My dad never went to college, and my mom earned almost enough credits for an Associate's Degree. I was the first person in my immediate family (cousin's included) to go to college. Like a lot of people, I assumed high school would prepare me for life after I graduated. I thought I did well by getting accepted to a university, and I was so proud of myself and so excited to start the next chapter of my life.
Unfortunately, high school did not prepare me for college. It did not prepare me for optional attendance. It did not prepare me for the fact that my professors did not care if I passed or failed. It did not prepare me for the fact that most professors don't give a damn about their students. I learned a rough lesson my freshman year: if you can teach yourself the material, just teach yourself the material. I started college as an Economics major. That didn't last long. I took one Economics class and I could barely understand the professor (no hate to them, they had a very thick accent that I couldn't understand very well). I figured out that I could teach myself the material better than the professor could because they taught directly from the textbook (again, no hate to them, but why go to class when I can learn the same thing in my jammies in my dorm?).
I ended up changing majors after my freshman year. I jumped ship entirely and changed from Economics to Psychology. Psychology had been my passion for many years, but I majored in Economics because those jobs pay really well with just a Bachelor's Degree. I learned the hard way that just because the job pays well, doesn't mean you will enjoy it. I found myself hating my major just a semester into it, and I knew if I stuck with it, I would only grow to hate it more. The same semester I changed majors, I got accepted into the Honor's College. Instead of my advisor being switched to the College of Liberal and Fine Arts (you know, people who could actually help me), I was switched to an advisor at the Honor's College. Long story short, Stephen was absolutely useless. He knew what I needed to take to graduate and what I needed to graduate with Honor's. Other than that, he had no information for me. Granted, that should be an advisor's priority (make sure you student graduates). However, my senior year of undergraduate, I met a pivotal person in my life, Dr. Garza
Dr. Garza was the one who convinced me to go to graduate school. He basically told me I couldn't stop at just a Bachelor's. I needed to go to graduate school and at least get my Master's. I took this information to Stephen who could not help me at all. His advice was to ask the professors in my department about what to do next. He worked for the Honor's College but couldn't give me information about graduate school, even though most students of the Honor's College went on to pursue graduate degrees. To this day, it still doesn't make sense to me.
I go around and badger faculty in the sociology and psychology department (my major was psychology, minor was sociology) to figure out what kind of graduate programs I should apply to. They were the only ones to give me any information worth a damn because Stephen was absolutely useless. I talk to Dr. Garza about it again, and he says I should apply to my university's Master's of Science in Psychology program because he would take me on as one of his graduate students. I do that, and I get accepted
After I got accepted in the MA in Psychology program, Dr. Garza tells me to focus on school my first semester because that's the weed out semester. This proved to be 10000% true because that was the hardest semester of my entire collegiate career. After my first semester, I find out Dr. Garza is retiring. When I find this out, I approach one of the newer faculty members who graduated from our university's PhD program to ask who I should approach to be my advisor. Unbeknownst to me, Dr. Garza had already approached him about taking me as a graduate student. Long story short, I become Dr. Hale's first MA student.
As I came up on graduating from my Master's program in 2019, I was on the fence about if I should pursue my PhD or not. Dr. Hale told me I couldn't just stop at MS (not in a coercive way, more like a "I think you would do really well at this" sort of way). After his advising, I applied to the PhD program. I got accepted. I became Dr. Hale's first full term PhD student. He had another PhD student but he took him on late in his PhD much like he took me on once I was already in the Master's program.
Two years later, I am in the last year of my PhD program, and I'm approaching my last semester before I officially become Dr. Kilgore. To be fully honest, I don't know where I would be in life if it weren't for Dr. Garza and Dr. Hale. They set my life on the track that it's on now. I always wanted to have my PhD but never thought I could actually do it because of my blue collar background. I thought I wouldn't be smart enough. I thought I wouldn't be good enough, but I am. They helped me believe in myself in a way that I never thought was possible.
I want to give a special shoutout to any and all educators who actually invest time in their students and actually mentor them. Educators like that changed my life for the better <3
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