IDST B297 F22

I am very excited to pursue my undergraduate degree and have an upward trend in life. School has never been easy to me. I learn much differently from everyone else due to a learning disorder, but that hasn’t stopped me from pushing the limits everyday. I am always on top of my work and consider myself and A-B student. I graduated high school at Oceanside Collegiate Academy in Mount Pleasant, SC with a 3.5 GPA. I received a scholarship to play baseball at Francis Marion University in Florence, SC which was my home for 2 years. I decided to enter the transfer portal as I was very unhappy with the coaching staff who steered me in the wrong direction. 2 weeks after I entered the portal, I flew out west to play in a collegiate summer league in Laramie, WY for 80 games which was a surreal and rewarding experience. About a few weeks before departure back to South Carolina, I caught Covid-19, Flu and Pink Eye all in one shot. I lost about 25 pounds and I was out of it for almost a month. During my summer excursion, I committed to play at Mars Hill University in Asheville, NC. After a lot of thought I decided it was best to take a full gap year and recover physically and mentally. It was definitely one of the toughest decisions I had to make, but it worked out tremendously. I began working a plethora of jobs to keep the mind moving, staying physically active, and getting closer with my family all together. In March of this year, I sat down with my parents and told them I was ready to continue my school journey as well as give baseball another shot. They were very ecstatic and proud. I did say I wanted to stay closer to home because we run a family business and I wanted to be available and a short drive away whenever they needed me. USC-Beaufort was the easiest choice as it had my desired major and a baseball program. In my first few weeks as an online student, I have been very pleased with all of my classes. Everyone has a different path in life, taking a gap year or semester is definitely a great choice if you need to recover physically or mentally from something. In conclusion, I am more than excited to earn my degree and I can’t wait to see where life will take me in the up and coming years!