Five Years of Nonstop Involvement

Before I take the first step into becoming a CCBC blogger, I would love to dedicate this blog to my close friend Grace Martin our former CCBC blogger. She is the one who encouraged me to blog after she gave me a chance to guest blog on her blog page last semester. Grace if you are reading this, thank you for your encouraging words I miss you.

The story I’m about to tell you is the story of how I became the leader I never thought I would be.

When I came to CCBC, I was full of doubts and anxiety. These are some of the many thoughts I was thinking:

What were you thinking? A mother of three children, two of them are teens (fun stuff), who’s trying to start going to college after being out of school for seventeen years. Are you going to be able to balance your home life and your college life? Did you forget that English is your second language? Or did you forget that you suck at math? What about your daughter who’s going to college soon? Are you going to be able to pay for her tuition and pay for your tuition? Do you think you have that kind of money?….?…?…. I think you can get the picture of the self- doubt thoughts that were racing through my head. I was lost and not sure about what I want to study, but somehow, I managed to ignore all of these doubts and I just did it and joined the CCBC community. Two weeks later, I was sitting in the front row seat listening attentively to my English 101 professor.

So eager to learn more, I was asking so many questions in class. In fact, I was enjoying my time in class so much, I didn’t want class to end. Yet, self-doubt thoughts were still racing in my head and I couldn’t turn them off. Until one day when my English professor started to talk about the Honors Program in class.

I was thinking to myself; I don’t think you’re a fit for this program just stay where you are and don’t get involved in anything now. You don’t even have the time. Here they come again, my annoying self-doubt thoughts that can’t be stopped. Well this time my annoying self-doubt thoughts didn’t stay for long. Thanks to my English professor and her encouraging words. Professor June Locco believed in me and encouraged me to apply to the Honors Program. She offered a letter of recommendation and to help me with the application essay. She said something to me that got me thinking, “Rama, you are a strong writer” At that time, I don’t think Professor Locco realized how much I needed these words to stop my annoying and loud self-doubt thoughts that were preventing me from getting involved at CCBC. Professor Locco, if you are reading this, I’m so grateful for every word you said to me because your words changed my college experience for the rest of my time at CCBC. Thank you from my heart.

I joined the Honors Program my second semester. Can you believe it ? Someone who was so hesitant about starting her higher education journey would start to get involved in college during her second semester. I would not believe it either. The Honors Program was the first step of nonstop involvement at CCBC. It opened so many doors for me and I kept opening every single door that came my way. Every single semester, I got involved more and until today I can’t stop getting involved. I’m having so much fun and I’m enjoying discovering more about myself through these great opportunities. I will talk about each one of them in details in future blogs.

A good friend of mine once said to me when I first started to get involved, “once you start getting involved you will want to keep getting involved ”  Well, now I can get what he meant by that.

Until next time my friends.

Rama