it doesn't really matter what it is like if you find people who support you in what you're doing you're going to be okay thank you i i really do think that that's a really important thing to know it's going to help a lot of people so i like again i just want to thank you for that and so moving on um it sounded like you had you didn't have the best thoughts about community college what do you think um what type of emotions did you have about community college like what were your first thought about it so while i was in high school you know a lot of people like i previously mentioned didn't really think that community college was all that everybody thought that people who went to community college were just like dumb and they weren't really taking school seriously and so that was the stigma that you know that i knew and so when when like i decided that i was going to go to community college i was having a hard time accepting it which is why i had to go to therapy and seek for help and do all that um because i just felt like you know my parents are so disappointed in me because i didn't make it to a four-year that's what i was thinking i thought community college is just this place where i'm going to get lost i'm not going to make it i'm not going to make it to the school of my dreams to you know like what all this work that i put in my my junior senior year of high school like just all down the drain it doesn't matter because i'm not going to make it because all of these people who said community college isn't you know important or isn't anything i thought they were right and so that's that's what i thought of community college that these people just don't care about their education i hadn't really heard many positive stories and so i just i didn't know right and so what were like the next steps you took within community college you know it sounds like you got um a lot involved into cross-country let me talk a little bit more about that so i recommend for anybody who does go to a community college to get involved in a sport or get involved in a club get involved in something at your community college like that i think is what is going to make the difference because like i said once you have a support system it's really really difficult to just give up and so in in my experience i did cross-country and track at my community college um there was this overwhelming sense that i was not going to make it to a community of on on the course and off the course or on the track and off the track that we were gonna we were gonna do it you know we were going to reach the highest potential that we could in running in school and we had um because we're student athletes we had actually mandatory like uh library like hours that we had to go to and so because I had a mandatory um tutorial that I had to go to

00:27:38 - I think it was just like three hours a week uh I started going and I started seeing that like wow like these people who work at the panther lab or these people that work at the tutoring services here like they're actually really really smart like wow they're really actually here to help us and so you know I went to those tutoring services and stuff like that and I was like I'm gonna do this I'm gonna do this I'm gonna do this I'm gonna do this and you know just having the support of my team that that's kind of how I got started and then through going to like tutoring services and from what I heard about like what my coach would tell me about like scholarship opportunities and things like that because I got so I feel like involved in the community college system that's when I was able to find more opportunities which you know led me to now. Can you talk a little bit more about those opportunities um and like how you utilize them?

00:28:32 - Yeah so I think the biggest thing for me at Hartnell was that there was this program I'm not really sure what year they started it but it's called the um it's called Welly and they have a thing for the men too it's called I think it's Melly so it's the Women's Education Leadership

00:28:55 - Institute and so basically I think the minimum like requirement of the grade point average is like I'm going to do this I'm going to do this I'm going to do this I'm going to do this I'm going to do this I'm going to do this at 3.2 um you basically just had to fill out this application and my cross-country coach was like you should do this one of your teammates did it last semester and she really liked it and so I didn't really know much about the program going into it and I was like okay like I guess I'll do it uh it came with like a stipend so I was like okay like I'm really gonna do it because they're gonna give me money and so um I I went to the I got accepted to the program and then there was this one week like I don't know like a like a course at the end of the summer or I mean at the beginning of the summer and so it was this like training program for this one week it was like we were there for eight hours every single day that week and they just went over you know like resume building cover letter cover letter and just things of that nature and then uh just like goal setting time management things like that and so then we got introduced to our mentors in the beginning of the year around I think it was like August and we had quarterly meetings so we would have meetings every two two and a half months I think and we would meet with our mentors and we would go over the goals that we had written the previous time and see how we were doing and then we would go over the goals that we had written and see if we accomplished those goals and I got really really lucky because my mentor was is practically honestly who I envision my life is going to be like so it was really really inspiring to kind of see that these women who you know are from Salinas because all of the girls who were in the program had a mentor these ladies would come in and talk about their jobs and they would just have panels all the time talking about like how they got you know from A to B their jobs now and my mentor was really nice she actually works at I think she used to work at like our iHeartRadio or something like that and she does marketing now and she's a runner also so they you know they did a perfect job at pairing me and her together and you know when I was having a really rough time or I needed advice for something and I didn't really want to go to my family or counseling or support services I would just kind of shoot my mentor a text and be like hey this is what's going on like can you give me advice and just Welly really really helped me at Hartnell. That's great I think that like those programs are what allows minorities who might not have other support systems or want to learn a lot more about you know professionalism or or like the corporate world or just kind of like life after community college or whatever is super helpful

