When I graduated out of high school back in 2017, I truly thought that would be the last I ever saw of school. I would just go attend the Adult Transition Program (ATP), get a job in the work force and then just live a relatively boring life until retirement, never having to worry about college or any school ever again. But after attending that program for one year, I began to ask myself if I really wanted to live this life that I had planned on leading. By the end of the year, I changed my mind and began planning on attending college.

The Adult Transition Program, or ATP for short was a three-year program where you intern at three job sites a year. It can help build up your resume to an impressive degree. You also learn about various things to expect in the adult life and how to handle them properly, so to speak. While students are normally meant to stay in this program for three years, I ended up graduating on my first year, for reasons I will talk about below.

Why did I start wanting to attend college despite not wanting to do anymore with school a year before? It was primarily for two reasons. One reason was when I first interned here at the UWB/CC Campus Library. Not only was I amazed by the campus and especially the library and how massive it was (at least compared to the libraries I’d seen prior), but the general atmosphere was also very welcoming. I also recognized various people from high school I used to know while walking across campus, which was another big motivator.

The other, more important reason I began wanting to attend college was that during my time at ATP, I quickly began to grow a sour opinion of the program. While I won’t go into too much detail, essentially I did not feel the program was fit for me. By December, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to explore different opportunities. So with the help of my job coach and advisor, I started applying to Cascadia and the rest was history.

Starting college was an interesting experience. The one thing I can say for certain was that it was very different from high school or even ATP. I never really completely adjusted to my schedule either; I ended failing one class on my first semester due to unpreparedness. However, it wasn’t all bad. It was actually a lot of fun for me. I ended up making some new friends and met up with some old ones.

I think both ATP and college both taught me valuable lessons in setting my goals and how much they’ll actually stick. Even now, I’m still not sure where I want to go in my life; I guess I’ll learn more about myself and my goals the more time I spend in college.

-Ian C.