Congratulations!
Story Time: It was a cold winter’s night lolol. I kid, I kid.
The year was 2011. The previous year had been a wild one personally, taking two losses back-to-back and throw an eye surgery in there too. I was working at an employment center for HRA, and that had gotten too weird for my liking, so I made a VERY jump out the window, a bet on myself decision. I quit my job and I enrolled in college full-time. I had a 6-year-old, I had bills, but I also had this urge to do the thing I said I would. So I resigned, and a couple of days later, I was sitting in classes at Medgar Evers. It wasn’t without drama because there was an engagement ending and the shenanigans attached to that, but 6 semesters and 2 Dean’s lists later — in June 2013, that leap of faith culminated in an Associate of Science degree in Biology.
Then money needed to be made, but first let’s switch boroughs.
“Where in New York can one find a woman with grace, elegance, taste, and culture?” Queens!
(If you don’t get this reference, do better.)
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So the kid and I move and then back to work. That job, that job, and then this job. So now that we have settled somewhere with benefits (hallelujah), pension (glory to God), and stability, let’s try to finish this degree out again. Queens College enters the chat in Fall 2016. Full-time worker, full-time mama, full-time student and editing Psych papers for that man’s degree. One semester later, I realized that was not sustainable, so we paused — for a longgggg time. Not without thoughts of going back and not without attempts and blockages.
In 2023, Medgar randomly pulls some number out of their stale library and decides that I owe it. I had been out of their school for 10 years (gone 7 when they added to my record), collected my degree, and reenrolled in another college for 2 semesters, but now I owe you?? Go to Hell. No one had answers. I spoke to 7643688 people. I waited on emails that never came, I tried this way and that way and then I was over it. Fast forward a year, it feels like I’m supposed to go back, there are repeat signs and conversations, so I try to get to the bottom of it again. Let me say, I’m a girl who needs ‘sign-ier’ signs sometimes. I make the phone call to Medgar and give the rundown to a woman who turns out to be the Bursar. She checks, she finds it, she too is confused about where it came from and how it got there. She says I don’t believe this should be here and clears it and makes sure it doesn’t randomly pop up later. Five minutes or less. Simple. Easy. No muss, no fuss, and what greater sign to let me know, it was time.
I reenroll in Fall of 2024 in need of 23 credits plus a few more to meet the residency requirement. We’re in school almost every day some semesters, but we take the classes and we do the things. We finish out our requirements and apply for graduation in Fall of 2025, but what’s a good story without some added suspense?
“The Mathematics department has informed us that you have not met their major requirements.”
Ah what is this???
So my path showed I owed a class. The class, however, was a class that I was informed I could no longer take because I had taken higher math classes, luckily for me I had receipts!!! Score for me. But then they find another class, that I now cannot be given credit for because it isn’t allowed, but *slams the table*, Big Joker. When I enrolled back in 2016, it was allowed, and I had the receipts for that too. You thought you had me, but you did not!!
On January 1st, 2026, my Bachelor’s in Mathematics was conferred.
Congratulations, Jessica!!! You did it for YOU. You did it even when it was on a wayyyyy longer timeline than you wanted. You did it while working full time. You did it mommying. You did it happy. You did it sad. You did it with big obstacles. You did it with small ones. The point is you did it and I’m so very proud of you.