00:31:57 - So now can you tell us a little bit more about you getting into Berkeley and like how that came about

00:32:04 - So actually I was in another, another like program

00:32:11 - So this girl her name is Estefanía, her name is Estefanía Villacana

00:32:18 - She would always I would go to practice every day and we had practice in the morning so my first class wouldn't end, and we had practice in the morning so my my first class wouldn't end, and it would be like I'll learn more every day and I'd just try and find something the next day like I knew it so my first class wouldn't end, was always at 11 in the morning and so I would always have to walk through the pool to get to my class because that's kind of just the way that I went through and this girl you know I would see her every day and eventually I would see her every I saw her every day for the two years that I was there um I would like I started saying hi and then like we followed each other on social media and then she was also in the Wally program and so um she would just kind of also send me a bunch of resources and then one day she sent me this link to this like transfer retention program that

00:33:01 - Berkeley was doing and she was like you should apply to this because I had told her that I that

00:33:06 - Berkeley was one like it was one of my dream schools and so she was like you should really apply to this program I think it would be really good for you and I was like I'm not gonna get into any Berkeley program that Berkeley offers because I am just not I'm not Berkeley materials but I saw and so um I applied for the program and I got in and I was really really really excited and so

00:33:33 - I would go to so basically what the program was is that we would go to Berkeley every month or so and they would help us from the beginning of August all the way to November to fill out our personal insight questions they would um

00:33:53 - I had a mentor another mentor so that's what I'm saying like all of these opportunities that I you know I I guess I seeked out and didn't even really seek out sometimes like I

00:34:06 - I feel like I got very lucky and a lot of things fell on my lap but um I had this mentor my mentor was an English major so it was really great because since she was an English major she really went in on my personal insight questions all the time and so I was working on my personal insight questions all the time and and I was like okay what are we gonna do if I don't have people to actually get into this we didn't get into this if I don't have people that I could work on those from the summer all the way to November all the way up to the deadline and so I applied to a bunch of schools again and I was like hopefully you know this is my time um I remember in high school one of our one of my high school teachers Miss Henry would say that you know all you really needed to do apart from joining extracurricular activities you're entitled to an extra year of cultural planning you're entitled to an extra year of academic planning you're entitled to an extra year of job was just getting good grades. And so when I came into Hartnell, I went in with that mentality.

00:35:01 - The only job that I have to do to get it right is to get good grades and to do what I can to get good grades. That was a mentality that I didn't have in high school. And so I came in and, you know, my first semester of Hartnell, I got straight A's. And then my second semester,

00:35:19 - I got straight A's again. And then, you know, when I was filling out my applications,

00:35:26 - I ended up only having one B. And I was like, still so nervous that I wasn't going to get into Berkeley or get into, you know, Cal Poly or all of these schools that I applied to. And

00:35:39 - I remember working on my personal insight questions, literally, I'm telling you, like, the week they were due, I went to Berkeley twice to meet up with my mentor.

00:35:49 - Because I was just so nervous, because I was like, what if this isn't good enough, all this stuff. And so I finished my applications, and then the waiting game began. And then the first school that I heard back from was, was Fullerton or something like that. And I got in and I was like, Oh, my God, I got into one school. Because you know, like the experience that I had from the last time that I applied, my first, the first letter that I got back was a rejection letter from Fong.

00:36:19 - Beach. And so then that I think the next day, I got accepted into Long Beach. And I was like, holy cow, like, I got accepted into a school that I got rejected to two years ago.

00:36:30 - And so then I think after that, I got into San Jose State. And then sometime in March,

00:36:37 - I got into Cal Poly. And I was like, Cal Poly has like a, I don't know, like a 20% acceptance rate or something like that. And I was like, if I can get into Cal Poly, like, maybe I can get into, you know, like the other schools, like the UCs that I applied to. So the first UC that I heard back from was Davis. And I got into Davis. And I was like, I got into a UC like, oh, my God, like,

00:37:04 - I really am UC bound, you know, I'm, I'm, I have options. And I was just so excited to have options. And then what was the next? I heard from, oh, I heard from back from San Diego State after that, and I got rejected from San Diego State again.

00:37:20 - And so I was like, if I got rejected from San Diego State, there's no way that I'm getting into

00:37:25 - Berkeley or UCLA or, you know, I applied to those, those were my, I only applied to three UCs this time around. Last time I had applied to like, four or five, but I was so sure I was going to go to a state school. But so yeah, then I heard back from Davis. And then I think it was like two or three weeks later, I was so scared to check my admissions letter, because Berkeley, doesn't send out emails, they tell you like to go check your portal. And I was so, so, so nervous.

