The Early College Experience & Graduating UTEP

Obtaining my Associate’s Degree before graduating high school was a bizarre experience. Early college took most of my teenage-hood rites of passage away, but it gave me a lifelong head-start.

Being an undocumented immigrant for most of my life, getting an education was never taken for granted because there was a slight chance that I wouldn’t be able to go to college.

However, once my family was informed of the early college program, there was no discussion of whether or not I would be enrolling in it. There was, however, a lot of debate.

I didn’t feel ready, and it didn’t feel fair at the time to miss prom and Friday night football games. This, was obviously a childish take on the grand opportunity that had just presented itself at my doorstep.

The first year was hard. Adjusting to the long commute from the east side of El Paso to Canutillo, the lost friendships, the new friendships, and most importantly, the curriculum.

I took my first full-credit college course at the age of 14. Education 1300, where you were guided and encouraged to figure out what career path you wanted to take.

(Ironic, because I changed my major three times.)

From then on, my classes were filled with adults, and I was expected to act like one as well. This forced me to become as mature as possible, as fast as possible, and assert my presence despite the age gap.

The topics of the classes were sometimes too much to handle (think Philosophy class), but for the most part easy to grasp and apply to assignments.

As time passed, I liked my new school and, I grew to love the early college experience as a whole.

I found it easy to get along with professors and ask for clarification on a subject matter. I developed my communication skills the more I discussed certain issues with fellow students. Everything ran smoothly after the superficial struggles I had went away.

So, on December of 2014, I walked across the stage and obtained an Associate’s Degree of Art. Five months before I walked the stage to obtain my High School Diploma.

To top it all off, I also started taking classes toward my Bachelor’s Degree at UTEP during my last semester of high school. Which wasn’t that different from EPCC, but still a slight change of dynamics.

So, yeah. I’ve been in college for a very long time and, once again, I’m about to graduate. This time, with a Bachelor’s in Multimedia Journalism. You would think I’d be used to it. But this time feels different.

This time, I actually move on and enter the real world. I find a career. I’ve built a portfolio and I have to put it out there. I have to be judged and picked and rejected and go through the cycle over and over.

But I also, strangely, feel a sense of tranquility. A sense of independence and power. Something telling me that this is when my real life and best part of life starts.