Oh my gosh … am I really at a community college? I so do notbelong here, I thought that first day of Counseling 100, as Iplopped down into a chair, upturned my nose and listened to somewoman talk about the wonders of De Anza Community College … was Ireally going to waste my good years at this place?
I can only crack up today when I recall that wretched time, andthink about just how ignorant I was. Now, two years and one quarterlater, I dread the thought that I only have two weeks left at thisgreat school. Looking back, coming to De Anza was by far the bestdecision I ever made in my life.
So what happened in those two years and one quarter? Well, Idropped the attitude, opened my eyes and thought, all right, Iain’t going anywhere better, so here goes …
But I soon realized that I didn’t need anything better. When Ilooked around, I saw a student body made up of the most diversebackgrounds I had ever seen. And I slowly began to realize what DeAnza was all about.
A community college is the one place in the world where you can beanything you want to be, no matter how unusual your backgroundis.
During my time here, I saw De Anza transform the lives of so manystudents around me – teenagers born into low-income familieswho want to break the poverty cycle, students with disabilitieslooking for equal educational opportunities, layoff victimssearching for new career paths and even ex-convicts and drugaddicts looking to start their lives over. And I was proud to bepart of an institution that could help change these students’lives. If it weren’t for my time at De Anza, I would never fullyunderstand the value of one person’s education to the world.
But De Anza also changed the lives of students like me –students that don’t need a new life, just a life.
I don’t know of a single four-year school where you can exploresubjects you have no experience in, just to check them out. At aUC, you cannot simply decide that you want to try working for thenewspaper, running for the student government or performing in astudent choreographed dance show without facing extreme competitionfrom students who have been in those fields since kindergarten, whowill probably bump you out of having the opportunity at all.
De Anza doesn’t care if you have experience or not. All it caresabout is that you read the schedule of classes each quarter andpush yourself to take advantage of all it has to offer. So, my goodfriends, the day I pack my bags up for UC Berkeley this fall, I’llthink about this place and I’ll miss it terribly. I’ll miss thislittle newspaper I have grown to love, the wealth of culture I haveencountered and the amazing people I have met here. But I’ll beable to tell the people there, with a proud smirk, “Yeah, I went toa community college.”