00:37:55 - I was so scared. And I remember, I was just sitting down in my kitchen, I was with my sister, she was cooking dinner. And I was like, okay, I'm just gonna look at it. If I didn't get in, it's fine. I have all of these amazing options, you know. And then I checked, and I got into Berkeley. And honestly, I didn't really know how to feel. I just felt very like, like, happening to me and before getting into Berkeley I had really set my mind on Oregon State because you know in high school I would have just gone to whatever school just to go if I would have gotten into like Santa Barbara or Davis even though I know that that isn't really like my vibe

00:38:43 - I would have just gone but this time around I was considering all things I was considering you know am I going to be happy where I live and so I got into Oregon State and I was so sad I'm going to Oregon my boyfriend lives in Oregon so I was like you know what I'm just gonna go to Oregon and then I got into Berkeley and then I was like I have to make a decision and so it took me like three weeks to do like my pro and cons and then I was like I have to make a decision and I talked to people from Oregon State I talked to people from Berkeley I thought about you know how would I feel living at either place would I feel lonely like you're scared obviously going to Berkeley is a really scary thing but I know that I I have the support system up like I already know I have a support system at Berkeley and I'm not even there yet so that's just I didn't feel that way about it I didn't feel that way about it I didn't feel that way about it I didn't feel that way about Oregon State and so that's kind of why the decision was easier I know the academics are not on par with each other but you know I was really prioritizing how I'm going to feel and yeah like Oregon State you know there's so much nature everywhere my boyfriend lives over there but it's like really what what is going to be the key for my success you know in the future right well I mean that was an amazing story like it makes me truly happy that you were able to go through that process um and thinking about it I know that there's a lot of people that are wanting to go through that process so what would you tell someone who is in your position right now like grinding to get into a four-year and to someone where they want to go or someone who's like a high schooler who like wants to go to college but maybe like didn't get into or like it's just the key to going to a community college so I think I honestly because I was so disappointed in myself that summer after I went to college I was like I'm not going to go to college I'm not going to go to college

00:40:43 - I don't know what happened there was just kind of like this switch that just kind of turned on and I was kind of like I really need to get it together like if I say that I want to you know go places and do all these things like I really need to get my stuff together and so

00:41:04 - I started waitressing that summer and that was really really hard I hated being a waitress it was like it's probably one of the hardest jobs that I've ever done people are really hard to please and I think being a waitress really really really motivated me to you know do really well in school I would come home really really tired from my shifts you know I would have you know practice in the morning on Mondays I remember we would have our long runs Mondays 10 miles in the morning I would go to class all day go to my tutorial hours and then I would have to go to work and then I wouldn't go come home until like 11 I would have to finish my homework for the next year or whatever and it's just like I was honestly just kind of existing during that time not really living my life during that time and I was like this is what this is what it takes to get to a four-year university I know that all of the work that I'm putting in right now is going to be worth it because I didn't honestly I just didn't have time to waste I really didn't have time to waste I didn't have time to waste I didn't have time to waste I didn't have time to time to waste because I was working you know running going to school full-time like I just

00:42:18 - I didn't have time to waste it was I'm telling you like I did not have a social life it was really bad but I think because I dedicated myself and I you know just kind of threw myself in my work that's that's how I think I'm here now what I mean what do you think what I get from that is like working hard gets you places right and I think that that's a true thing and I think it takes hearing a story of someone actually doing it to know that you can do it as well but on that note what would you do differently next time like if you were to do it all over again you know I would take a lot of shifts that I didn't want to take because you know I was saving up for I don't even know what I was just saving up I remember my tips they would just go into a jar and I wouldn't touch any of my tips

00:43:10 - I'm telling you during this time in my life life I stopped working after my first year of college because I could not handle it anymore and I wasn't really sure if I was going to pursue just my academics or if I was going to go the athletic route and try to keep continue running for a D2 program and so during this time I was just kind of like I just I need to I need to do it I need to you know do it somehow it's going to happen if I just really throw myself in my work like it's going to happen. If someone were to go up to you and tell you that you are special and that you're unique what would you tell them?

