Two Roads Diverged in a Wood…

And I took the one I’ve already traveled by.

Story by Jennifer Sandy

Today, my life unexpectedly came to a cross roads, causing me to ask myself what my dreams are and how much time I’m willing to put in to achieve them.

Hi. My name is Jen Sandy, I’m a journalism major, and I attend school at Mt. San Antonio College. I’m an editor for Substance, which is our really cool publication that we created with Medium (a company that just happens to be owned by Twitter’s C.E.O. Evan Williams…nbd). You guys should totally go check it out, read some of our stories and follow us.

But, long story short, Mt. SAC is the first college to stop our print newspaper and partner with an online platform like Medium. In the world. Like, ever. So, of course, once the college journalism world heard the news, a few universities approached the department offering a partnership with us, allowing our journalism students priority acceptance. One of these schools was Southern Illinois University. We were all set to create a hybrid program with them that would allow me to graduate with a bachelors in new media, thus making me relevant to the journalism field at least for awhile, and I was set to enroll in the fall.

All that changed today in a meeting with my journalism adviser. She said the university is reneging on the original deal. The university emailed my adviser with the course list, most of which I’ve already taken, and said they would offer us a degree in print journalism. A degree in print journalism. Completed exclusively online. If that’s not an oxymoron, I don’t know what is.

I wouldn’t be working on a publication, and I wouldn’t be making any connections to help me succeed in this field. Plus the tiny fact that print newspapers will die within my lifetime.

I’ve worked in print for years. I hated it. I love Substance and Medium and I want to keep going in the direction journalism is going — online, instead of working my ass off just so people like Rupert Murdoch can make a few bucks and then fire me when print goes down in flames.

But, to understand what I’m about to say next, you need to know a little about me. I’m the only girl out of four children. I have two older brothers and one younger. I learned to be competitive at a very young age, because that’s just the nature of growing up in a house full of boys. Both of my older brothers are college graduates.Both live on their own and have relatively well paying jobs. My little brother works full time, lives on his own and plans on going back to school, but in the meantime, he does pretty well for himself. I live with Mom and Dad as a full time student and part time barista.

I’m constantly worried about falling behind, like there’s this social time table of when you’re supposed to hit certain milestones, and I haven’t yet. I wanted to graduate from Mt. SAC in 2 weeks. I wanted to move on. I was DESPERATE to find some university, any university really, that would take me. Unfortunately, I’ve had to take a lot of math classes and because of that my G.P.A. isn’t as high as it could be. I got rejected from a Cal State. A school that was supposed to be a “sure thing.” So, after that devastating blow to my ego, I clung to our deal with SIU.

When that came crashing down today, I was faced with a decision. Take the useless program at SIU and just to obtain the most expensive piece of paper I’ll ever own, or stay at Mt. SAC for one more year, take easy classes like underwater basket weaving (I don’t know if that’s an actual course. It’d be cool if it was though), raise my GPA and get into a school I really want to go to in the fall of 2016.

At first I was torn. I want to be done SO BADLY. I want to move on with life. I want to catch up with those people on Facebook and Instagram, whose lives look so much better than mine.

But I also love journalism. It’s my calling. My passion. For those of you who have had that moment in life where you all of a sudden know why you were put here on earth, you’ll understand. This is what I’m supposed to do. I don’t want a degree in print. I want a degree that will still translate into a job in 20 years.

So, after talks with my family, my boyfriend and doing my own research, I decided to return to Mt. SAC in the fall. I’ll take easy classes just to get A’s, apply for academic renewal, which should get rid of some of those less than stellar marks on my transcripts, take my adviser’s internship offer, and continue working on Substance, a project that I started and love dearly raise my GPA and go to whatever school I want in the fall of 2016.

When I was in New York a few months ago, I fell in love. That’s where my heart is. I want to work for Medium, which is based out of NYC. I want to do new and cool and innovative and exciting things. None of which include writing for a print newspaper.

My dream is to live in New York and write for Medium. That’s what I’m here for. And if another year at a community college, surrounded by an adviser that I respect and adore, and good friends I’ve made in the newsroom is what it takes to make that happen, then so be it.

I am completely, 100% in love with journalism, and no amount of time or money will get in the way of me changing the world with the mightiest weapon I have at my disposal: my words.

Originally published at thesandytales.wordpress.com on May 21, 2015.