There’s an old saying in that “Knowledge is power!” There is nothing quite like the quote that frees the mind from such conformity in contemporary society. It is this quote that helps give the soul such freedom to learn, gain, acquire such knowledge as they please and to take that knowledge into their future endeavor. Whether to be a doctor, actor, farmer, writer, dentist, nurse, technician, or an accountant we all acquire this said quote to our own. How we get there is a whole different story. Many people spend many years of their lives to acquire knowledge to pursue their future. This is my journey. Perhaps this might be the start of some book that I might someday write in the future. This is more than likely an excerpt of it. Maybe someday you will read it and gain the experience from the fruits of my experience at university/college. However, I tell you to not take the experiences as your own, to not take them lightly, to say that I wasn’t at a Harvard, University of Southern California, University of Notre Dame, or a Corncordia… err I mean Concordia College. No, what I want you to take out of this is that, Knowledge, doesn’t know gender, cliques, financial background, black or white, left or right, or religion. It knows one thing: to learn is to understand, to understand is to apply, to apply is to fulfill, to fulfill is to succeed, and so forth.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao-tzu
In the beginning…
My story started at the age of 17 sitting in a conference room with my Resource teacher, on a table is a book, a test booklet, in the various Math, English, and Science questions would determine the course of whether I will get to college, the ACT. The funny thing is that a number would determine the possibility of some 17 year-old into a college where I would spend my life’s pursuits. I ended up getting a score of 16.
Into my senior year of high school in 2006 I was in what I felt at the time, the last great year of my life, the Senioritis was on my mind in the first minute of it. I knew that the classes with the teachers that I knew so very well, the extracurricular activities I had pursued for many years, the same people that I met, knew, befriended, trusted since Kindergarten would go on after it was said and done. It seemed like life was going fast even for an 18 year-old, how I managed to even keep up with the pace was something that even I was surprised. To me high school was both heaven and hell. Heaven that I felt that I could be myself, I felt that I wasn’t part of a clique or group of people. Hell, in that I felt most people wanted to be in a clique, to stay separated from the whole, to not try to break out of the shell, to be different, unique. I loved high school and hated it. Me being unique was both a blessing and a trap. I was glad to be unique, I felt trapped in that I felt alone, like I was the only one that wanted to be friends with everyone else, to gain perspective, to not conform to the easy way, but to rebel the hard way. Not to smoke pot, not to talk back, not to curse at authority, but to question everything, learn from a different point of view, and to gain knowledge.
I was ready to graduate high school and to get into college. I had been getting letters, packages, brochures from area colleges telling me “Here’s what we offer, come here!” or “This is what we have to offer!” There were offers from NDSU, Concordia College (surprisingly), University of Minnesota Twin-Cities (even more surprising), University of Minnesota-Crookston, Valley State University, Mayville State University, Minnesota State Community & Technical College (very catchy name I know), University of North Dakota, and Minnesota State University Moorhead. Many offers to say the least. As the only child to a working mother who happens to work at NDSU, it would’ve been easy for me to make the split-decision to go to NDSU, where you could get half-off tuition just based on the fact that your parent works there. Too easy for me apparently.
For some reason I kept going back to MSUM, certainly the place was nice to come visit on 4th of July’s and spend time there watching fireworks, certainly the common friendly rivalry with Concordia college was something to behold, certainly it was me cheering for the MSUM Dragons at a young age against the Cobbers during the Power Bowl, the inner-city meeting between the two colleges in Moorhead, Minnesota. It was an university that wasn’t the rich, qualified university of Concordia, it wasn’t the nationally-recognized, large university of NDSU. It was its own university. MSUM was unique, I was unique. Match made in heaven. It worked, it had to work. I was also a familial legacy. Meaning members of my family were a part of the university’s well-being. My grandfather from my father’s side was a head professor of Industrial Arts (essentially graphic design, which was my major going into college), and he was a student as well if I remember right. My father as a kid was part of the daycare/child development program that still exists to this day. My father’s side had all of its Dragon blood in me, not much for the mother’s side. Fun fact, my father’s childhood home is a block away from MSUM, no wonder I liked it. Huh?