00:44:01 - Honestly as a communications major

00:44:05 - I would say that I would say that I would say that I would say that I would say that I would say that

00:44:06 - I think I've learned a lot in my classes honestly I really have I do not have the same perspective that I did once I finished high school while I was in high school you know we we grow we're always growing we're never stagnant we're always changing and so

00:44:24 - I think talking to people and being more open to people because before I wasn't honestly I just hated life I hated everyone I didn't want to talk to anybody but I think because of what I learned I've learned in my classes and what I've learned through my experience working and just getting to know people everyone's different there really is something special about everybody so even if I wouldn't be very sure like even now I'm still not very sure that I'm special I know that there is an essence that is special about me that is different than everybody else because everyone is different everyone's different and I think that's what I would say to people because I think that's what I think that's what I would say to people because I think that's what I would say to people because essences are different and the way that we you know think live it's different so I think

00:45:13 - I think people are just incredible sometimes and throughout this time more than any other time because of this you know the coronavirus I've been feeling more and more just appreciative of others and just really trying to get to you know I feel like time has really stopped in this you know situation that we've been in and I've just really gotten in touch with people and just really seen that dang like people are really special and everybody's so different and

00:45:52 - I did not feel that way about people before but I think that because of everything that I've been through in the last you know two three years like I was at my lowest point two years ago and now I'm at my highest point and I think if anybody can take you know a little bit of advice from that is that you're special you're needed in some form and capacity even if you don't believe that you are because I still have a really tough time you know believing that but it really all always goes back to support systems if you have people there letting you know that what you're doing is special and what you're doing is worth it you are going to start believing it well I mean that's great because I also think that everyone is special and I think everyone's special in their own way but I also want to mention that like hearing your story today like like I can tell you yeah I know you've heard this before but you are special um and I think that your story is really going to affect a lot of other people who maybe think that they're not and maybe think that they're not worth it um to like strive and achieve more um and with that is there anything else you would say to anyone listening to your story today

00:47:07 - I think if you're in a situation like the situation where I was in when you reach a low point like that because I did I was going you know I thought my lowest point was going to therapy seeking you know mental health um if you really truly feel like you're in this place where you know there's no return it's kind of like it's really hard to see it and to believe people when they tell you that you are going to make it when you're in a situation like that but just honestly fake it until you make it that's really how I've gotten through my community college experience sometimes you have to be a little arrogant and really believe that you are better than people sometimes even though that's not the best way to go about it but really like if you do think like that sometimes don't put it out into the world don't tell other people that that's like how you see it but if you know you have this boss like energy like boss things will happen to you that's great I also agree that I take that to account I think but if you're able to show confidence confidence is going to be able to reflect back into you and you're going to be able to do amazing things so to end us off um is there anyone you would want to share with us anyone you want to shout out today oh my god honestly I've wanted to shout out everybody like that's helped me throughout the way it's just too many people it's like you know my cross country team my track team my coach from high school my coach from college you know everybody it's just too many people to to name and I just feel so blessed that I'm here now really the two people that I really really want to thank are my parents because without them taking care of me and you know coddling me sometimes I wouldn't I I honestly I will tell you I don't think I would be alive right now because that's how bad I was I guess in the hole where I was so just believing that all you know that good things will come and just having that boss energy like and if honestly the power of manifestation is real if you say things and if you put things out into the world like right now my next big thing to get to I want to go to law school and so I've been manifesting that and just saying you know I'm gonna go to law school like I'm doing this because I'm gonna go to law school and just putting put putting all those things because I didn't do that before and then when I did start doing it I was like I'm gonna go to law school and I'm gonna go to law school and I started doing that I'm gonna get into Berkeley I'm gonna get into these schools it happened and so power manifestation is real so just manifest the things that you want and work hard grind and you'll get them um I just say like that was an amazing story um I really really enjoyed hearing it all and honestly like part of the reason I'm doing these podcasts is to share everyone's story but also to hear stories myself like that's really like the only way that

00:50:34 - I think I'm able to grow is by you know I'm able to grow by learning others perspectives and learning how other people grow and how other people think and honestly like from hearing your story like I'm already going to be taking some things and using them in my own life so I want to thank you and once again you're special and congratulations for getting into Berkeley thank you all right and I think that's where we're going to end the podcast thank you once again for coming and I hope you have a great day thank you you too everybody grind it's real and manifesting thank you for joining us and hearing this truly inspiring story feel free to follow us at first few podcasts on twitter instagram and facebook to get previews of our weekly episodes and of our guests if you're wanting to help out in any way by joining our team being a podcast guest in the future or simply wanting to give us feedback you can always direct message us or click on the link in our bio to learn more this is Juan Perez and you're listening to the first few podcasts I hope you have a great day and I'll see you in the next one bye bye and come back next week for more amazing minority stories