For god’s sake, the name alone sounds cool as hell. Like if I didn’t know about them,
But in the US, they’re treated like a joke. It’s a punchline to drop out. I can’t think of a story where somebody transferred from a community college, either to save money or use the time to think on a major.
Elitism in academia isn’t a new thing with Ivy League nepo baby factories, or the STEM-Lord Cinematic Universe, but the disrespect for local schools is incredible.
Finishing community college and not going on to another university, for whatever reason, is great, and perfectly valid on its own. It’s not a failure.
The way the US works is stacked against people going to college if they can’t afford it. Like what sick shit is that? Education shouldn’t be an investment opportunity. It’s not supposed to be a business risk.
Community College isn’t the solution, but it’s a great starting place if you want to study for relatively cheap. The professors are usually pretty cool too. I was able to sit in on some extra classes when I had down time during the day. You can meet experts who love teaching so much they do it as a hobby.
You don’t need to get a degree or have a track like you want to transfer. If you occasionally want to take a creative writing or fitness class, you can do that a lot cheaper than a writing workshop or personal training. It’s also kinda nice for physical education if you don’t want a lot of one-on-one attention.
Do you want to talk about movies for shits and giggles? There’s a film as literature class you can take as an elective. You can watch two classic movies a week and debate/write about it.
Do you want to have a better understanding of mental health? Intro to Psychology can bring you up to date on trends in mental health.
If you know where to look, you can find comrades teaching sociology and political science. It’s how I started reading about Engels.
Another cool thing is there are people of all ages there. You don’t to make connections, obviously, but it feels nice when you know the population includes people who are working full time, or trying to figure things out in your community.
I know not every city has them, but I highly recommend checking them out.
Going back to community college has immensely boosted both my confidence and my creative output. I wrote maybe 15-20 pages of fiction-related things in 2022. In 2023 I have cranked out at least 100 between drafts and bits of lore for characters and setting. I’m finding that I have talents in areas I never expected, like acting and singing and building shit out of foam core and hot glue. A few years ago I had convinced myself that I had the bleak choice of fixing everything “wrong” with me or hitting the eject button on life. In the years since I’ve had a lot of therapy and found the courage to try again at something I’d failed multiple times before. Somewhere along the way I started getting my shit together and didn’t even notice.
I’m going to keep at it at least one more semester because I want to take the other half of that creative writing course. But I want to finish the story I started in the first half before then. Now my problem is not a lack of confidence or motivation but a lack of time and energy. Wish I could quit my job and focus on school, but I need the money and more importantly the health insurance. But I need the school to get a decent job. So…