Once upon a time, there was a young aspiring scholar who was determined to finish college in four years. Nothing would stop her from accomplishing this goal. And she would do it successfully, until she met up with her academic advisor the spring of her junior year at CSUSM, and suddenly her plans had come to a halt.

“Well Gayana, it looks like you’ll be finishing up your BA in Literature in Writing in Fall 2017! Isn’t that exciting?”

I smiled, but found myself stricken with horror.

“Wait, what do you mean Fall 2017? That’s four years and one semester. I’m not behind on my classes, I need to finish in exactly four years,” I informed my academic advisor, confused as to how this conversation had been taking place at all.

“Oh I know you aren’t behind. This is normal, this happens to most Cal State students anyway.”

I walked out of the door distressed, but determined to make sure I would finish on time. Finishing college in four years and one semester could not be an option for me.

Winter 2016 came around the corner quickly, and so I decided to do the unthinkable, that’s right ladies and gentleman: I enrolled into four classes during my entire month off.

I decided to take one class at CSUSM, and three online courses from Palomar Community College. Of course, when I had informed my co-coworkers and family I would be spending my break doing a heavy load of coursework they looked at me as if I were insane, but hey, I had a goal to accomplish.

Let me tell you right now, this was a mentally rigorous month for me, a fate that I don’t wish on anyone. I found myself filled with constant anxiety, high-level stress and consecutive sleepless nights. It got to the point where I knew I had been affecting my health in a negative way, just because I wanted to finish on time.