First of all, if you have read my first and last post for my blog, "C'est La Vie," I said that I was going to post a little background of myself. So here it goes:
My name is Marina. I was born in the Philippines but lived in Virginia my whole life. Growing up, I have always had the privelege to travel every single year. I have been to the Philippines, Italy, France, England, Switzerland, and even travelled within the U.S. to places like Florida, California, New Jersey, and New York. Travelling always made me happy. By the time senior year of high school came around, I started looking at different colleges and even considered looking at schools abroad. Then my dad stumbled upon Franklin College of Switzerland at a college fair at his work. He came home with plenty of brochures about this school and told me that it was in Lugano, a small town in the Italian- part of Switzerland...how cool is that! When he said that, I was immediately sold because I stayed in Lugano for a few hours during our family trip to Europe and I thought Lugano was the MOST gorgeous place I have ever been to. The city was absolutely clean and I have never, ever seen such green grass before and their lake was so crystal clear, that I could see my reflection! But that so typical of the Swiss, wanting everything to be perfect and clean.
As I started to look up Franklin College online, I was impressed by their website, so inviting with the beautiful pictures of the campus. I was already feeling excited to come here, but at the same time, I was not accepted yet. The one thing that I loved about this school which made me feel so committed to going there is the so-called Academic Travel. What is it? Well, let me just say that two weeks of every semester, the school goes on vacation to a destination. A destination that one would dream of going to someday. Yep, that is what is so great about this school. When I got accepted, my heart jumped and I almost died. I could not believe I was going to Switzerland! And I think my mother was more excited than I was which was ironic because at the end of that summer, she never wanted to let me go.
Entering my first official year as a college student last year, was so overwhelming yet so exciting for me. I was having a lot of fun. I made new friends from all over the globe. I travelled a lot- for my first semester of Academic Travel, I went all over the French-speaking Switzerland (my class and I made a blog about it called, "Lausanne, Geneva, and the Alps" so check it out!) and went to Ireland for Thanksgiving break. Yeah, going to a school abroad definitely turned my life upside down. But I also did some negative things during my freshman year that I am not so proud of.
Being a freshman in college was such a rush for me. I am an only child in my family which means to most people that I am or was "sheltered." During high school, I never went out and partied. I never drank or smoked, ever. When I came to Switzerland, being away from my parents and coming to a completely different life meant "finally! no more rules!" to me so I drank...a lot. In fact I drank so much, that I gained the well-known "Freshman 15" except really, I gained 20. Every break that I was able to go home last year ( winter and this past summer breaks), I received, in my opinion, ridicules saying that I need to lose weight. Harsh right? Try hearing that all of your life. Last semester, I partied almost every single night instead of studying which brought my GPA from a 2.7 down to a 2.5 cumulative GPA because I got a C+, a D, and withdrew from a class that I coud not even pass. It sucked seeing that on my final report card and the disappointing looks on my parents' faces. I felt like I went rock bottom. Drinking and partying too much also, almost ruined my relationship with my boyfriend, Pat, of now, almost five years. I direspected myself and I lost my dignity. But over the summer, my mindset has completely changed and I gained a lot of maturity.
Because of my poor grades and my "lack of credits" to even qualify to be a full sophomore, my parents decided to cancel our travelling plans to the Philippines, California, and Hawaii and have me go through summer classes at a community college. My first thought was, " ugh, community college? really? that's disgusting!," and acted like the total brat. I complained to Pat about it, and he had his own opinions. He told me to just try it and ignore the fact that not only "stupid" people go to community college. He also gave me something to think about by telling me:
" If you do not get back into the habit of studying, you are going to fail college and then people will not want to talk to you or even wanna be with you because you failed and your 'I don't care' attitude" Then, Pat sent me a link to a Facebook page of one of my notes about "My Future" (it was one of those chain notes back then) that I made my freshman year of high school and man, that was a throwback. I looked at it saying, "why did you send me this stupid note?" He replied, "look at the last two bullet points." When I looked down, I saw the two points : I wanted to be successful; and Be rich and famous. Pat then said, "it's funny to look at those two because now, you are not even halfway to what you wanted to be." After hearing this, I wanted to scream, shout, and lash back saying that it was not true, but it was. After that coversation, I realized how much I screwed up. Not to mention I also screwed up my high school career by not studying. Now that I look back, I am so blessed to even be in college right now. It put me in a whole new perspective that I should not waste my parents' money being here and just party.
So how my life is now....
- I decided to suck it up and go to summer school at the community college receiving an A and a B( which I honestly don't agree with) in my classes which should raise my GPA at Franklin to at least a 2.9.
- I came back to Franklin with a clear mindset. No more partying for me and more of hitting the books which actually became a success so far since I am now ahead in all of my classes and doing exceptionally well in all of them!
- This summer, I lost over 10 lbs and came back looking leaner and thinner (thanks to my trainer boyfriend and P90x! )...which is one of the reasons why I decided to become sober this year. I need to maintain my weight and NEVER go back to that weight-gain stage, ever!
- I have decided to major in communications, minor in marketing, and when I graduate college, I will go to culinary school in either Paris or Florence and then, hopefully, open a restaurant
Now, I am just a happier, healthier, smarter, more mature me and nothing will bring me down. Not again. I would not say that I regret partying in the past because, I had the time of my life doing it and made some good memories. After staying a full summer at home, I feel like I grew up and realized what my top priorities are.
C'est La Vie <3
BTW: With any luck, your eyes should not be bleeding from reading this sap story! But what about you? Have you ever went rock bottom and rose up again or are you still there?
Open to questions, comments, or rude remarks :D