There was a problem…
I had an ACT score of 16. Acceptance to the school required a score of 17. I was devastated. Plan A was wrecked. Plan B: go to a technical college, spend a few years working on generals, then transfer. Plan C: look elsewhere. Then there was a plan D. Plan D involved me being accepted to MSUM under one condition: That I would be in a school-funded program for those students that were in the same boat as me. It was called the Corrick Center, the university gave me a chance. Fast forward to May 27th, 2007. High School Graduation. I didn’t fall while walking the walk. It seemed like minutes when it took merely seconds to receive the diploma. If you’ve ever seen “Back to School” with Rodney Dangerfield, you’d learn that its a funny movie, a good movie, its the beginning that most strikes you. “A man is nothing without an education.” Think of it like a house. If you drop-out of high school you’re locked in your bedroom. If you get a high school diploma you break down a wall. It was a relief to get the diploma, I was happy, but I knew that it wasn’t over. I knew that I wasn’t finished in my pursuits.
A fresh-start to a Freshman, refreshingly fresh… fresh… man.
To 2007, Summer. After months of applying mountains of paperwork, I go to a “Dragon Days” event. It is essentially an initiation for those who got accepted. I go into a room where other Corrick Center students at the Union there. I take assessments judging how well I will work within the system. I’ve never been that great with math, so I get put into a semi-algebraic class for the fall. Along with that I put in a Multiculturalism class that I don’t remember all that much, then an English class, and then a sort of social development class. All in total 4 classes, 13 credits (3 classes were 3 credits each, 1 was 4). I wasn’t sure what the hell I was doing with my class schedule. I remember asking one of my future professors if my schedule looked “alright” their reaction was… “It looks good.” From June until August it was probably the longest time I was both wanting and anxious to start college. I wasn’t sure what I was getting into. There was always that unknown factor, the risk was always there, but I felt confident enough to believe in the system. From now until the end of the post this will just be a few memories of what I felt was worthy of what made my experience of college… worthwhile.
The Day… Move-In Day
I still remember it fondly. The day that I had been awaiting since May. I woke up around 7 a.m., my stuff was already in my car and mom’s car the night before. The 20 minute drive was like being in a convoy for a famous person. Arriving on campus was very easy, SOC’s (Student Orientation Counselors) were on hand to help freshmen move into dorms. My residence hall (I like calling it a dorm) was the oldest on campus, Ballard Hall, built in the late 1920’s. It was an all-male dorm (2011-2012 school year became co-ed). It had an elevator on one-side but not on the other. Guess which side I was at? I’ll give you a minute. The side that didn’t have one. Plus, on the 3rd floor. Most heaviest thing was a large TV. I was dripping sweat after the first trip to get the thing up three flights of stairs. Once getting all my stuff in my single room it didn’t take too long to get my stuff settled in. The second home was ready. As much as I enjoyed the peace of being at home, I was ready to be on my own. I was about to begin something that would take me 5 years to get to. I didn’t know that at the time. All I knew was that I wasn’t sure what my floormates were going to be like, or what my classes would be like. My mom told me I should find and meet a few friends by a few hours. A sort of goal. I didn’t know how easy it was to find friends there. I probably found 20 people that were cool by the first dinner. A few of my Fargo North were in my same shoes, like so many freshmen. They wanted to find support in knowing that “they weren’t in this wild ride, roller coaster, alone.” By the end of the first night I was already tired and went to bed at 11 pm. I called my mom, I don’t remember the conversation we had all that much but I realized that the “college is better than high school” opinion was more fact than fiction. For some reason I woke up the next day at 6 a.m., why I did that is beyond me. After singing the “Alma Mater,” I was integrated into the Dragon family.
Kise
Ah, Kiseland as I like to call it. It was still in renovation stages when I landed on campus. Where we had breakfast/brunch/lunch/dinner was in the ballroom in the union. The second day during breakfast was when I met one of the cooler people on campus, Kise Jean. Kise Jean was probably one of the most awesome old ladies that you’ll ever meet. I feel sorry for the young Dragons that never got to meet her. Here’s a story how I met her. it was on the second day of orientation, I wasn’t sure where I was going, I got my food then I saw that she was at the register helping people swiping people’s student ID’s, I felt guilty because I didn’t go up to her with mine. So I went over telling my story how I didn’t know where I was supposed to pay for it in meals (I had a 14 meal plan, 2 meals per day), I was scared she’d yell at me, tell me to get lost, but instead she asked for my card, swiped it, and gave it back to me with a smile and a soft-spoken “thank you.” She was automatically awesome. Most people hated it, few people liked it, for me, I relied on it. For the price of the food that we got which was cafeteria food, it wasn’t that bad. Every once in a while they had something worthy of eating, other times not so much. The place had everything: pizza, pasta, main courses, cereal, burgers, cereal, salad bar, sandwich maker, cereal, dessert, did I mention cereal? Okay. You could never please most people there, would you rather have quality food that is more expensive or settle for something that has options at a good price. If you don’t want burgers, then don’t get them!
