My college experience & Career decisions.

When I dropped out of college there were a few things going on in my life and at the moment, I'm not too comfortable with sharing all of that, but during those years I ended up hospitalized for about a month. It was too much, and college stress was something that was killing me inside constantly.

I didn't like classes, sometimes I was the only one participating or trying to understand what was going on, but no. It didn't work... The financial aspect was a huge thing, it wasn't too long that we have been out of the shelters which was a huge other set of situations and adding college on top of that was not going to help me in any way, I knew getting a loan was going to prejudice me, even more because I didn't even know what I wanted to study. English is not my first language, therefore it was more complicated to even attempt to reach out for guidance.

My parents weren't happy with the decision, at all. I'm aware that until now there's been discussion around my family about my decision and their ideals of me taking that path, but fortunately for me, my mother sided with me.

In my parents' case, neither of them were able to finish high school/middle school... The whole pressure was put into me… But no. I'm not looking to complete someone else's dreams. I do understand them, but I don't want to feel resentment towards them — and myself — because of doing something I didn't want, liked, or cared about.


Instead, I've been learning a lot online. I was able to successfully complete all of the courses and certifications for UX Design and other related topics - and ALL of them in English! I decided to take the Spanish one too, just to have a backup in case. I've been studying and practicing for over 3 years with everything I could find online. Creating apps, collaborating with colleges and even making my own company (Salusfera >> we're updating our website and we’re always looking for feedback!) and my Strategic Solutions >> and crafting my handmade jewelry! >>

When I was starting, I asked others that had been on the field for longer about their experience, and I'm extremely proud of myself for doing the work that I've done. This website, the design, making this system, editing, choosing how to structure, plan things out, organize the content, moving from simple sketches on paper, some on figma to here, making the personas for and everything that comes along to my work. I'm so happy! 13~ hours per day practicing... My computer skills were bad at the beginning, horrible!!! Most I've used before was word and some Google apps, but other stuff, specially those to create something? To host it without depending on third party tools? To build it up without feeling creativity limits? Yeah, that was only a dream, until I made it happen.

I don't like having limits when it comes to my creativity!! No-code platform hosting is something that doesn't suit me whatsoever, here, I can structure and add features as I feel/like. **I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!!! 🤩**

It wasn't easy... I've cried because my computer wasn't running the software, because I didn't understand the concepts, it was too frustrating — like how to really manage figma components and variants, and frames, and now... I love them! It's soooo muchhhh easier, I really adore how quick I can move with it, seriously! 🤩😍 — because the studying I was doing wasn't taken serious since it wasn't being done at a college campus, because I'll get lost on what was even happening or how the instructor got from one place to complete different other place, wow... It was quite the task frankly. I have been able to run different Operating systems, I’m getting comfortable with the terminal. I can intuitively figure out tons of things from a program by just observing for a bit. I am learning so much about crypto technology and implementations, cyber security… and well, tons of stuff!

I don't have any college debt — debt in general — and now, I'm keeping on educating myself with as much discipline as I can. It's not enough if it feels like it is.

College isn't the only way to learn or do something, what's the point of studying for hundreds of hours something that'll I'll never put in practice, apply, benefit from? Just the assumption that I'm actually doing something to get a degree and just copy and paste what others do while possibly never even using anything learned at the institution? No thanks. If it's experience with talking to people, then I'll get it by actually talking to them in the settings that it is supposed to be. If it's about practicing skills — whatever it is, nothing better but to actually practice them on the settings instead of pretending that's the setting and not get real experience or feedback, if it's about fixing issues, then I'm already working at it, if it's about making decisions, then I'll keep on making them in real scenarios not just playing on settings that conventionally approve my feelings right away.

And no!! This has nothing to do with degrees like health and law!!!! Ahhh!!! This is more about my experience, which was in the social sciences and computer sciences fields. Those that do require strict regulations, decades of study and such should be taken with more care and I am not talking about such areas. If I were to ever go back to college, it will only be because of getting into neurosurgery.

It's more than just “a loan” or something you’d “figure out in the process” IT IS TIME SPENT, MONEY, RESOURCES! Even if you’re going to get it paid by grants or parents, those resources can be allocated for people that do know what they want to do and WHY - or you could invest it on trade school without having to spend it like that only on the theory.

Go get real experience, go do your own research.