Essentially my college career was split into two era’s. Generals era from Fall of 2007 to December 2009. Major era from the Spring of 2010 to May 11th, 2012. Certainly Fall 2009 – Spring 2010 was a transition into each other.
KMSC Dragon Radio
Now in high school I participated in a lot of things. Nothing too athletic but I did what I could to get myself on a resume. I was a member/editor of the school’s yearbook that was issued out every August of the next school year. Like if we were doing a yearbook for the 2006-2007 school year that book would come out in August 2007. I loved my job. Great teacher and mentor. I always found myself with computers mono e mono. Then I was part of the school’s DECA chapter. Loved it too. Great opportunities, great colleagues. Then was part of the inaugurated Drama club for a year. It was fun, but as it grew it wasn’t for me anymore.
Coming to college, I wanted to do something new. No yearbook for MSUM, no DECA chapter, no Thespian/Drama Society. I participated in my dorm’s hall council, but I needed something new. Something to strive for.
It happened really on the first few days of the fall term when I saw a SOC that I met during orientation at the union’s computer lab. I had to print some stuff out and looking at my school email, then I saw something that changed my life forever. “Looking for DJ’s for fall term, apply at the KMSC offices or print off an application from our website.” My reaction was like “Oh this is something that I’ve been looking for.” Then my fellow SOC friend said “You should try it out.” Those five words have sustained me through all my life. So after a week, meetings, me coming up with a good joke (it was a requirement on the application, I remember the joke I wrote: What do you call a crashing mountain of food? An Avalunche), digging all the way to China just to find my music, I was in a studio behind a microphone playing music and talking on a Saturday evening.
Everyone remembers their first show. Mine was full of two hours trying to fill-in time just to play my music from burnt CD’s, trying to talk about something… full of dead air spaces in between my sentences. I didn’t get my laptop until a few days after the show. If you could call an awkward first show, it would be mine. It wasn’t that I didn’t prepare for it, but I’ve never done it before. I used to pretend I was a DJ when I was at high school. That was without a microphone and perhaps 1 or 200 people listening to you at that moment in time. After the first show it got better.
One story that I do remember fondly during my four years that I was there was during my Freshman year. It was on a chilly December evening on a Saturday. I originally did a two-hour show but then decided to do a three-hour show just because I found it fun to do. During the first hour of the show a bunch of people from some charity came in and asked me where the “charitable goods” were at? Then I showed them the box where we had them at, it was awkward at first, because I didn’t know what they were talking about let alone anyone in the station tell me about something that would go to charity. One of the things that I used to love doing was a full, uninterrupted hour of music. It was a 80’s music show, so I did music from The Police, Prince, Tears for Fears, Flock of Seagulls, etc. Sometime around 9 p.m. the union starts to close doors, shut off the lights, and I didn’t get any memo saying that the union was closing down. At first, I should just close up shop and head home because I didn’t want to be locked in the union, but for some reason I believed I could get out of there by 10 p.m., and I stuck by that. It was a surreal experience I remember, being perhaps the only one in the union playing songs, talking stuff, etc. There was that eerie feeling of being alone and that some psycho would come and find me and kill me, but that feeling went away fast once I got done with my show and turned the automation back on.
Right now…
After almost a week of on and off writing this post, I feel that this will be one of many posts that I will do. I started working on this during the evening hours of May 11th. In fact a year ago of that same day, I gradated from MSUM. Do I miss the experience? Sure, everyone does. College changes you. Today, May 17th, is the day that many students, like me last year, realize that their many years of college work pays off. Graduation. I would go to the commencement but sadly I have many things to do, I am starting to move out of my first apartment, the lease doesn’t end until the 31st but the sooner I get my stuff out the better that 31st of May deadline runs smoothly. I am moving into my second apartment hopefully in the 31st of May or June 1st of this year. I have had three jobs since graduation. I’m doing well. I haven’t set foot on campus since December 2012, but its good to relive the days that I used to roam its sidewalks, streets, hallways, etc.
My advice for those upcoming graduates, if you don’t get into that job that you’ve always wanted, be patient. Work at it, keep an eye out, and look at the future positively. You have bright futures, you have a lifetime to look forward to. After college, you have to work for the rest of your life, but you get to do something that you’ve been dreaming of, and if you love it, you won’t even consider it to be work but fun.
P.S. the title is Latin for Sacrifice, Service, and Loyalty. The motto of MSUM. I was watching The Dead Poets Society at the time of first coming up with the title. Carpe Diem was on my mind at the time and I felt it was worthy of having a title like that.
Here’s to many more posts, and success. Congrats colleagues, friends, parents. The future is yours.
~Tom
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